Why is it important to maintain confidentiality in Bitcoins.

[fiulpro]

Many people might argue that " If you are doing a white job , you do not need to hide your savings " .
Unfortunately this is what the government believes too , the statement might partially be correct but being discreet in terms of the investments you have made does provide you with multiple benefits. Bitcoins is far too different from the government controlled investments, unfortunately government is always keeping an eye on you , the moment your bank account displays even 1$ more than the upper margin , you should be all set to collect a tax notice .

But in the moment we do forget about two things :-

1. Privacy
    
2. Security

Banks and other investments do provide you with these two qualities but unfortunately being monitored every single day one can easily find out how much one have invested .
We have since long seen data breaching over the years and one might know that the best hackers are only one step away from hacking into your account and getting all the information they need.

This is where Bitcoins steps in , one can easily plan their retirement plan or invest for the future, without worrying about anything except the volatility . It does increase the criminal activities we sure know , but it is not worse than the money laundering in cash so, until and unless government decides to put a GPS tracker on every single nickel and get periodic information from the holder ( which is way stupider than it sounds ), they should worry less about cryptocurrencies wreaking havock in the country by fueling the criminal activities .

Confidentiality in terms of wealth is not always negative .

What do you think about this matter ?

P.S. Am well aware of the fact that Bitcoins is fairly transparent but at the same time taken the right steps it can efficiently disclose your information . The addresses can be tracked + the wallets are now using government recognized ID's , but paper wallets and other one's like Samourai can do quite an efficient job , more efficient than banks for sure .

Plus we need to put honourable mention for the times when Bitcoins helped people to start a revolution against oppressive government , giving people actual power can create a better world because the current political situation is far too problematic and biased to be efficient.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Banks and other investments do provide you with these two qualities

In what ways are banks even in the least bit private? They know exactly how much you own, can see every transaction you make, and will pass it all over to the government if asked. They are the antithesis of private.

This is where Bitcoins steps in , one can easily plan their retirement plan or invest for the future, without worrying about anything except the volatility .

Lol. That's a pretty big thing you have to worry about. Using bitcoin as a retirement fund is incredibly risky - bitcoin could be worth almost anything (including nothing at all) in 20+ years.

It does increase the criminal activities we sure know

An often repeated statement, with absolutely zero evidence or data to back it up. Bitcoin is not favored by criminals, does not increase crime, and only a minority of bitcoin transactions have anything to do with illegal or illicit trades.

the wallets are now using government recognized ID's

No real wallet is demanding an ID or KYC to use it. The only things demanding that are online services, exchanges, web "wallets" and so forth, which aren't wallets at all since somebody else owns your coins. If you are storing your coins in one of these, you should withdraw them to your own wallet immediately.

[amishmanish]

It does increase the criminal activities we sure know

An often repeated statement, with absolutely zero evidence or data to back it up. Bitcoin is not favored by criminals, does not increase crime, and only a minority of bitcoin transactions have anything to do with illegal or illicit trades.

It wouldn't even be possible to find quantitative evidence of what illegal/ illicit trade uses bitcoin. If law-enforcement were to actually put the time and effort to gather that information, they would as well find a way to stop them. Its a joke that they use bitcoin as an alibi. If the people in power actually wanted to stop such things, they would actually stop. People should realize that using bitcoin takes power away from them. The kind of power that lets them conveniently get away with horrendous crimes while the public only gets to know that Epstein committed suicide. Saying that bitcoin increases crime is a convenient alibi so it doesn't chip away at their authority.
 

the wallets are now using government recognized ID's

No real wallet is demanding an ID or KYC to use it. The only things demanding that are online services, exchanges, web "wallets" and so forth, which aren't wallets at all since somebody else owns your coins. If you are storing your coins in one of these, you should withdraw them to your own wallet immediately.

I don't want to talk about wallets today. I have made a costly mistake. I think i lost a few words..I was trying to be way too smart and scratched off a few words and kept them someplace else. Now for the life of me, I have not been able to find them. It wasn't life's savings but comprised most of the sig campaign payments i have had in the last 6-8 months (which haven't been many). I am so kicking myself since the morning for being this careless..God i'll say it..Its around 0.06 BTC. Such an amateur mistake..I had been going through a bit of shit in personal life and this felt like i was doing something on the side atleast. Today when i lost access to that wallet, has been a bad day since. But well, I'll survive and learn from the mistake. Sorry, Rant over..

