Topic: Is it the end for privacy in the crypto space (Read 989 times)

We have no privacy when we talk about our identity, everything are exposed. If your real name is quite unique, not something like "Thomas", "Jack" or "Bob", you can try to search your full name in google, it's a high possibility it will show something related to your identity.

But, if we want to hide few thing, it's still possible including to hide how much coins you have.

I completely agreed with you on this, how at most times people ignores reading not just reading but reading and understanding the terms and conditions before signing up can become very problematic where at some point when changes/updates negatively affects us we look for who to be blamed. However, in my school of thought their is no privacy towards whatever that is done between two parties hence we should be expecting the best or even the worst senerio cases whenever we have an agreement between another body that is not just you only.

This also differs from service to service. I am sure you have received emails from service providers you are signed up with, informing you about updates in Terms & Conditions with information on what was changed or a link to review the changes. But this is usually ignored, and no one checks it. Another method that companies use to inform their customers is when you log in to a service, you will get a popup or notification that terms have changed. Again, people don't read it and just agree to the changes if it's required of them.

One more thing: the terms of many services state that the company can update and change them at any time. By agreeing and accepting the TOS, you also agree to future changes/updates.

The most annoying part of some of this update in terms of service by some of these platforms is that they will not remember to send a service update to their already existing customers, or they usually do it on purpose to always get something they can use against the person in case they won't be okay with the new update policy.

This is easier said than done in real life, especially if you are creating many online accounts with your personal information, and if you are combining that with different online payment methods.
Problem with terms of use is that companies are changing them all the time, and most of the people just accept that without reading anything.
Privacy with telegram and with most privacy email services like proton was always an illusion.

Telegram doesn't have password log, they only have users number, the date the number was registered on the platform and the ip addresses that are used to access the platform. To login, you need a one time password to access the account, so there is nothing like password on telegram and that's what they share with the government when they think you have violated what the governments don't want you to do.

As for Durov, the Telegram open network is run by independent group of team, not related to telegram but you really think they don't know the development going on the network, he do give a shout out and definitely support the blockchain, what he is only doing is avoid linking the blockchain to the app because it's already forbiden from beginning but somehow, people are coming to telegram and signing up because they want to use the app, he is definitely involved in the Ton network.

You only can click on Agree and move on to use their service or leave and find another service to use.

These terms are everywhere and very popular on centralized platforms. They always write a vague situation, open one at the end of each term that will be their reference point, when they use ToS against their customers.

So it's easy, if you want privacy, and see that a platform does not protect it, find others with non KYC, with better privacy policy. Agree to start means you accept to their ToS and are ready to lose your privacy with time.

Most Terms & Conditions and/or Privacy Policies mention sharing and making data available to partner services. They will also have a clause stating that by agreeing to those terms and using the service, you agree to such sharing of data. What they usually don't mention is who they share your data with or why. 

I think that's the angle he is talking from. Those online privacy policies don't include selling their customers data to third parties. No one will sue a company for not violating their own rules. But these days how many people do actually sue these companies as they are constantly selling off their customers data to third parties. Most people don't even take their time to read to those policies when signing up for an app or website. And I think these companies are aware that majority of the people don't read those lengthy policies anymore.

Therefore they will include some clauses that will favour them in it and people click without even reading. Are we going to blame someone who draft dangerous policies that will favour them or blame people who don't read them? Even if you read them, you will still consent because you need their services at that point because you don't have alternatives. For me these policies are just there to favour those companies who don't care about their customers. It makes me wonder sometimes if true privacy can actually exist in this present world?

Terms usually mention how long they store the information they collect about you. Let's say it's one year. I guess you can only request data deletion once that time expires. If you do it before, they can always say they are obliged by law to keep your data, they do it for your own safety, bla bla bla.

And even if they delete the data they have on you, who is to say that they haven't shared it with other partner companies before. And if they have, perhaps they will again get hold of your data a second time whenever an exchange between those two companies happens.

The game is rigged. We just have the illusion that we can win.

Unfortunately, in a lot of situations GDPR is useless and only a spark of hope.

I have encountered multiple situations where I requested the removal of all my information from the data base of a few Companies only to find out they still had every single information as if I never requested its removal.

More over, I would imagine big Corporations could easily breach GDPR and Privacy Laws because a fine given to Google is as if I lost a dime on the ground.

