Why are Bitcoin transactions stored ?

[moneystery]

The point of crypto currency creation was for the reason of privacy, which was coated as the word decentralized network, where there's no third party in-between, just the sender and the receiver. Them why are transactions history store and made public, so there can be traceable? Because with this it doesn't feel private to me.

The original purpose of Bitcoin wasn't privacy, but rather a new kind of money where you could send money directly, without intermediaries, through a decentralized and censorship-resistant network. Bitcoin was designed as a decentralized digital currency, its primary focus not on absolute privacy where you could obfuscate your transactions, but rather on financial freedom as an alternative to the fiat system.
However, Bitcoin is pseudonymous, so even though transactions are recorded on the blockchain, the identity of the address owner isn't immediately visible. This can be said to enhance your privacy. Unless you link the wallet address to KYC on an exchange that would break that layer of pseudonymity.

[lionheart78]

The point of crypto currency creation was for the reason of privacy, which was coated as the word decentralized network, where there's no third party in-between, just the sender and the receiver. Them why are transactions history store and made public, so there can be traceable? Because with this it doesn't feel private to me.

The creation of Bitcoin is not because the author wanted privacy, but rather to have a direct transaction from one person to another person, removing the third party that thrives on fees. If we look at the Bitcoin whitepaper, there is no line that say it is created for privacy, but rather to be censorship resistant.  This means it is created to work without banks or any centralized authority.

Aside from that, Bitcoin is created to be pseudo-anonymous, meaning the identity of the person who does the transaction can remain unknown (as long as they don't link it to their identity), but the transactions are fully transparent to the public.

[Dreadboost]

The reason for this is for transparency to avoid manipulation

And Crypto currency was not primarily for privacy, privacy is like the second reason for the introduction of crypto currency.

[DanWalker]

The point of crypto currency creation was for the reason of privacy, which was coated as the word decentralized network, where there's no third party in-between, just the sender and the receiver. Them why are transactions history store and made public, so there can be traceable? Because with this it doesn't feel private to me.

Yeah, Bitcoin record every transaction on every blockchain so that everyone could see the amount and address, thus actually protecting the network from double spending and fraud without any 3rd partis interference. Whatever Ledger will never ask your private data like name, DOB or country. So it could not provide your personal detail to anyone, it could only show alias cryptographic addresse

If you do not link your real identity then third parties will not automatically know that it is you. Bitcoin is public but uses an alias, so its not private or anonymous, its pseudonymous

[suzanne5223]

The point of crypto currency creation was for the reason of privacy, which was coated as the word decentralized network, where there's no third party in-between, just the sender and the receiver. Them why are transactions history store and made public, so there can be traceable? Because with this it doesn't feel private to me.

No, the reason for Bitcoin's creation is that it is a decentralized, pseudonymous digital currency that doesn't need the trust of third parties, and the decentralized aspect of BTC was not intended to provide privacy.
It was coated as a p2p electronic currency system with no central authority, third party trust, or single point of failure.
That's why the blockchain of Bitcoin was made public, and if you want the privacy use of BTC, you'll need to use tumbler, privacy wallet, etc.

[Richbased]

If there is no public ledger, there wouldn't be any proof of payment and confirmation from both parties so your transaction is still private except you reveal your wallet address to someone else other than the person that you did the peer-to-peer transaction with, that is when they will know that it's you who did the transaction and can possibly scan your wallet for other details such as your wallet balance, the number of transactions you performed on that wallet and the addresses you made transactions with. I want you to know that sending and receiving money requires proof of transactions which is why the public ledger is there to upload those information. Privacy is not secrecy but the right and freedom of not allowing other people to interfere in your transactions.

[AmoreJaz]

The reason for this is for transparency to avoid manipulation

And Crypto currency was not primarily for privacy, privacy is like the second reason for the introduction of crypto currency.

This is one of the unique features  of crypto. Transparency at its best. The reason why hackers and scammers are  very careful in transferring their funds. Because one wrong move and they can easily be traced.

[Satofan44]

It’s still private as long as you don’t disclose that you own the wallet. Once you send Bitcoin from your wallet to a verified exchange, that’s where you lose privacy.
But if you’re just transacting wallet to wallet, even though the transaction shows up on the blockchain, you can still keep that level of privacy.

Wrong, don't post this misinformation here. Bitcoin does not offer privacy, it was never designed to offer privacy.

There are ways you can have privacy with bitcoin. Make use of full node on Tor. Or you can be anonymous if you make use of Tor on SPV wallets.

That is how bitcoin is but you can try to achieve some privacy.

Wrong, that is pseudo-anonymity and not privacy. I am able to see all of your transactions in this case, even if I don't know who you are. Don't confuse privacy with anonymity, this happens commonly with people. All combinations are possible with these concepts and here are examples for each one:

• Privacy without anonymity: 2 KYC'd addresses transacting between each other, but the details of the transactions are hidden.
• Anonymity without privacy: 2 unknown addresses are transacting between each other, but the details of the transactions are public similar to Bitcoin.
• Privacy with anonymity: 2 unknown addresses are transacting between each other, but the details of the transactions are hidden similar to Monero.
• Neither privacy nor anonymity: 2 KYC'd addresses are transacting between each other, and the details of the transactions are public or transparent.