[The Cryptovator]

Bitcoin designed for make peer to peer money transfer without any third party involvement which is called decentralization. That means governments or any other third party isn't able to trace you unless you reveal your own address to public which is called privacy. As you mentioned some wallet required KYC this isn't an issue for bitcoin user unless you are using an exchange or web wallet. Because original bitcoin wallet (core) doesn't required any KYC documentation and there is some more open source wallet/clients do not require KYC as well. So we can say fully secure your fund since it's your own bank.

One more thing I want to point out what you mention regarding bitcoin investment, usually we call everyone this is investment when we buy bitcoin. But reality is, bitcoin itself not any investment scheme, we are just getting benefits of volatility of bitcoin price. So don't expect any high return from it, it wasn't the reason behind of bitcoin creation.

[fiulpro]

Banks and other investments do provide you with these two qualities

In what ways are banks even in the least bit private? They know exactly how much you own, can see every transaction you make, and will pass it all over to the government if asked. They are the antithesis of private.

One can always hold accounts in banks the family is unfamiliar about , I have had seen people with overseas bank accounts that no one knows about except themselves , I do understand that they cannot provide the privacy as a whole this is why I went out and stated how they already know everything about your accounts . I did already stated it :') , privacy is from the people who do not know about their accounts , they cannot always go and inquire about it in the bank , this is why the Privacy is partial .

This is where Bitcoins steps in , one can easily plan their retirement plan or invest for the future, without worrying about anything except the volatility .

Lol. That's a pretty big thing you have to worry about. Using bitcoin as a retirement fund is incredibly risky - bitcoin could be worth almost anything (including nothing at all) in 20+ years.

Timely encashing of Bitcoins , trading + short term holding have all provided to be amazingly efficient even at the time when Bitcoins is volatile , or I care to say , more at a time when Bitcoins is volatile. You do need an active involvement ofcourse that is why the price volatility of Bitcoins was mentioned.

It does increase the criminal activities we sure know

An often repeated statement, with absolutely zero evidence or data to back it up. Bitcoin is not favored by criminals, does not increase crime, and only a minority of bitcoin transactions have anything to do with illegal or illicit trades.

Speaking from a personal experience , I do have unfortunately come across a lot of people who are hiding their funds in Bitcoins to hide from paying taxes , taxes are unreasonable but at the same time one has to do it one way or the other . At the same time there are people who are willing to accept Bitcoins as a form of payment directly in their address particularly dealing with drugs and all . There have been cases where sick people are selling child pornography using Bitcoins . Some are caught unfortunately most of them are not.. ever a minor setback is problematic ; as I have already stated how it is nothing compared to money laundering in physical cash .

the wallets are now using government recognized ID's

No real wallet is demanding an ID or KYC to use it. The only things demanding that are online services, exchanges, web "wallets" and so forth, which aren't wallets at all since somebody else owns your coins. If you are storing your coins in one of these, you should withdraw them to your own wallet immediately.

Unfortunately in some countries , exchanges and other offline multi-use wallets do demand this , with the order of the government + to control the activities of the people using Bitcoins this step has been taken by most.
Even exchange like localbitcoins.com , has now started asking users for id proofs .
I am certainly aware of the practical implications of wallets like this but they do come in handy once you have integrated your bank account with it and is not doing big transactions or holding for long term  

[o_e_l_e_o]

One can always hold accounts in banks the family is unfamiliar about

That doesn't mean your accounts are private, it just means you are lying to your family. You have absolutely zero idea how many people at the bank know about your account, how many third parties they share that information with, how many governments they report to, etc.

Speaking from a personal experience

It is impossible to draw conclusions about the global usage of bitcoin from personal experience. My personal experience is that all centralized exchanges are scams and I have never and will never complete KYC anywhere. The data show I am in the minority, just as they also show that bitcoin being used for illegal purposes is in the minority.

Unfortunately in some countries , exchanges and other offline multi-use wallets do demand this , with the order of the government + to control the activities of the people using Bitcoins this step has been taken by most.
Even exchange like localbitcoins.com , has now started asking users for id proofs .

Again - exchanges are not wallets. Using them as such puts you at a huge risk of using your coins. Even if the government orders KYC, you can still just download a real wallet like Electrum and use that instead.

I am certainly aware of the practical implications of wallets like this but they do come in handy once you have integrated your bank account with it and is not doing big transactions or holding for long term  

It is a complete contradiction to talk about privacy and security but also suggest that people should use custodial wallets with full KYC which are linked to their fiat bank accounts. These kind of wallets are the enemy of privacy and security.

