{"id":353995,"date":"2021-10-17T10:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T07:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-crypto-industry-royally-screwed-up-privacy\/"},"modified":"2021-10-17T10:11:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-17T07:11:00","slug":"the-crypto-industry-royally-screwed-up-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-crypto-industry-royally-screwed-up-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"# The crypto industry royally screwed up privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2809cd11169\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2809cd11169\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-crypto-industry-royally-screwed-up-privacy\/#Transparency_vs_privacy\" >Transparency vs. privacy<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-crypto-industry-royally-screwed-up-privacy\/#Leaving_privacy_behind\" >Leaving privacy behind<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-crypto-industry-royally-screwed-up-privacy\/#Privacy_Finance\" >Privacy Finance<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong># The crypto industry royally screwed up privacy <\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/images\/840_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjEtMTAvMTM2MzQwYTEtMWM5ZC00YWM2LTk5NjgtYjdlZWUyM2JmMGZkLmpwZw==.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content\" data-v-128018ef>Privacy is a complicated topic. Few would argue that privacy is not important. It\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly more interesting to talk about things that are disputable. So, the limited arguments against privacy actually make it somewhat boring to discuss and easy to take for granted. As Edward Snowden famously <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/edward-snowden-privacy-argument-2016-9\">said<\/a>: \u201cArguing that you don&#8217;t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like arguing that you don&#8217;t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, what if your privacy is not a priority? What if your privacy is not guaranteed? What if everything you do is under constant surveillance?<\/p>\n<p>You might fight back.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, this actually is the state of the cryptocurrency industry, and not enough people are in the fight to defend privacy.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Transparency_vs_privacy\"><\/span>Transparency vs. privacy<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>When I first read the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper in 2011, I fell in love with the vision for a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Most societies have physical cash \u2014 legal tender \u2014 so, in a digital society, what is the physical cash equivalent? Satoshi Nakamoto seemed to come up with an elegant answer to that question, and a multi-trillion dollar market has emerged around it. Sadly, Satoshi\u2019s original idea has fallen short in at least one area, and that\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n<p>Legal tender is private. When someone exchanges coins or banknotes (aka \u201cbills\u201d in the U.S. and Canada) for a good or service, that transaction is only known to the two parties involved. Identification is requested if the good or service is restricted to certain age groups (beer runs aren&#8217;t for everyone). Further, if you hand a $10 bill to the lady at the local farmer&#8217;s market, she can&#8217;t look up how much you have left in your bank account.<\/p>\n<p>However, transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain are radically transparent. This means transaction amounts, frequency and balances are all open for the entire public to see. The Bitcoin white paper only dedicates a half-page to the topic of privacy with suggested workarounds that don\u2019t always work as intended, especially for second generation account-based blockchains such as Ethereum.<\/p>\n<p>There are user guides on how to achieve more privacy using Bitcoin, but they are extremely complicated and generally recommend using tools that can be dangerous for users. There are also a few blockchain networks that have been designed with privacy as the default, but most do not support more complex programmability such as smart contracts, which enable new use cases involving business logic in decentralized finance (DeFi).<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related: <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>DPN vs. VPN: The dawn of decentralized web privacy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Leaving_privacy_behind\"><\/span>Leaving privacy behind<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Why has the blockchain community fallen short in making privacy a tier-one priority? For one, <em>privacy has taken a back seat to three other priorities<\/em>: security, decentralization and scalability. Nobody will argue that these three components aren\u2019t important either. But do they have to be mutually exclusive to privacy?