The best thing is still to try and keep as much information about yourself far away from any Third Party.  It is almost impossible nowadays and it will become worse in time, but the best we can do is just try our best.

Personal data comes first and, in the end, privacy is what makes bitcoin unique. If that privacy is compromised, there will be a great deal of confusion because, for instance, we know that whales exist, but we don't actually know who they are. That will even serve as additional defense against attacks and other threats. However, we already know that there is an issue when everything gets centralized, which is why the entire KYC-initiated procedure is odd for the industry.

And I don't think people will agree to anything that will expose their privacy, and that is one of the challenges that they have been facing and that is one of the reasons Binance left Nigeria since they were requesting for people's data and if they had agreed to that it would have affected the exchange seriously, that is in term of reputation because a lot of them will withdraw from using the exchange just because they wanted to protect their customers it was actually a good one.

Because a lot are trying to go centralized and that is what the government is trying to follow up making everything centralized but it won't work.

I think not, because this news about Pavel Durov does not really concern the crypto industry. Yes, now we cannot be sure that Telegram will reliably save our data, and of course those who store personal data and passwords there should have deleted them from Telegram after this news.
Regarding anonymous coins like Monero or ZCash - unfortunately, they have been driven into a corner for a long time, and it seems that anonymous coins are living out their time.
Anonymity is being taken away from us, and I think that all forum members here felt it after the mixers were blocked...

That's truth you have said. Before now, they just made it looks like they were keeping users data away from the third party and now after the scuffle and attention of users drawn towards that direction, they come up and let users know that they have said it long before now that they would make sure they protect users ID and only cooperate with the third parties if the need arises. Off course it is their platform and nobody have say over what they do and how they do it. Users are only left with the option to use or not to use the platform but as for the government, nobody can stop them from getting what they want if they are convinced and are out for what they feel is not alright with them.

As for telegram engagements, we all know that scammers are way to rampant on the platform and they just keep up with their illicit PMs with phishing links and malwares just to get at people to steal details from. I will agree with you that there are fake projects in disguise with the intentions of being real but we all know that they have no good intentions towards their investors although good projects still use the platform and have been running till tis moment but when it comes to safety, it is a personal race and everyone is liable to their actions. So in other to be on the safe side, take the safety of your assets serious and discard unsolicited PMs from unknown senders and always note that admins of group platforms would never PM you first.

That's a complicated subject. Online services have privacy policies that mention what they do with the data they have on you. If these documents grant them the right to store and share this data with third parties and you agreed to it by accepting their terms and the privacy policy, then you have no grounds to sue them. You agreed to it and gave your consent. You can only sue them if they breech their own terms and do something they don't mention there or if the company is breaking other data laws, like GDPR, for example.

Yes you are right many websites and apps ask for basic information like phone numbers and IP addresses when you create account. This is usually stated in their terms and conditions. For people who care about keeping their information private using fake accounts might be good solution. But nowadays many people using cryptocurrency platforms do not worry about privacy as much. They focus mainly on making money. Websites and apps have duty to keep user information safe. If they break this trust by sharing or selling personal data users can take them to court for violating data privacy laws.

Of course, Bitcoins are valuable to us, but we also need to protect all our personal data so that they do not first become the property of the special services, and then the entire Internet. And such caution should be taken not only for Telegrams, but also for everything that we have to deal with in everyday life.

That was always the case with telegram, but most people are only now realizing that.
In fact Durov said that telegram will now share more information than it was sharing befiore.
There is no way any of this puppets like Durov or Musk can do anything they are doing if they are not already in ''bed'' with government and controllers.
I would not trust telegram with anything related with Bitcoin.

They made it seems like they are not doing it before now but the Durov arrest change the talk. Telegram doesn't have any privacy but they want to reassure users that they can't hide in the darkness and make it look like "hey we are monitoring you and we have everything about you, everything is under them and nobody knows anything about you but if they asked, we are going to give them" like WTF? It's their platform and I don't blame them, if you don't use it, there is no case.

In the first place, telegram is full of crypto scammers, most legit crypto projects don't create any group, what they use the most is Discord and they are very strict with rules over there, unlike telegram where anyone can just message you or pretend in the group even though you set privacy, they send unsolicited links to scam people.

Most of the platform we're using today requires our basic information such as phone number and also IP address and most of them already ask for this in their terms and conditions before creating an account well if you are private with your details I guess using dummy accounts is suitable to you to make sure it didn't evade your privacy well in crypto space its normal because they want to keep themselves out of touch in terms of their details but most of the users recently neglect this already and they are all about the money. If the platform proves that they leak the details or sell those they can sue them with the data privacy issue of course.

