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« Last post by administrator on September 19, 2020, 08:20:14 PM »
Throughout this one decade since Bitcoin's genesis, cryptocurrencies have advanced to a point where we now have a general idea of what makes Bitcoin better than other cryptocurrencies, why we need certain functions to be added to Bitcoin and so on.
One particular concern I have been confronting for a while now is how improving privacy through Bitcoin may change the King of cryptocurrencies forever - and it may actually be for the worse.
To be fair, I am heavily obsessed with privacy and a lot of members out here probably already know it. I have a lot of respect for those who fight for their own right to be anonymous and to have the wanted level of anonymity without being considered a criminal by anyone else. So props to o_e_l_e_o, LoyceV and all the other users who've taught me a lot of stuff about this. You've helped me turn it into an obsession.
Today we are slowly disrupting the equilibrum between pseudonymity and anonymity to the point where anonymity takes the lead. With that being said, by taking a look over both what's getting ready for the next Bitcoin updates and what we already have, we can see that the list of things that give you more privacy through Bitcoin increased significantly throughout the years: mixers, Schnorr signatures, Bisq, atomic swaps etc. Someone who has the necessary knowledge could actually be almost entirely under the invisible cloak while using Bitcoin. In my opinion, at a first glance, it looks great.
Lately, we have seen so much support from so many governments it simply feels like they want Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to exist. At a first glance, once again, it looks great. But have you ever wondered why they are not so hostile anymore?
Could it be because they already have the necessary tools to properly analyze BTC's blockchain so well they aren't afraid of decentralization anymore? Maybe. Let's follow up this scenario.
Monero is a cryptocurrency focused mostly on privacy. In my opinion, it is the perfect opportunity for us to see and find out what the future may hold for Bitcoin as soon as we start taking the privacy & anonymity road.
Firstly, the masses have been manipulated through mainstream media to believe that Monero represents the heaven for criminals - some kind of safehouse to protect themselves against authorities. This is what all of my friends who've ever heard of Monero thought it is.
Secondly, throughout the years, so many companies and authorities have turned hostile against Monero. In 2020, we have seen in my opinion the strongest push against it. Here are some of the delistings from this year:
- Bithumb Under Pressure to Delist Monero as Nth Room Ire Continues
- Monero (XMR), ZCash (ZEC), Bytecoin (BCN) to Be Delisted From Australian Exchanges: Analyzing Reasons Behind Delisting
- Huobi Korea delists Monero, piling pressure on Bithumb
And there's more. Some people go through worse stuff than simple delistings, such as this Reddit user who's had his XMR seized. Only recently, the US authorities have begun to desperately look for a way to track Monero. An article talking about XMR being tracked by the US Homeland Security has mentioned one very important thing to take into account:
Quote
Created at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), CipherTrace said the tool would be beneficial for the privacy coin for, among other things, getting listed again in exchanges that delisted XMR.
This is alarming in my opinion. I think I have enough brain to understand that they are basically saying Monero needs to not be Monero anymore in order to be accepted. The thing is, people do not understand that this is what is going on with Bitcoin right now. Through regulations, centralized parties, non-trustless transactions and tracing capabilities, we are using Bitcoin the way they want us to.
Now that we know how Monero is seen from the government's perspective, we have an idea about the way privacy is treated nowadays by them. Users of coin mixers, the tools that make blockchain analysis painful to whoever wants to try it, have also started to be considered as enemies to a growing number of exchanges.
In consequence, we have seen that attempts of improving Bitcoin's privacy are starting to turn some companies hostile against users who are trying to be more private. So now, let's take it the Monero way. The result is, by improving BTC's privacy aspects, we are going to likely turn hostility's power on.
Are the possible costs of inclining the equilibrum of pseudonymity and anonymity more towards the latter worth them? How do we value which is better between a more private Bitcoin that leads to hostility and a less private Bitcoin that is "adopted" more than ever before thanks to the government's abilities of analyzing the entire blockchain history?
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