Privacy coins. How much do you think we need them?

[20kevin20]

That's correct. But I am sure that many can be careful enough to keep his coins in multiple wallets and even if they make payments, only a small part of his wallets will get revealed. Then I guess that mixers will keep coming up for those who want to "start fresh".
If change addresses are properly used, they will not be able to track all those addresses with good enough precision for linking them to actual persons.
And if change addresses are used properly, the agencies will have a lot of DB space spent for addresses used in 2 tx (one in, one out) and when we'll have proper adoption ... I don't want to see how will they handle their databases 

I personally see that the way this will be going is, Bitcoin users going for optional privacy will be seen potentially worse than Monero users. Here's why:

Imagine you've used Bitcoin pseudonymously for the last 5 years and nobody knows who you are. Suddenly, you make a transaction to some Amazon dropshipper accepting BTC and the government gets at some point the information that it was you who paid for that. From that point on, your address will be known as " NeuroticFish"'s address.

One day, you decide to enter the privacy sphere by mixing your coins. The authorities know that it was you who did that, but you obviously had a reason to do so. Doesn't it seem more likely to get interrogated and into trouble as soon as you decide to switch the privacy flip than it'd be to use Monero straight away from the start?

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[Abiky]

We are living in an era of technology. Our entire present is digitalised day by day as we move on to a new normal where online is more prominent and important than the offline world.

Education has moved to the Internet, something that would've been considered a negative influence over children only one year ago. Things have changed quite drastically, although it happened so smooth we already got used to our new way of living.

As we move on with the digitalization, Bitcoin becomes more and more used. However, a considerable amount of people choose Bitcoin to enhance their financial privacy. Considering Bitcoin is not a private blockchain, tools like Chainalysis owns are a threat against a significant part of Bitcoin's users since the largest part of them do not use coin control and consolidate outputs and dust the wrong way, revealing their historical traces.

In consequence, the existence of privacy-focused coins might come in handy in the era where surveillance and control are on an All-Time High. On the other hand though, that is not the case for everyone - especially since investors are being pushed away as cryptocurrencies like Monero are slowly being delisted from exchanges while privacy slowly becomes a crime.

So I wanted to gather a general opinion on the subject. What do you think? In the current times we're living, are Monero and privacy-focused coins a necessity?

Privacy is becoming a necessity these days, especially when it has been put to the test with governments' efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The so-called "contact tracing" is the first step for the end of privacy. Slowly but surely, we'll reach a point where privacy will come to an end. The introduction of CBDCs and many other things will make this happen faster than you could imagine. It's why I believe privacy coins like Monero and Grin will become heavily used by people in the mainstream world as governments increase their surveillance efforts.

Ultimately, mainstream governments will declare privacy coins as "illegal". Their main excuse will be that such coins can be used for money laundering and other illicit activities. But we all know their true intentions. A private and decentralized cryptocurrency like Monero goes against what was established by the government in the first place. Something they cannot control or track, will become a threat to the current monetary system. It's why most (if not all) governments are against privacy coins these days. That's not the case with Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other popular cryptocurrencies because their blockchain networks are transparent for anyone to see. Tracing transactions on the aforementioned blockchain networks is much easier than doing so on privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies like Monero or Grin. Even if we have nothing to hide, there's always the need for privacy. Just my thoughts

[Dragonfund]

We all need our privacies is different ways, I believe privacy coins have good benefits, you can never tell when their needs will knock on your door one day even if you don't use them now, covering your tracks doesn't make you a criminal, most times you are doing it to safe yourself, it's why I invest in Monero, it's the best privacy coin I know.

Monero is actually good for anonymity and I quite know how important privacy is to everyone. We all deserve that privacy but how much do you think you can have to be satisfy over the internet. It's all depend on how good or expert in covering tracks but even at that, one cannot fully cover tracks.

• The exchange platform for transactions are aware of your activities except you want to used VPN
• At a point, you may have used your real email address which one may have publicly given to other parties
• Your favourite exchange where you kyc perhaps is having xmr which you may have want to use for transaction instead of going into other exchanges. Some new exchanges may delay your withdrawal when you create an account purposely for Monero transactions.
• Your device isn't completely safe, we are all limited to anonymousity all over the internet

In conclusion, we can have a level of privacy but I doubt if we can 100%

[20kevin20]

Something they cannot control or track, will become a threat to the current monetary system. It's why most (if not all) governments are against privacy coins these days.