This is interesting that this has been on though for quite a long time now. I was thinking it was a possible resolve based on his arrest by the France government and I never knew he already said that long ago. I believe this information is still unknown to many users of the telegram platform when this information first broke out as some would be thinking it would likely be a resolve for his release. It is nice you brought this up again.

This only means that Telegram users have never had privacy. Recall, as Pavel Durov reported, "that since 2018, Telegram has disclosed IP addresses and phone numbers of criminals when legally required. Durov stressed that this is a longstanding policy, ensuring compliance without compromising the platform’s commitment to freedom and privacy" - https://news.bitcoin.com/pavel-durov-reveals-telegram-has-been-disclosing-data-to-authorities/

As for telegram, they already said it loud and clear that they would be cooperating with the government and third parties if the need be or any request from the government for telegram ID details and number which they already agreed to. I believe this was the possible agreement between the government and the telegram boss as the government feels and claims the social media giant is used to carryout heinous crimes which no one could be able to detect hence their demand to regulate and keep track of its activities to getting information about its users.

The whole crypto space was inspired by privacy so the moment their is no longer privacy then bitcoin is no longer bitcoin and that is why everything is decentralized, and back to telegram I don't think they will violate user privacy by given out an individual and telegram is actually a very big social media with the fact that it is getting involved seriously with crypto because they have a lot of wallets on telegram now so this are part of the reason why privacy is very important and it is very different from other social media platforms, the ceo of telegram will do everything possible to keep your data very secured from the government or who so ever. No end go now in the crypto privacy space.

Anything crime will be fished out either privacy or no privacy their were aligation that telegram was use for illegal transactions even buying or arms and many more, and the government knows what to do when they see crime and not try to enter everyone's privacy or data.

As long as cryptography exists, privacy will never die. You can always encrypt your messages using your linux computer and send it with whatsapp/gmail. Even if they read your messages, they won't understand a damn unless they have the passkey to de-crypt it. Of course it is not a practical way to have a communication but that's the stuff which they will never be able to crack probably.

Maybe as a next step, they'll ban cryptography altogether. Are they that crazy? Well, the US government banned the possession of gold before. I say anything is possible.

That's why new mixers that pop up got seized by the FBI because of people can abuse it to launder money. Bitcoin should be the one that people should use if they want privacy. Having privacy right now isn't easy since many platforms right now are regulated which means they have information about their customers like KYC. It really is hard to have privacy and when you are not serious about having privacy would be troublesome even if you are not a criminal which you have to follow to avoid being suspicious.

Any other coin apart from Bitcoin has nothing but zero privacy. All altcoins you are seeing today don't have any benefits of privacy, even ethereum don't have any privacy and that's why a developer created a tornado mixer for ethereum and in the end, he is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for trying to create privacy for people, it was abused they said and money laundering worth billions of dollars and terrorism they claim and no more privacy for people.

Telegram also had similar problem with government, they claimed Telegram isn't cooperating with them to get access to informations they need. Literally, government want you to create a platform they regulate and you need to work together so they can profile people they need and people they don't need. Now that their CEO is under house arrest, they seems to be more strict with things but my mind is telling me they will work with the government in the end.

They refused to comply with government requests before the arrest on their CEO in France.

It's an end-to-end encrypted messenger but with normal chats, it's better than many messengers because you clear all chat history and disappear if you want. This makes harder for governments to trace scammers and criminals but with latest arrest and compliance of Telegram, they will handle more information to governments if requested.

You can use Orbot to have Tor on mobile.
https://orbot.app/en/

Telegram has always complied with government requests to a certain extent but they are being more strict with their enforcement since their CEO was arrested. Telegram communications were never encrypted, except for secret chats which very few people use, you can’t lose privacy that you never had.

You can still have some privacy by registering with a burner phone and enabling the option to only connect through a proxy. For sensitive communication, it is always better to use an app with default privacy, where there is no information that can be handed to law enforcement.

Obviously, privacy is gradually fading away from the crypto space as there are lots of unfolding events and scenarios were government actions forces organizations to do their biddings so as not to loose grip of their business and already existing stand in the space. I am afraid even telegram boss fell for them as well because the idea of releasing telegram handle IP and details of users to the government is absolutely a breach to users privacy and that would have been the deal that paved way for his release from the prison.