[LeGaulois]

Speaking from a personal experience , I do have unfortunately come across a lot of people who are hiding their funds in Bitcoins to hide from paying taxes , taxes are unreasonable but at the same time one has to do it one way or the other . At the same time there are people who are willing to accept Bitcoins as a form of payment directly in their address particularly dealing with drugs and all . There have been cases where sick people are selling child pornography using Bitcoins . Some are caught unfortunately most of them are not.. ever a minor setback is problematic ; as I have already stated how it is nothing compared to money laundering in physical cash .

Maybe because you hang out in places where it's common usage, or maybe you follow a blog that often publishes stories like this.

I don't want to say that it's not true, but in any case, I can tell you that the percentage of utilization made for not so clean activities is very low compared to what we think. And especially insignificant compared to the traditional currencies, as you say

I'm not claiming it's a myth, but that it's subjective, and we got enough researches about it to show us the reality

I don't want to talk about wallets today. I have made a costly mistake. I think i lost a few words..I was trying to be way too smart and scratched off a few words and kept them someplace else. Now for the life of me, I have not been able to find them. It wasn't life's savings but comprised most of the sig campaign payments i have had in the last 6-8 months (which haven't been many). I am so kicking myself since the morning for being this careless..God i'll say it..Its around 0.06 BTC. Such an amateur mistake..I had been going through a bit of shit in personal life and this felt like i was doing something on the side atleast. Today when i lost access to that wallet, has been a bad day since. But well, I'll survive and learn from the mistake. Sorry, Rant over..

 my sincerest condolences 

[Darker45]

The difference between fiat and Bitcoin is that fiat is essentially not yours even if you honestly earned it; it is owned by the government. That is why you have to provide all kinds of identification and documents to support you having it fairly. They could confiscate it. With Bitcoin, you own what you've got. And for as long as you truly own them, it can never be seized from you. So in terms of security and privacy, Bitcoin has it.

By the way, you are probably wrong thinking that Bitcoin increases criminal activities. Had Bitcoin not been invented, would these same criminals using BTC right now been otherwise? Of course, not. They will remain to be criminals, only using fiat. They shifted to BTC of course as BTC is far better than fiat in terms of privacy and security. Take note that criminals are more careful than ordinary citizens.

[sheenshane]

Whether a fiat or Bitcoin they both need security and we should protect our privacy. They're like your property that needs to be protected or else it will be taken to you by criminals/hackers. Confidentiality in the Bitcoin storing in a secure wallet is necessary because if someone will have the chance to access your wallet account then they can take everything until nothing will be left to you.

Laws from different countries provide security on every citizen's assets or investments that might be used as a tool to condemn any criminal activities. But it is different from Bitcoin, you're responsible to keep safe your asset.

For me, the importance and benefits to maintain confidentiality in Bitcoins are:

• Theft resistance
• No taxes and lower fees
• Transparency and anonymity
• No Third-Party Seizure

[achach]

Yes, this is important, but it will become almost impossible over time. Hackers can now get almost any information about you, and the government can monitor transactions.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Bitcoin cannot be and will never will be private. This is why it will become worthless (or nearly worthless) over the coming decade.

You are wrong on two counts. Bitcoin was never designed to be private - in fact the opposite, with the white paper clearly stating that "transactions must be publicly announced" - and so the value of bitcoin is unrelated to its privacy. Secondly, despite this, it remains entirely possible to use bitcoin anonymously (or as close to it as possible) if you take the necessary steps to do so - single use addresses, over Tor, decentralized trading, untraceable counter payment methods, etc.

Hackers can now get almost any information about you, and the government can monitor transactions.

Only if you let them through either naivety or carelessness. If you are signing up to every useless airdrop and ICO you see, handing out your email addresses, crypto addresses, reusing the same passwords, maybe completing KYC and sending your documents to complete strangers, then yes, your details are probably already available to be bought on the dark web and centralized exchanges will have handed over all your information to the relevant governments. If, on the other hand, you only trade peer-to-peer, never complete KYC, never give our your name, email address, or any other details, use the internet over Tor, etc., then it is going to be much harder for hackers or governments to invade your privacy.

[Gandam23]

The main important thing of the confidentiality is the security who is having or holding a bitcoin, why? Simply because bitcoin is a digital currency meaning there are a possibility that it may fluctuates very high and when that happens the person who is holding the bitcoin becomes millionaire and as an millionaire you need to have the confidentiality in order for you to gain the security that you've needed.

[DeadCoin]

Most people who was adopting Bitcoin just because they know that this is safe to become your asset. Security and privacy make people more confidentially use Bitcoin. Another reason was not that, Bitcoin also is very volatile and everyone new and then your Bitcoin value will increase when Bitcoin goes up. So it means, it is good for investment and also valuable stuff.