<\/p>\n<p>Another reason privacy has not been prioritized is that<em> it\u2019s very hard to guarantee<\/em>. Historically, privacy tools such as zero-knowledge proofs have been slow and inefficient, and making them more scalable is hard work. But, just because privacy is hard, does that mean it should not be a priority?<\/p>\n<p>The last reason is probably the most concerning. There\u2019s a myth in the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> that<strong> <\/strong>crypto transactions are completely anonymous. They are not. This means that many people have been actively using crypto under the fallacy that their transactions are private. As blockchain network analysis tools become more sophisticated, the lack of anonymity increases. So, when does privacy become important enough to make it a priority?<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related: <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Bitcoin can&#8217;t be viewed as an untraceable &#8216;crime coin&#8217; anymore<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Privacy_Finance\"><\/span>Privacy Finance<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A friend of mine who has worked in the crypto industry full-time since 2015 recently asked me, \u201cWTF is PriFi?\u201d<strong> <\/strong>PriFi, or \u201cPrivacy Finance,\u201d is the crypto industry\u2019s admission that we royally screwed up with privacy. We screwed up so badly that, 12 years into this industry\u2019s evolution, we are just now getting to the point where privacy is important enough to have its own hashtag.<\/p>\n<p>So, where do we go from here to build more privacy that protects everyday crypto users and achieves the digital privacy equivalent of cash?<\/p>\n<p>The first step is<strong><em> <\/em><\/strong><em>more education<\/em>. As society becomes increasingly digital, privacy is becoming harder to achieve. This starts with educating the media on the differences between secrecy and privacy. Secrecy is not wanting <em>anyone<\/em> to know something. Privacy is not wanting <em>the whole world<\/em> to know something. Secrecy is a privilege. Privacy is a right.<\/p>\n<p>The next step is<strong> <\/strong><em>to make privacy simpler<\/em>.<strong> <\/strong>Achieving privacy in crypto should not require clunky workarounds, shady tools or a deep expertise of complex cryptography. Blockchain networks, including smart contract platforms, should support optional privacy that works as easily as clicking a button.<\/p>\n<p>The final step is <em>to defend privacy<\/em>. Privacy is a timely issue. The recent U.S. infrastructure bill includes a clause to extend section 6050I of the tax code, which requires individual counterparties to collect personal information on each other for cash transactions over $10,000, and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lies it to cryptocurrencies. Coin Center, a pro-crypto nonprofit advocacy and research group, is preparing to challenge the constitutionality of this change for crypto. You can too,<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fightforthefuture.org\/actions\/stop-the-senate-from-sneaking-through-total-surveillance-of-the-crypto-economy\/\"> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Armed with proper education, an intuitive user experience, and motivation to make privacy a priority for crypto, we can defend our rights without being reckless and maintain sensible privacy on our own terms. <\/p>\n<p class=\"post-content__disclaimer\"><em>The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author\u2019s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.<\/em><\/p>\n<div>\n<div style=\"background: rgb(239, 239, 239); border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px;\"><strong>Warren Paul Anderson<\/strong> is vice president of product at Discreet Labs, which is developing Findora, a public blockchain with programmable privacy. Previously, Warren led product at Ripple for 4.5 years, working on the XRP Ledger, Interledger, &amp; PayString protocols; the RippleX platform; and RippleNet&#8217;s On-Demand Liquidity enterprise product. Prior to Ripple, in 2014, Warren co-founded Hedgy, one of the first DeFi platforms for derivatives using programmable, escrowed smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><template data-name=\"subscription_form\" data-type=\"consulting_newsletter\"><\/template><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/the-crypto-industry-royally-screwed-up-privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;# The crypto industry royally screwed up privacy &#8221; Privacy is a complicated topic. Few would argue that privacy is not important. It\u2019s generally more interesting to talk about things that are disputable. So, the limited arguments against privacy actually make it somewhat boring to discuss and easy to take for granted. As Edward Snowden&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/images\/1200_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjEtMTAvMTM2MzQwYTEtMWM5ZC00YWM2LTk5NjgtYjdlZWUyM2JmMGZkLmpwZw==.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15047,76943,74862,74894,74868,76642,74355,70934],"class_list":["post-353995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-privacy","tag-anonymity","tag-bitcoin","tag-blockchain","tag-defi","tag-satoshi-nakamoto","tag-adoption","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}