As for the telegram community, does it mean that there is no more privacy for telegram users since the founder made public the announcement. As far as I know, telegram seems to be the the chat platform for largest crypto community and virtually any crypto enthusiasts who uses the platform has his or her IP recorded in their data base coupled with the fact that phone numbers are used to register on platform and before one uses a sim card, they must undergo kyc  and this automatically means that there is no more privacy in the  crypto space.

One thing I would say for short is that, Bitcoin doesn’t concerns itself with cell phone number and IP addresses. You don’t need neither to work a Bitcoin wallet. Besides, these exchanges works as a centralized aspect to the Bitcoin ecosystem and as such, they function within set rules in the jurisdiction where they operate. You would t expect them not to comply by those laws that govern the locality which involves, having to provide necessary details to authorities. Government is that strong.

Privacy coins,,, if they weren’t a pump and dump, you would always find them doing okay in the market.

With more regulations on the centralized systems that exists within this space. It would only push for a more decentralized approach towards how investors use cryptocurrency and that’s a plus to the system.

Do scammers use crypto only, or did scam begin with crypto, of course not, scammers steal fiat and other valuable things from people as well, fiat scams are also more in number than crypto scams. There would always be fraudsters who want to steal people's money and i think the government is using that excuse to attack crypto.
The government is centralized, thus they would always be against privacy and even decentralization, they want to have a clear view of people's financial lives.

The actions of the government are not questionable because the common man who should find something doing has decided to be fraudulent, exposing the only technology that ensure decentralization to be constantly attacked by the government. If dubious users did not hide under the umbrella of crypto, mixers and privacy coins, then it will be impossible for government to enact laws that requires KYC or exposing or sharing private data of users to government or third party companies. I think the first thing to takle is eliminating fraudulent activities associated with cryptocurrency through joint effort.

This will give us an edge against government moves against the cryptocurrency space in general. The need eradicate scam projects. If we should be sincere with ourselves, telegram has hosted lots of project that has led to lost of funds from investors, and lots scammer make it their target ground ,so I do not think the government request is excessive but for the good of the common it view from this stand point

are you getting any legal information from somewhere that mentioned the CEO of telegram will share the user IP or user data and any government asking for that. I think this is only for your think. you can read the privacy and policy which platform you use. telegram is still a big social platform and it should more than WhatsApp IMO and something else. so they have the responsibility to protect their user and keep secret the user data. so I don't think dhruva will share the user data to the government or sell the user data for any illegal activities. ton blockchain has created good if right now that's why many antiparty of dhruvo I trying to attack him and destroy his platform. but not it is not true easy task for someone. so you can believe the telegram platform. so I think there is no end for privacy in the crypto space

It's not the end of privacy in cryptocurrency, but Telegram itself isn't even a privacy oriented project, they only claimed to be privacy oriented. A real privacy oriented project allow you to use Tor and will not any personal information e.g. email, phone number etc. Telegram broke this, you can't use Tor and they ask your phone number.

Privacy isn't yet end, we have Nostr and cryptocurrency that focus on privacy like Monero.

It will, but more time needs to pass before people are starting to realize how important it truly is to have Privacy.  I am guessing we need at least a couple more years before this happens.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

Monero has always been the King of Privacy Coins, similar to how Bitcoin is to all those other Cryptocurrencies on the Market right now.  This means the competition is HUGE to begin with and it is insanely hard to come up with something better than Monero.  Monero truly has some of the best features a Cryptocurrency can give, including extremely low Fees.

Not only is there this huge competition, but creating a Privacy Coin implicitly involves legal trouble.  How many of us would be okay with knowing our Rights and Freedom is constantly at stake?  You need to be kind of a psychopath to care this little.  I have all the Respect for the team working on Monero for this reason.

And then Monero is already extremely fine tuned to the point where there is pretty much no thing you can currently do to come up with a Cryptocurrency that does Privacy better.  There were always huge flaws found in competing Privacy Coins.  This includes the biggest ones such as DASH.  So obviously, using other Cryptocurrencies becomes obsolete.  Why use DASH when I can use the better, particularly considering that the difference is not as simple or little as low versus high Fees but the flaws one Cryptocurrency has while the other does not.  I need strong Privacy, not one that may or may not be rendered useless by Authorities or any other Third Party.