[jhonjhon]

Privacy is a little bit confusing to Bitcoin and much more for fiat. May we say that Bitcoin transactions preserve our privacy but it won't, we can still be traced, and those people who like to see wallets can see it. In fact, they don't ask permission to us. To be real, there is no way to hide anything by now...security is was we need in order to keep safe from intruders.

[20kevin20]

The main important thing of the confidentiality is the security who is having or holding a bitcoin, why? Simply because bitcoin is a digital currency meaning there are a possibility that it may fluctuates very high and when that happens the person who is holding the bitcoin becomes millionaire and as an millionaire you need to have the confidentiality in order for you to gain the security that you've needed.

That is quite of a wet dream of many that didn't really came true for most, isn't it? Assuming that BTC's volatility makes anyone who's holding it a millionaire is quite silly - did you become a millionaire from holding BTC? Because I've been doing it for 7 years and I haven't..

[KrisAlex18]

Bitcoin gets privacy because there is no third party wjen dking such transactions immcryptocurrency, you and the one you are talking to will be the responsible for it, not government that is why it is called decentralized, which is I lime the most because you are the only one that ia responsible for your own money, it is not like fiat currency even though you earned fiat through your work, the money is still from the government.
Bitcoin will only be have privacy and security if you don't expose it to the public, always keep it to yourself so you will assure yourself that your cryptocurrency is secured.

The difference between fiat and Bitcoin is that fiat is essentially not yours even if you honestly earned it; it is owned by the government.

Indeed, fiat currency is only good for daily lives or for daily usage because you can use it anywhere and anytime, but in case of investing I prefer more investing because I believe that cryptocurrency is more profitable than fiat currency.

[Nissan-GTR]

I think the reason for the confidentiality is to respect the privacy of the person that are involved in the transaction, just like how bank does not reveal transaction publicly. The concern is not that presing because there are people who abuse the confidentiality that it offers and they are still getting apprehended.

[kryptqnick]

Banks and other investments do provide you with these two qualities

In what ways are banks even in the least bit private? They know exactly how much you own, can see every transaction you make, and will pass it all over to the government if asked. They are the antithesis of private.

True, but one could argue there's an aspect of privacy here because all other people don't have access to this data. But yeah, I agree with you that, eventually, the data tends to get into the hands of all sorts of people that then use it to suggest other items to buy.

This is where Bitcoins steps in, one can easily plan their retirement plan or invest for the future, without worrying about anything except the volatility.

But isn't volatility the key thing that one should consider when it comes to a retirement plan? Bitcoin is a very risky investment, and it can end very badly for a person, so this sounds like an overstatement.

Bitcoin will only be have privacy and security if you don't expose it to the public, always keep it to yourself so you will assure yourself that your cryptocurrency is secured.

At the same time, it's next to impossible to stay private with Bitcoin and at the same time actually use it for something rather than just hold. If you want to buy something, you'll probably sell BTC for fiat which is likely to involve identification of some sort. If you buy stuff with Bitcoin, you still decide where it gets delivered, and are usually required to tell your full name and mobile phone (right).

[o_e_l_e_o]

True, but one could argue there's an aspect of privacy here because all other people don't have access to this data.

How do you know that? How do you know how many people at the bank can see your account? How do you know all those people are trustworthy and won't share that information with other people? How do you know how many third parties or governments the bank shares that information with? How do you know how many people at those third parties or governments can view that data? How do you know they are trustworthy? There is no end to the number of faceless strangers you have to trust with your privacy. If I have bitcoin in an address which is not connected to my identity, then there is nobody I have to trust with my privacy.

If you want to buy something, you'll probably sell BTC for fiat which is likely to involve identification of some sort. If you buy stuff with Bitcoin, you still decide where it gets delivered, and are usually required to tell your full name and mobile phone (right).

There are plenty of ways around all this, even if you can't spend bitcoin directly (the preferred option). You can sell bitcoin for fiat peer-to-peer using an anonymous payment method such as cash or a money order. You can sell bitcoin for gift cards for your chosen retailer, or use a third party service which will buy on your behalf. If you are shipping, you can ship to a drop off point and pick it up, or a PO Box or similar.

[ropyu1978]

We must protect our privacy, because with the sophistication of the internet, people are clearly easier to wash our bitcoins, so we need to keep our bitcoins secret, we definitely need an effective key to keep our bitcoins secret, and in my opinion the reason for keeping bitcoin confidential is to respect privacy of people involved in transactions ,,