Topic: Is anonymity a good thing for Bitcoin? (Read 405 times)

Well it is a slippery fish - you cannot say that is very good, but from the point of view as an average investor - it is a good thing.

Anonymity is somehow good thing and also bad thing for me, but generally I consider it as good thing, because of this characteristic we could able to use or make trandaction with bitcoin without having any taxes. But in my opinion it doesn't matter whether it is anonymous or not but the thing is it's decentralized.

Bitcoin isn't really anonymous. Entities such as Interpol have been using it for over a year to track and arrest criminals and there are also start-ups/companies which have built bots to scan the Bitcoin blockchain and identify where money is coming from and who the bad actors are.

I think his opinions are quite based;
sure, who can deny anonymity is a good ground for criminality?
but, who can deny we've got billions and billions of fiat money involved in crime anyway?

it's hardly the 'make or break' factor for crypto.
Regular people don't deserve to have any aspect of their life analysed and tracked by anyone without transparency.
The ability to shop and trade without anyone telling us what we're allowed to do, is a must have in my opinion.
Yes, people can buy drugs, people can launder money.
So what? that's already done today, isn't it?

Everything we do is already logged and tracked, be it in commercial or 'law enforcement' aspects.
Phone's are constantly talking with the radio towers = GPS location tied to your identity (sim card),
everywhere we go online is logged by ISPs,
most things we do on various services and websites is logged permanently,
all our banking transactions are categorized,
all our purchases are saved,
and generally, all our information is used one way or another in commercial aspects.

I never buy any drugs or launder any money, neither does the absolute majority of the population,
yet we're all being watched. Since when is it the norm for the minority to control the majority?
In this case I'm referring to the actions of 'criminals' and 'terrorists' to affect all of us on every small aspect of life.

We have the right to our privacy, even if we're not criminal.
Yet we're all treated as criminals today.

In the end, we're all just human, the CEO, the President, the average person - as usual, the rich control the poor.
And now we have a chance of regaining some control, of course it's being challenged.

It seems more like a pretext to control the public's opinion to be against crypto, because it's the new financial movement,
which the current 'giants' doesn't like.

There'll likely always be criminals, and they'll likely always find a way to do their illegal business.
Are we all going to live with a little drone above our heads watching our every move?

We must retain anonymity in crypto, as far as it's possible.
Or will we one day have a 'public wallet' that we get our paycheck deposited into, which then the government verifies, and considering it's completely public, all our transactions can be analysed and we're back to square one.
What did we really accomplish then, even if it's 'decentralized' and no 'central entity' is in charge, we're still under the same control.. illusion of freedom again.

Maybe, in time, we can leave the current governmental system, and adopt a new one where there is no 'money laundering', and it's not illegal to buy drugs.
But at that point we'll probably have AI running the world and everyone can do as they like anyway.

Maybe you didn't like the way I answered your question.
But...

You think I'm trying to dumfound you by comparing bitcoin to cash?
Read Satoshi's white paper [again].
If you want it to be something else then create something else.
Digital cash is bitcoin.

This really isn't a legitimate question related to the thread. I'm not comparing cash with Bitcoin you could say I was comparing Paypal and credit cards to Bitcoin which can all be traced. You might think you've dumbfounded me by saying this as I've seen similar questions but should we really be comparing Bitcoin with cash in the first place? We all no how much of a failed system cash is.

I for one would like to strive for better things than cash.


No. Such an ignorant statement. Any attacks on anything are valid you need to stop comparing cash especially when validating something. I'm looking to get discussion about Bitcoin and possibly offering solutions to the questions in the original topic. Not compare it to cash.

Cash is a failed system can we please not compare it? We should be striving to be much better than it.

Anonymity isn’t a big deal for me when it comes to Bitcoins but since most of its investors want it very much , then I think they should give it to them.Decentralization of the currency is the principal thing.

I think down the line since the advent of bitcoin, anonymity is what has brought as this far. The idea of Satoshi Nakamoto to sty anonymous has really been really a great one. may be bitcoin wouldn't have come this far if anonymity was not introduced. Although fit it very dangerous to do transactions with someone you don't know but its really important for our own integrity. Its up to us to stay anonymous with good intentions and that will eventually save the
the criticism of bitcoin by other persons. On the other hand, anonymity has created so many scam projects and fraudulent behaviors in cryptocurrency businesses. 