-----

Privacy is still very under rated.  It will become a problem as every thing becomes digitalized soon.  Only then will everybody start feeling limited and too monitored in all aspects of their lives.  Things are fun until you start realizing that no matter what you do, at least one eye or ear is on you all the time.

But now to answer the question from the title of your Thread, no, this is NOT the end of Privacy.  I would say this is just the beginning.  The more restrictions and limits we will have for our Rights, the more development there will be in this area.  And fortunately, the more people are going to look for Privacy, the more flaws and difficulties will be found and the faster they will be solved.  It will be a wild ride once more people care, and it is going to be fun.

Thank you for the Thread, I have so much excitement every time I can talk about this subject.  I would write so much more, only if I had the time and people just as passionate as I am about Privacy.  These are the times I realize how much I miss Leo.  He was such a great and intelligent human being.

Exactly, every platform collects your data the moment you log in to the platform. If they need, they can get your IP address, some sites save your information like you can auto-save your information for later use. Telegram released a memo discussing their privacy terms and policy for transparency and to catch scammers using the platform to harm users especially following the incident of the CEO Durov arrest.

So, it shouldn't bother you if you are not going against Telegram's security and privacy policies. If you are not a scammer, if you are not using multiple Telegram accounts to do funny business, then you shouldn't be bothered about the privacy update.

All these data are collected every time, every site, so you don't have to be scared if you are not doing anything illegal that will require the management of any site, be it Telegram, WhatsApp, or Facebook, to track you down. If not, just continue using your Telegram to communicate, do your airdrops, play telegram games etc.

You know there are people who are not that comfortable with the policies, and if there were any more secure means of communication then I think they would start using it and leaving telegram to that. However, x also another place of communication but it's not an easy going platform were you would just received information that sharply on your phone and it's too open.

But of course there would be people who don't care as long as they aren't using it for any illegal activity and just their communication and getting needful information then they are fine but there should be a form of restrictions of sharing sensitive information that contains using file such keys or seedphrase may be something similar.

It seems that what happened recently in France, the trial of the founder of Telegram, has opened eyes to the problem of privacy on the Internet in general, and not only in relation to financial exchanges. Since we are in a cryptocurrency forum, and considering that cryptocurrencies are largely related to privacy, it is logical that questions are raised and discussions increase.
The arrest of the founder of Telegram confirms that governments cannot allow unlimited freedom on the Internet and that they will track anyone who seeks to challenge that. Their argument for this is fighting crime and tracking criminals, but the truth may be much deeper than that ; "Big Brother is watching you."
It is helped by the limited applications that allow greater privacy, and the majority of users disregard for the privacy aspect in their use of the Internet.
Cryptocurrency exchanges have also been subjected to them, so they all impose KYC procedures and gradually cancel privacy coins pairs.

If you are a criminal, and governments send their requests to Telegram, Telegram will share your phone number and IP addresses to governments. One or two governments request this information, it's case to case basis.

Source
Telegram to Provide More User Data to Governments After CEO’s Arrest
Official announcement from Pavel Durov

First of all, could you share the source of the news? I think it will be better if you share the link of the news. 
Anyway, which government to be shared by Telegram? Will Telegram to share the data of each user to every government in the world?
Honestly, it is not really clear for me. But I can understand that it will be never safe to share any private data to social media platform, including Telegram.

If telegram only share the data of IP address, I think it is no problem. Even telegram doesn't share it to government, they government will easily know it. But sharing the phone numbers to the government, it seems a bit annoying. No sure why telegram wants to share this kind of information. Is telegram a part of government platform now? 

I don't think so. There will be still a chance of privacy in crypto space as long as it isn't fully controlled by the government. Even we may have less of our privacy, but it doesn't destroy fully by the government. At least, the government will never know how much we hold cryptos. And what crypto coins we are holding. The government still has no way to know this.

I get how important it is to keep some things private, not because I'm hiding bad things, but because we all deserve to keep our personal things safe and protected from people who are most likely going to take advantage of them and put our security in jeopardy. But hey, Telegram is not a decentralized platform and there's no promise that our information will nothing shared with a third party or that it is not already being shared with a third party. In my estimation we are all being watched as long as we have an electronic device that connects to the internet. We can't deny that. It is just that we haven't become a person of interest to being to feel threatened.

But it seems that you are defending the Nothing to hide argument, and IMO privacy is valuable per se. Of course, I don't want terrorists, pedos and other criminals do what they want, but opening a backdoor that enables all kind of governments, not only democratic ones, and who knows if enterprises too, monitor the conversations of millions of people is risky too.

