bitcoin problems that need to be solved

[everydayjoe]

#1. security.  When you make a bitcoin payment; that one payment address then forever connects you to your wallet thus allows the receiving person to see all your previous receives/sends, and, all your future receives/sends.  Any payment you received, or spent, then crushes your anonymity.  You are forever outed; fully exposed.  Really, it's no different than everyone in the world watching your bank account; seeing all the payments coming in and going out.  Bottom line is you can never send or receive a payment to anyone in the real world.  Your bitcoins/activity will forever be linked to you.  Chainalysis perfectly lays out the problem.

#2. non-fungable.  We like to think of bitcoins as being fully fungable.  But the reality is that any bitcoin wallet/coin can be black-listed or otherwise "tainted".  Your wallet could be black listed for any reason, or by mistake with no recourse.  Black-listing means that anybody can create a list containing your wallet address, and then any bitcoins in that address, OR, any bitcoin that ever TOUCHED that address can forever more be treated differently.  If YOU are found to have ever "touched" a black-listed coin, or coin from a black-listed wallet, you could then be targeted, hunted down, your real world accounts/property froze/taken; you arrested, who knows what.  Regardless, not all bitcoins are perceived to be "equal".  And, EVERY bitcoin has a history trail (moving from wallet to wallet) that anybody can easily follow see #1 above.

Bitcoin can never really be great unless every coin is truly fungable.  AND, to be fungable then coins must not be trackable.  Yes, some "alt coins" try to deal with the above.  But ALL mainstream cyrpto currencies especially BITCOIN need to start taking these issues seriously.

[Lorence.xD]

Security is not a problem, the problem is the people that are using bitcoin are lousy in keeping their credentials safe. I don't know what to say about the second part though. In my opinion, the biggest problem that bitcoin needs to solve is the network speed and the transactions speeds.

[Jawhead999]

That's why Bitcoin mixer exist to resolve this problems, no one will know you if you use mixer to break your tails and don't linked your current address (received from mixer) to anything that's will expose who you are.

If all Bitcoin transaction will be hidden/untrackable in blockchain, it's break the transparancy of the blockchain it is. This idea would make people think more Bitcoin as a illegal thing because it's very privacy (even some people right now still think it as illegal)

[so98nn]

If we are speaking about the problems then please add this to your list

#3 The Crazy Fees for the bitcoin transaction. What the heck man, the prices for fees are soaring like hell fire. 
So to spend my $ 150 from mycelium account with "Normal" speed (=still takes 2 hours to confirm) and this costs me -$23. How do I suppose to love bitcoin if the fees kept soaring like this ?

Security and fungibility comes after this. If I dont even like BTC for my transactions then why would I be thinking about other stuff beforehand.  However, I am still bitcoin holder, but devs need to think about this for sure.

[mindrust]

Seems to me that you are describing Monero. With Monero nobody can see where your money is coming from or going to. A monero coin is just like a gold coin. It has no transaction history. Bitcoin won't solve these problems imo because it was designed that way. If you value these features, use something else.

[Dave1]

1. then don't reused bitcoin address, or used a tumbling service.

2. Wasabi and Conjoin could be a good to obfuscate dirty history, several hops from the source.

I think it's not bitcoin's problem at all, in any case there are 'services' like I mentioned above that can help address the issue if someone thinks that this is really a big problem for bitcoin users.

[ranochigo]

#1. security.  When you make a bitcoin payment; that one payment address then forever connects you to your wallet thus allows the receiving person to see all your previous receives/sends, and, all your future receives/sends.  Any payment you received, or spent, then crushes your anonymity.  You are forever outed; fully exposed.  Really, it's no different than everyone in the world watching your bank account; seeing all the payments coming in and going out.  Bottom line is you can never send or receive a payment to anyone in the real world.  Your bitcoins/activity will forever be linked to you.  Chainalysis perfectly lays out the problem.

Isn't that privacy.