Yes, it does!

I think it's should the number one priority now.

Exactly what i am thinking! For their attacks on crypto anonymity to be valid, our fiat cash would have to be electronicly registering your identity each time it changes hands.
And there is no way to do that (even if ignoring cost to produce the bills) which the criminals are not likely to counter.

Is anonymity a good thing for cash?

I've read the whitepaper a few times actually and quite frankly the whitepaper needs to be made more up to date and less technical in my opinion.

People who easily get scammed aren't using crypto the wrong way. How could you possibly say that even if you use a escrow its shown in the past to not be completely safe. Many trusted escrows on this forum have either scammed or been involved in shady behavior.

A terrorist group likely doesn't care about the usage of the blockchain as most terrorist groups aren't about conquering territories but the culling of an ethnic group. I don't see how this is related to anonymity though. Even though this is a little off topic what is the blockchain going to do to hurt a terrorist group? Bare in mind that anything exposing terroist groups will likely not have an effect due to the reputation they have anyway. It's not like you could outline their corruption. The blockchain can be used for storing many things. But fighting a terrorist group with blockchain is just silly.

Seems Op hasn't gone through Bitcoin Whitepaper. Bitcoin/Crypto transactions are designed to be trustless meaning you don't need to know or trust who you are transacting with. The Whitepaper places emphasis on escrow and Reputation as a  Substitute for Identitification. This model has been working on this Forum, Localbitcoin and anywhere else. People who get easily scammed are probably using Crypto the wrong way.


 I really wonder why people act like they do not know the World we live in. Whether you live in a safe Society or not always note that some power hungry crooks are somewhere taking note of Societies's weaknesses & vulnerablity to exploit. You must patch up these weaknesses and stay safe. I think the best way to do this is through the use of Cryptocurrency and public Blockchain.

Here is my theory:
A terrorist group CANNOT successfully conquer a territory that is purely Blockchain and Cryptocurrency based.
If the act of taking over people's territories and businesses is nolonger attractive for such groups peace will reign and businesses will thrive unless ofcourse they discover a means to conquer the Blockchains.

Anonymity is good thing in the crypto society and also, It is very important factor in bitcoin project as well as whole crypto market

Honestly YES, The blockchain is very transparent thanks to the open distributed ledger compared to the FIAT system, The security of the holder is guaranteed through anonymity in the blockchain.

I really don't see a bad thing in anonymity with Bitcoin and other financial investments. I see it as this, if you win the lotto would you really want the world to know that you won? Personally I would not like. Bitcoin is not that anonymous though, but, rather, pseudo-anonymous.

I understand in certain circumstances. For example if you aren't a businesses and you want to keep your identity separate from your trade then I'm fine with that as it doesn't always mean they have malicious intent. We've got to respect and support that people would like to remain anonymous. But the reason I started this thread was to gauge peoples opinion on whether there's too much anonymity and if it's hurting the community.

One thing for sure CHANGE IS REAL.
Anonymity can be unknown or know for today.
Good effect can affect the beneficiary.
Bad effect can affect everybody.
Change is coming from unknown to known.
Known made it sometimes unknown for the sake of own.
Good luck and bad luck can lock or unlock the system.
Self interest is the center of self BTT members.

You're right. It can be extremely hard to figure out well thought out scams. I was mostly referring to the ones where the team is completely anonymous. Any time the team refuses to be known, it's shady.

Your right in saying that there's no perfect solution but this doesn't mean we should just accept that. It's always best to strive for the best possible solution and I'm a big fan of discussing any issues and possibly coming up with new ideas and solutions.

Also where do we draw the line when trying to help people investing into skeptical projects or depositing their Bitcoin in shady businesses. Some businesses are well thought out schemes which can catch out even the most experienced people. Just look at the TradeFortress situation whether he stole anything or he was telling the truth doesn't matter there was obviously some trust put into his technical abilities and enough trust for people to deposit their money. But the site was possibly hacked and many allegations were thrown around and I'm not sure if any investigations were carried out from the authorities.