That's just the simple and bitter truth: when Telegram was not having the population that it has now, there was not an attack that came to the CEO directly.
 
The government doesn't go for small organisations; they wait for it until it grows big. That's when they hit. They just want to have their eyes all over everyone that's making use of any social space at all times, not because they want to protect their citizens from being defrauded but because they want to stop every movement that each user makes.

That's right, the scammers at least have this idea now and probably going to relocate somewhere else and that's to the ones that don't have that much attention from the government. But it's just sad that this is what they're going to do until they're not caught. So, to those that are engaged with airdrops but don't want their privacy to be revealed then it is better for these folks to stop using telegram and just go out with the typical messaging apps that they use because there's already records of online footprints and as well as activities that they've done in the past.

In the past, I mostly hear people tell about buying anonymous coins but with the strictness of the government, it's better to leave them untouched so I agree.

Well I get to used by providing now my identity to reliable platform so this news is not new to me. The government ask this so there's nothing we can do about it. Although we want to be private but this is the way how to combat online frauds or any other illegal activity.

For now I don't feel anything pressure regarding on the activities do and so far I still feel the freedom since I can do what I want online. If government limiting the access or dictate us what to do maybe for that I will feel bad regarding on things they do.

For now I don't see this act as the end of freedom since maybe this is the counteraction of possible tracking of some illegal activities happening in that platfrom.

It's maybe not the end, but the beginning instead. All people with concerns about privacy will look for a new platform more decentralized and more private. So maybe one better than Telegram will appear fortunately. I think with the progress of AI new decentralized schemes and technologies will appear, and app like Telegram will be able to become fully decentralized and safe for all users. Authorities won't be able to stop that.

First of all, Telegram is a messaging app regardless of some special features that makes it unique from other messaging apps even though people are using it for some crypto related activities now and moreover, the rate of scams on telegram is becoming too much. Inasmuch as I don't support the idea of the France government arresting Pavel Durov since most of her citizens uses Telegram, but privacy should be allowed and protected at all cost because with the way scams are going rampart now everyone need adequate security measures.

However, I don't think that crypto is losing it's privacy just that since the government doesn't benefit directly from cryptocurrency, hence their so much concern about being involved in the process but i don't think there's need to panic too much because cryptocurrencies are still in developing stages but as soon as it's adoption becomes a reality, the government cannot continue to witch-hunt those who seeks for privacy.

Yeah you are right many users of telegram wallets are airdrop farmers especially ever since telegram became a platform for airdrop farming so many of these wallet users really don't care.

Come to think of it, what do they have to lose, they literally didn't buy many of those coins so they are likely not bothered about it.

Telegram company has been on fight with some government not today, I don't think this has nothing to with crypto if not for the new telegram mini games people are now playing to get the airdrop reward to get paid, there is nothing there to talk about crypto. Telegram was considered to be private unlike WhatsApp that claim messages are encrypted and the rest like Facebook, they share information if the government request them because there is a back door for the government of some countries but telegram refused all these process which is why some government thinks telegram is hidding criminals and supporting money laundering and terrorism.

However, since the France government has taken it serious and refuse to leave the founder it is now a big problem to them and I think it was because of these crypto mini games that gave them that attention again and all I can say that there is no really privacy in crypto because if Dogs conducted their aidrop and they could know when a user register there account because distribution was done based on the date registered, then there is no privacy in the first place as they claimed.

Telegram is not the last manager that can be anonymous. Now many sites that are dedicated to privacy on the Internet post a lot of alternative messengers. I think the fact that the government forced Pavel Durov to disclose the IP addresses of some people, scammers, or criminals in their opinion, will simply force all the other scammers to move to other resources.
As for small figures who are supposedly worried about their anonymity, participating in airdrops, it is unlikely that they are of interest to anyone at all, and on the other hand, their social networks have already put their fingerprints everywhere a hundred times, and there is no problem connecting them.
Likewise, OP, you can continue to follow anonymous coins, but you should not buy them.

What the heck are you talking about? 
You can't ''make'' your IP address, you can only try to hide it with using vpn, but telegram is also sharing and leaking your phone number needed for registration.
Telegram was never actually private at all, nothing is really encrypted in chats, and I don't even trust their secret chats shady encryption.
Durov is a part of the whole system, and his arrest was just one big circus show for the masses that don't care so much about privacy anyway.
Good alternative for telegram is SimpleX chat.