But that is why we don't reuse addresses. By sending the change to a new address, any outsider will have a harder time deducing which addresses are supposed to be the recipient address. With the inclusion of a mixer or CoinJoin, you can break the link and improve your privacy,

#2. non-fungable.  We like to think of bitcoins as being fully fungable.  But the reality is that any bitcoin wallet/coin can be black-listed or otherwise "tainted".  Your wallet could be black listed for any reason, or by mistake with no recourse.  Black-listing means that anybody can create a list containing your wallet address, and then any bitcoins in that address, OR, any bitcoin that ever TOUCHED that address can forever more be treated differently.  If YOU are found to have ever "touched" a black-listed coin, or coin from a black-listed wallet, you could then be targeted, hunted down, your real world accounts/property froze/taken; you arrested, who knows what.  Regardless, not all bitcoins are perceived to be "equal".  And, EVERY bitcoin has a history trail (moving from wallet to wallet) that anybody can easily follow see #1 above.

Bitcoin can never really be great unless every coin is truly fungable.  AND, to be fungable then coins must not be trackable.  Yes, some "alt coins" try to deal with the above.  But ALL mainstream cyrpto currencies especially BITCOIN need to start taking these issues seriously.

Bitcoin is fungible, 1 Bitcoin = 1 Bitcoin. No wallet/addresses/account should be blacklisted and there is a case to be argued that you aren't involved in illicit activities. Arresting someone solely based on the fact that they have tainted coins is absurd, innocent until proven guilty.

[noorman0]

#1. security.  When you make a bitcoin payment; that one payment address then forever connects you to your wallet thus allows the receiving person to see all your previous receives/sends, and, all your future receives/sends.  Any payment you received, or spent, then crushes your anonymity.  You are forever outed; fully exposed.

I think this is indeed the main feature of blockchain technology that satoshi introduced from the start. Anonymity is not the main / ultimate offering of bitcoin creation.

Really, it's no different than everyone in the world watching your bank account; seeing all the payments coming in and going out.  Bottom line is you can never send or receive a payment to anyone in the real world.  Your bitcoins/activity will forever be linked to you.  Chainalysis perfectly lays out the problem.

Everyone can only track it, but bitcoin is still yours and only you can control it.

[Ebede]

From me I don't think bitcoin have problem many is saying so , since I notice what is bitcoin I have not experience that bitcoin have challenge anywhere but I know that government hate bitcoin, unless as you discuss here that bitcoin has problem.

[stompix]

Bottom line is you can never send or receive a payment to anyone in the real world.  Your bitcoins/activity will forever be linked to you.  Chainalysis perfectly lays out the problem.

Problem?
What problem is that I'm sending my cousin 1BTC even if somehow somebody manages to link my address to my person?
Besides, when receiving payments from somebody you can always use a new address and coin control, there is no "problem" that stops you from doing anything. Besides, since you mentioned banks, your transactions are there forever, link not only directly by your name but all of them with all the names of your recipients and senders and real-life addresses, one single security failure and things far worse than a tx id wil be known by everyone on this planet.

If YOU are found to have ever "touched" a black-listed coin, or coin from a black-listed wallet, you could then be targeted, hunted down, your real world accounts/property froze/taken; you arrested, who knows what. 

By who? The avengers?
Stop with the drama, no authority will seek blacklisting wallets as that is a futile attempt, the real way of trying to create a blockade for "tainted" coins would be to whitelist addresses as it's far easier.

Bitcoin can never really be great unless every coin is truly fungable.  AND, to be fungable then coins must not be trackable.  Yes, some "alt coins" try to deal with the above.  But ALL mainstream cyrpto currencies especially BITCOIN need to start taking these issues seriously.

Monero is doing so, how is its path to becoming great with all the discussions about it getting delisted from exchanges?

And if you're really concern about the problem of anonymity, then the pretty obvious and simple is in my signature.