It is time to stop confusing these concepts, they are basic and not complex at all. Furthermore, Bitcoin is designed precisely to not give you privacy -- that is the whole point of it, a publicly transparent blockchain where the whole history can be audited at any time and by anyone. That ensures it security, although how this works on a technical level is an entirely different matter and beyond this topic. Some may ask well then why don't we just become like Monero? Because nothing is free, everything comes with a trade-off. Putting aside issues that this may cause for Bitcoin from the side of the law or regulations, having confidential transactions such as that in Monero obviously provides benefits but they come with a much higher risk. If someone finds a way to bypass the supply constraints in Monero, they could do this silently and milk a lot of money over a long period of time. How would anyone find out since values can't be audited?  

The current consensus is that this risk is not worth it, if you want to have some privacy with Bitcoin you can do some things -- such as using LN correctly.

[Agbamoni]

Only wallet transactions can be tracked, including how much you send and how much you receive. The reason for this is transparency. A receiver will only know a sender has sent the bitcoin by tracking the transaction, and vice versa. In all, the blockchain is still private and secured. No one can access your wallet, and no one can freeze your asset too. You have full control of whatever you do with the asset in your wallet.

[death69]

Bitcoin was created to exclude banks. The whole idea of storing transactions publicly is such that no one has to trust anybody. Suppose the transactions were a secret, how would you know that I did not spend the same Bitcoin twice? You would have to have a bank or some kind of central authority to check. This is what Bitcoin was created to get rid of.

Bitcoin has privacy based on pseudonymity. People can see your transactions, however, not in a relationship with your legal identity, unless you link them. The address 1A1zP1.. tells you no name or where you are or anything about you. It is not more than a sequence of characters. That's the privacy layer. Chain analysis is there and when you are not careful you can be tracked down. Never was the design an assurance of entire anonymity. It promised the elimination of intermediaries.

The misunderstanding here is that to be decentralized is to be secret. Decentralized implies that there is no central authority to the ledger. Public refers to the fact that anyone can check it. The two things go hand in hand. You want actual privacy? Use Monero, use coinjoin, use Lightening with good practices. However, do not assume that the base layer of Bitcoin is going to become what it was never intended to be.

Have you read the whitepaper, or did you just guess on the basis of your old unchangeable habits? Satoshi had been quite clear about this in the beginning.

[terrific]

It can only be traceable if the address used is known by someone where it has come from and the real owner of it.
Other than that, there's no way to know who's the real owner of that address and from the transactions that have been used with it.
And that's the purpose of blockchain, it stores data which are the transactions and it cannot be altered.

[Cookdata]

The point of crypto currency creation was for the reason of privacy, which was coated as the word decentralized network, where there's no third party in-between, just the sender and the receiver. Them why are transactions history store and made public, so there can be traceable? Because with this it doesn't feel private to me.

There is difference between privacy and transparenc but Bitcoin gives the two in one line. Transactions are transparent on the public ledger handle by nodes and miners node, you can't change it if it's confirm and validated by these two entity on the network and at the same time, your transaction is pseudonym because no one can tell the identity of the person behind that transaction, that's why Bitcoin remain one of the best model of transaction ever created by Satoshi Nakomoto.

You can't get more than this when it comes to privacy in Bitcoin but you can make it better by running your own node so people don't see your IP address, learn to spend Bitcoin from a wallet once and don't join two Utxo together, don't use a centralized exchange if you don't want your identity connected to any transaction.

It's because these transactions are hard and can't be traced back to an identity is why the government has mandated any function exchanges where Bitcoin is traded to do a Kyc (know your customer) so they can be able to identify who sent Bitcoin from one wallet to another and who received Bitcoin from another wallet. Your privacy is in your hands when it comes to Bitcoin, you can do it your way or their ways.

[BIT-BENDER]

The point of crypto currency creation was for the reason of privacy, which was coated as the word decentralized network, where there's no third party in-between, just the sender and the receiver. Them why are transactions history store and made public, so there can be traceable? Because with this it doesn't feel private to me.

Yes the major point of Bitcoin creation is for privacy case but that is not the whole point of Bitcoin creation there are more one that I will point out to you is transparency, Bitcoin supports transparency that is why transaction are stored and they are available to the public.
Bitcoin is private and can protect your identity and also Bitcoin is transparent so transaction are publicly visible.

[wiss19]

Privacy isn't meaning you do not see where the money is moving, it means your name is not there. It doesn't say "John Doe has sent 100 Bucks to Michael White", it says "this wallet address sent 100 bucks to this wallet address", as long as you can keep that private, that means it's private.

Moreover, decentralized and private are different things, it was never meant to be as privacy oriented as monero or other ones, it was meant to be something that you can do with decentralization where others can't reach it.

[GhostRider2487]

Why were so many accounts publicized by private corporations?

[X-ray]

The point of crypto currency creation was for the reason of privacy, which was coated as the word decentralized network, where there's no third party in-between, just the sender and the receiver. Them why are transactions history store and made public, so there can be traceable? Because with this it doesn't feel private to me.

Do you go around telling people that you own this specific bitcoin address? because if not, I think you're private enough. Nobody will know if it's you.

The important thing here is nobody can censor your bitcoin and nobody can just freeze your bitcoin outright unlike in centralized services. You truly own your bitcoin.

Whether or not anyone can see your activity on chain. It's matter of how you take care your own privacy.