Telegram is a social media site and I don't think that most people on it will be worried about sharing their information to the government if the need arises. As you noted, people who use telegram for social reasons wouldn't really care much about their privacy there. It's basically for scammers and people who uses telegram for criminal activities. Telegram is not a cryptocurrency so I don't see how it's issues can affect the privacy of a decentralized crypto like Bitcoin. Although I can't deny that governments don't like anything that is related to privacy, they feel intimidated when they don't have control over anything within their sovereignties.

When I think of privacy forums or platforms, I have never considered telegram to be one. So, the new requirements expected of telegram shouldn't be a big concern to the crypto space. Perhaps, it is because of the reigning telegram based memecoins on the TON network that makes telegram synonymous to cryptocurrency.

It was going to get to this and I’m not too surprised that what the government wanted has been achieved and hence his release. The government will presume you to want to give out anything they can just to handle the activity on your platform. After all, it was a social media platform and all of them are centralized. The interest of them was generated from the inception of crypto into telegram.


This is not the end of anything privacy in the crypto space. If telegram couldn’t make it, it doesn’t mean other crypto platforms can’t make it.


If you’re not into anything illegal there’s nothing to worry about about the government tracking your IP address. Wherever there is crypto, you’ll see some people using that means to take advantage of others or engaging in illegal things, if they can be filtered it’ll be great. But trespassing is what it’ll end up in, which is why it was never encouraged to be so.

Cryptocurrencies had started existing before Telegram was founded. It was just recently that many developers began to use telegram for airdrops and crypto gambling. Bitcoin and other privacy coins are not connected to Telegram, so there is nothing to worry about. It is an attack on the privacy of users of social media platforms.

If you are not comfortable with the new rules, you should stop using Telegram and move to an alternative. You could also adopt any privacy strategy you can to avoid this policy.


Some people care about this new rule because it can be misused. Elon Musk is claiming that the reason X is persecuted in Brazil is because the platform refused to sensor the Liberal Party led by former President Jair Bolsonaro. Corrupt law enforcement agents could also use this opportunity to forcefully charge and exploit users. I don't see this new law as bad because Telegram has been a hive for scammers and illegal trading but my problem is that it can be abused.

This is neither the first time we are hearing of this kind of targeted arrest on the CEO of a company, The news is still very hot for now, but with time, this will definitely cool off.

And for your question if this is the end of private coins or privacy generally?  No. I believe with time, people will device a better way of navigating this type of issues with government, probably, some project CEO may bigan to remain anonymous, This is why Bitcoin is able stand and scale until today else, if government had actually know the man/men behind Bitcoin technology they will have clamped down on them and even kill the whole idea we all are enjoying today, but Satoshi was wise enough to remain anonymous till today.

100%.
I know that privacy is important to all of us but can we do something about it to be stopped if the government forces Durov to hand over the information of all of the users of Telegram? As long as we're just using it for what it is intended like for messaging and some other apps that you're enjoying to open there, you are clean and nothing to worry about. It's true as well that airdrop people don't care about that. What matters to them is their eligibility and the tokens that they'll get from participating in it. They can dispose of their accounts if they want to anytime, very likely.

Telegram is one of the communication platforms that adopt crypto, but it is not the end of privacy in the crypto space.

What was mentioned in the official channel of Du Rove ^[1] regarding the change in Telegram's Terms of Service might only cause concern for criminals out of the platform’s billion users... Telegram remains a tool for communication, staying updated on the news, crypto project communities, and companies, as well as participating in mini-games and other legitimate activities; these may not force the platform to share the IP or phone number with law enforcement agencies other than users who may violate usage policies. In addition, no important information or data related to crypto wallets should be saved on it, so I do not see any problem with this.

Even privacy coins and the like, despite being fought against, are still active and effective. They can restrict user privacy and fight freedom, but they cannot stop decentralization or prevent it. So, if someone finds this Telegram news disturbing, they can stop using this app.

I don’t think Telegram is a private space as people think, it’s just necessary we don’t get involve in different activities using our telegram and our activities matters also. I don’t think I understand much of this story since I don’t know if the target are mainly crypto users because telegram is a wide space that accepts mainly every activity, only those who use the app for crypto purpose will get caught but this is a daily reminder we need to stay safe and prioritize our privacy. Privacy still stands 100% like anyone who know and understands crypto knowledge will avoid centralized space etc, majority of crypto population are not affect so what’s the fear? The only fear is if this act keep reaching different platforms it’s understandable but for now privacy is still solid.