[Poker Player]

If we are speaking about the problems then please add this to your list

#3 The Crazy Fees for the bitcoin transaction. What the heck man, the prices for fees are soaring like hell fire. 
So to spend my $ 150 from mycelium account with "Normal" speed (=still takes 2 hours to confirm) and this costs me -$23. How do I suppose to love bitcoin if the fees kept soaring like this ?

I also think this is the real problem. A couple of weeks ago I was going to send like $25 and if I chose the recommended fee as standard, it cost me $25, that is, the fee was as expensive as the transaction itself, and if I wanted high speed it was even worse. In the end I found this thread and I was able to send it with a cheap fee.

For Bitcoin to become widespread as a means of payment, this problem will have to be solved, either with LN or however. If not, nothing happens either, it will serve as the world's best store of value, but it will not be used for small payments by the masses.

[20kevin20]

I'd swap Security with Privacy instead, because the problem you're trying to detail is pretty much a privacy-related one. I fully agree that fungibility and privacy are two things Bitcoin is missing, yet I really do not see these coming through future updates unless MW somehow gets into BTC .. which is quite unlikely imo.

Monero is doing so, how is its path to becoming great with all the discussions about it getting delisted from exchanges?

And if you're really concern about the problem of anonymity, then the pretty obvious and simple is in my signature.

The news about XMR getting delisted was an overreaction to what Bittrex has done imo. It wasn't even that Bittrex had to remove the coin or anything - I'm not sure exactly on which news site I read this, but AFAIK, the XMR delisting from their exchange was a personal choice. Ever since, nothing negative has happened to XMR ... in fact, Grayscale wouldn't have thought about Monero had it been a bad choice from a legal perspective. XMR is perfectly fine from a legal standpoint. The fact that governments hate it when we deny surveillance is a different subject...

Privacy is needed. If we have a problem with XMR, I guess we should have a problem with cash as well since it does respect our privacy and it gets closer to what Monero does than Bitcoin.. it's kinda mind-boggling how we've reached the point where not only "tainted coins" are gonna be a reality soon (they partially are, if we consider those exchanges banning mixers/coinjoins) but we're also ignoring the fact that Bitcoin is a great tool for financial surveillance since the average person will not spend their time making sure no personal information gets leaked when they're transacting with BTC... coin control, mixers, CoinJoins etc - they're all extra steps and a lot of newbies come here wrongfully thinking they're going to be anonymous when the reality is pretty much the opposite!

Now one thing I'm wondering is... why are we not improving Bitcoin's fungibility and privacy? Is it that we're scared of the governments' reaction to it? Wasn't Bitcoin released as a counterattack against the fiat system? What are we scared for precisely? If Bitcoin anonymity is an issue, then what's the difference between that and using CoinJoins/Mixers?

Another quite interesting/funny thing is.. Binance blocks coins coming from mixers/coinjoins, yet XMR can easily be deposited without issues. This further proves that the more we comply to what the government wants, the more they'll make it sound like privacy is a bad thing. They literally want to say that if you want to be anonymous on a public blockchain, you're a suspect.. while using XMR does not make you one since it has privacy on by default. That's how I take it.. otherwise, where's the logic?

[ranochigo]

Now one thing I'm wondering is... why are we not improving Bitcoin's fungibility and privacy? Is it that we're scared of the governments' reaction to it? Wasn't Bitcoin released as a counterattack against the fiat system? What are we scared for precisely? If Bitcoin anonymity is an issue, then what's the difference between that and using CoinJoins/Mixers?

Doing a complete overhaul of the protocol to add privacy features is not easy and probably won't be well received, if anything politics would play a huge part in this other than the technical challenge. If you're able to, I think making a BIP with features specific to Bitcoin is possible.

I don't think Bitcoin should have to adapt to solve every single issue out there, it simply can't. Altcoins can be much more versatile in this aspect and Bitcoin should focus on its core ideas from when it was created in 2009.