I expect this as well, but the fun part is that other countries will accept Monero specifically to profit off the situation. Some people would literally leave their countries just to have the freedom of using cryptocurrencies.

Even if we have nothing to hide, there's always the need for privacy. Just my thoughts

True. Fully agree with this.

[calabasas_crypto]

Hmm, very interesting point of view. Would be curious to know: if XMR-kind of anonymity is not going to go anywhere, do you think Bitcoin has a better future since it's a transparent ledger?

No I think XMR type anonymity is here to stay as long as P2P is here. But I think there's opportunity for privacy at scale within interoperable ecosystems. Imagine for example being able to say scan a card to let you in a gym. The gym can trust that you have a membership and meet the minimum age requirement but the ID and membership can be wrapped in privacy and de-identified. Perhaps you could even sell say your behavioral data at discretion etc... For me this is true privacy. If all privacy solutions have to offer is peer to peer transactions then it will always be synonmous with "breaking the rules". But with privacy services like D4RK we have opportunity for privacy in areas of our life that we currently just give it up.

[tygeade]

The thing is that in some cases I can’t tell how really private that these coins are, I have also read that Monero can be traced, though tracing and tracking down such a transaction is going to be a very hard job. But privacy coins are good, though I have not used them before because I haven’t seen the need for them since nobody is using them for a transaction, people I come across everyday are usually making use of Bitcoin , Ethereum.

But, all these cryptocurrencies can be affected once the government decides to ban and shut them down, unless we are going to switch to making use of decentralized exchanges. Privacy coins will be good if you have something that you want to cover up, and it’s a transaction that you don’t want anyone to know and trace easily.

[Abiky]

Monero is actually good for anonymity and I quite know how important privacy is to everyone. We all deserve that privacy but how much do you think you can have to be satisfy over the internet. It's all depend on how good or expert in covering tracks but even at that, one cannot fully cover tracks.

• The exchange platform for transactions are aware of your activities except you want to used VPN
• At a point, you may have used your real email address which one may have publicly given to other parties
• Your favourite exchange where you kyc perhaps is having xmr which you may have want to use for transaction instead of going into other exchanges. Some new exchanges may delay your withdrawal when you create an account purposely for Monero transactions.
• Your device isn't completely safe, we are all limited to anonymousity all over the internet

In conclusion, we can have a level of privacy but I doubt if we can 100%

That's certainly true, mate. There's no such thing as 100% anonymity. There will always exist loopholes, vulnerabilities, and bugs that need to be addressed in order to maintain a high level of privacy. Monero is the best privacy coin in the world with its proven track record of development and innovation. It's much harder to trace XMR transactions than it's the case on other privacy coins like Dash or Zcash. In a world where government surveillance is increasing at a fast pace, people will look for ways in order to preserve their privacy. And what better way to do so with a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency like Monero?

The real issue would be acquiring Monero without leaving any trace whatsoever. Getting XMR through centralized exchanges is not the most viable way to preserve anonymity. After all, such exchanges require users to comply with KYC/AML. You can use a decentralized exchange, but without a VPN or TOR, you can risk yourself getting your IP address exposed. Your best bet would be to buy Monero with paper money in-person. This would give you better privacy/anonymity as everything is done in an offline manner. There are so many ways to protect your anonymity, limited to your own imagination.

Nonetheless, nothing is safe in this world. Still, it's better something than nothing. We should embrace privacy technologies in order to protect our freedom. Otherwise, governments will be able to take full control of our lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has urged the need for privacy due to governments' increased surveillance efforts. I wouldn't be surprised if they declare privacy coins as "illegal" in the future. At least, the decentralized nature of Blockchain tech will keep Monero and other privacy coins alive for a long time. The only difference is that people won't be able to conduct privacy-oriented transactions legally. Everything will be performed under the scope of mainstream governments worldwide. Just my thoughts