Another quite interesting/funny thing is.. Binance blocks coins coming from mixers/coinjoins, yet XMR can easily be deposited without issues. This further proves that the more we comply to what the government wants, the more they'll make it sound like privacy is a bad thing. They literally want to say that if you want to be anonymous on a public blockchain, you're a suspect.. while using XMR does not make you one since it has privacy on by default. That's how I take it.. otherwise, where's the logic?

I mean, if Binance blocks XMR, then they'll lose out on trading any of that currency pair right? What's the point with privacy if Binance already collects so much information on you?

If your exchange blocks transactions, then you probably shouldn't use it. Actual P2P exchange like Bisq doesn't have this issue. Bitcoin is fungible, 1 BTC = 1 BTC.

[Fesatmas]

Although you can own bitcoins with immune access to equipment, even if they are traceable, that doesn't mean you are being watched. because the article is to open access, you only need to strengthen your wallet defense.
Well, the problem is we don't use one address for multiple transactions, because that would obviously be a prone thing to pay attention to. The most serious problem remains on shipping costs. even though it is worth the price of bitcoin, but a few satoshi saved will be completely useless when you are charged high fees and slow transaction times. So for that solving 1 bitcoin is the solution and we want the shipping costs to be reduced.

[pankowri]

I don't know much about that but trying to know. From all of your comments I can know many important problems and how they can be solved?

[stompix]

Now one thing I'm wondering is... why are we not improving Bitcoin's fungibility and privacy? Is it that we're scared of the governments' reaction to it? Wasn't Bitcoin released as a counterattack against the fiat system? What are we scared for precisely?

No, it wasn't and people should really stop creating themselves reasons as to why Bitcoin was created for. Satoshi only once used the term fiat money and while talking about the government he actually went against a phrase that claimed the same as you:

"The developers expect that this will result in a stable-with-respect-to-energy currency outside the reach of any government." -- I am definitely not making an such taunt or assertion.

Bitcoin was created as a p2p payment system, nothing more, it wasn't meant as something to replace fiat, to replace banks, to topple governments to end poverty, or bring a new world order with the rule of the reptilians. People have high expectations from a piece of code, it is nothing more than a tool that can be used as long as conditions for it are met, simple as that, and acceptance for this is at an individual level.

[20kevin20]

I don't think Bitcoin should have to adapt to solve every single issue out there, it simply can't. Altcoins can be much more versatile in this aspect and Bitcoin should focus on its core ideas from when it was created in 2009.

Satoshi specifically mentioned Privacy as part of how Bitcoin works, and I personally think this part of his project has been left behind for many, many years. Sure, we have Tor, but Tor has its own flaws and, worse than anything, it's prone to so many user-made mistakes that basically cancel the entire attempt to improve privacy through BTC.

We're talking about a project that obviously couldn't protect itself from all negative sides and all potential outcomes, especially those that might have not been predicted by Satoshi back then.. one of them being blockchain analysis. His attempt to break the links between coins and owners has failed.

If your exchange blocks transactions, then you probably shouldn't use it. Actual P2P exchange like Bisq doesn't have this issue. Bitcoin is fungible, 1 BTC = 1 BTC.

Not anymore though - my 1 BTC is not equal to your 1 BTC anymore if mine comes from a mixer and yours comes from an exchange. My coins are now considered by most exchanges as tainted. What if your government considers them to be tainted as well, but kept quiet so far?

P2P exchanges like Bisq falls into the same category Monero does. It pretty much anonymizes your trading activity as much as it can. This is why the "XMR is bad" argument falls short imo.. if mixers and Bisq are suggestions, then the way XMR works is automatically a solution and not a problem.

No, it wasn't and people should really stop creating themselves reasons as to why Bitcoin was created for. Satoshi only once used the term fiat money and while talking about the government he actually went against a phrase that claimed the same as you

It would be a big mistake to release a system that works against banks/fiat and publicly advertise it that way if you ever want people to join and support it.

The message he left in the Genesis block says a lot about his intentions. He didn't just randomly choose the article - it was chosen for a reason. When I say "fiat", I am talking about banks as well. I think banks are one of the main parts of how fiat works, and Satoshi's system was created in a trustless manner - something that eliminates the need of banks. Had Satoshi directly mentioned the system was anti-governmental and anti-banks, Bitcoin would have failed terribly.

Maybe I'm being too harsh when I'm calling Bitcoin "against" them - perhaps calling it an alternative to them is a better wording. But even this way, it's still considered a potential competitor. And banks surely aren't happy about competitors.

Bitcoin was created as a p2p payment system, nothing more, it wasn't meant as something to replace fiat, to replace banks [snip]

Abstract: "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution."

[verita1]

Bitcoin needs user-friendly dapps, fast transaction and low fees. I think it will come very soon, after investors are setting their sights on bitcoin. Which summarizes that there is interest in creating capital with bitcoin and there will be more users bitcoiners.
Despite everything, we are fortunate to know bitcoin with its weaknesses and virtues, not everything is bad, the improvements that bitcoin users need will have to come for massive adoption.

[ven7net]

Nothing is perfect in the world and Bitcoin also has a number of problems that will probably not be solved. It may seem to you that with the development of the crypto market, these problems will go away, but they will probably remain since there is simply no ideal solution. On the other hand, we have previously used different payment systems and currencies and did not think about anonymity, which did not prevent us from working and earning. I think it will be the same with Bitcoin. Just use these opportunities with Bitcoin now, as things may just change in the future, and not necessarily in a good way.

[ranochigo]

Satoshi specifically mentioned Privacy as part of how Bitcoin works, and I personally think this part of his project has been left behind for many, many years. Sure, we have Tor, but Tor has its own flaws and, worse than anything, it's prone to so many user-made mistakes that basically cancel the entire attempt to improve privacy through BTC.

We're talking about a project that obviously couldn't protect itself from all negative sides and all potential outcomes, especially those that might have not been predicted by Satoshi back then.. one of them being blockchain analysis. His attempt to break the links between coins and owners has failed.

If you need privacy, use an altcoin; Bitcoin is not designed to be anonymous in the first place. Satoshi made it clear in the whitepaper that the privacy aspect comes from the fact that it is not linked to any identity. Bitcoin cannot achieve perfect privacy without a radical protocol change, transparency is a core element of Bitcoin. If we've had so much resistance over block size, then I bet there'll be even more when it concerns privacy. Not sure if he didn't predict Blockchain analysis or if he didn't think there was an appropriate solution for it.

Unless you can:
1. Make a good proposal to change the network in a manner that preserves its privacy without radical protocol changes.
2. Convince everyone that this is a good idea.

I can't see how Bitcoin would improve on privacy especially when there are far more important things to focus on first. I don't think you can have any privacy without being conscious about it, Tor has integrated loads of features to improve on the privacy but there is really nothing that Tor can do if the user makes any mistakes. Privacy is far more of a users habit and being overly reliant on Bitcoin/altcoins to provide you with the said privacy gives most user a false sense of security.

Not anymore though - my 1 BTC is not equal to your 1 BTC anymore if mine comes from a mixer and yours comes from an exchange. My coins are now considered by most exchanges as tainted. What if your government considers them to be tainted as well, but kept quiet so far?

So what if it is tainted. Most of your coins are infact tainted to some extent, either intentionally or inadvertently. If you want to restrict use of tainted coins, then I'll consider it as a form of government policy to discourage the adoption of Bitcoin. "Taint" is a fundamental concept that is flawed and any businesses who enforces that should be avoided (like Coinbase ), because obviously if they're willing to trace your deposits, then they probably don't care about your privacy at all.

Using a mixer does not mean that you're participating in illicit activities. If your exchange restrict this, then I would advise you to perhaps switch to another one.