Choosing Telegram for someone who cares about privacy will be the last choice there are other better ways to stay anonymous than installing an all that's available on regulated marketplace. Telegram can't even access the messages or anything but sure they have the user logs and IP address and it's their basic security system.

The whole drama around Telegram is getting too complicated and I don't think the government really care about any users losing money they don't want mostly used app to allow that feature from my perspective.

This is not going to be an issue to anybody, even if the government ask them to provide any users IP it doesn't affect you anyway unless the users has a wrong motives on which they normally use there telegram account for because telegram is just like every other social media and majority of people there are not even using it for crypto purposes, it could be for business or for normal charting, so even your privacy was to be exposed to the government it doesn't mean that your account will be hacked by anybody, though is believed that the reason for government to think that way is because telegram has become more popular in terms of social media that support crypto, so they believe that having access to all the users information will help to track any illegal activities, so there is nothing to be worried about.

There have been many of this messaging apps that have lost their anonymity, not only that there are so many centralized exchanges that were ones decentralized but had to turn the opposite due to government interference but still that doesn’t stops one from actually staying anonymous on bitcoin. Many steps are there like running your own node until little things like using a new address for every transaction. So to me it is not that a huge problem to bitcoin anonymity because it wasn’t attached to this stuffs in the first place

TON isn’t a privacy coin so it wouldn’t affect it if you ask me. Moreover telegram doesn’t associate this TONcoin to itself that’s why you don’t see it been used for even a single subscription payment. They are avoiding every related problems like it been tagged security token or even privacy token as you put it out

Just because there is a high rise of crypto users making use of telegram because of its massive number that can make up/join a group channel, we forget the fact that telegram is grouped as one of the messaging apps, not strictly a crypto app.

For IP addresses and phone numbers to be shared with the government wouldn't stop many telegram users from using telegram again just because their anonymity and privacy are all gone in telegram. But so far, many telegram users are not indulging mostly in illegal content, criminal activities, drug trafficking, and fraud in telegram; no need for one to be scared of all this(IP or phone number). Someone will only get scared of this when they find themselves guilty of such acts. But once you are not into such, let the government have your IP and phone numbers for all you care.

Telegram is not crypto, it is just a social medium platform, when things like this happens, then we should not see it as what is going to render our privacy into jeopardy, instead, we should see it as an exposition to how we can safely make use of our crypto asset on a non custodial means of storage, use of telegram wallet is not safe or a good practice, we can make use of the advance safety measures like the non custodial wallet or running a full node, using a telegram app for wallet is a risk one is taking on self.


If we know how to secure our privacy, then we are going to take the right route on achieving for this, but when we are not aware of the ways to have it, when we lost it, we becomes unaware of what has happened.

These whole issue of government wanting to interfere with the financial activities of individuals, thereby looking for means to weaken/threaten their source is really becoming alarming. Of course, the Bitcoin community don't take their privacy for a joke, but what about the entire crypto community in general?.

Most people don't really understand the importance of privacy especially in the social space and financial aspect, until they become victims of unplanned circumstances. The telegram CEO knows very well that he has lots of haters, but he wasn't expecting that the day where he will be arrested and forced to change the whole privacy related terms of telegram will come sooner.

Because from the onset,  telegram and whatsapp actually shared similar looks, but telegram was able to acquire a massive number of users within a very short period of time, which actually showed the level of privacy that most internet user seeks.


I am not quite sure of what you meant by "making their IP address", but if VPN can be useful in this scenario then I believe the Bitcoin community is ready to make use of it. Or we might even find other alternatives, but I am not sure of how soon or what it might be.

I don't care. The only people who would care about the release of their information to the government by Telegram are those who use the platform to perpetrate all types of scams and those who are thriving in it. Aside that I am sure those who are on the platform because of airdrop hunting don't care. One thing is for sure though and that it any other platform that may have the clause that they will share users information with third party and you know what because we don't read their privacy document we wouldn't know.

I am sure every website collects IP data which includes your geo-location. You are allowed to use VPN at the end of the day and you should never share any information on the Internet as it's tracked, no matter if the platform tells you or not. If you put a picture on Internet, it's going to be there forever. You cannot undo here. Coming back to Telegram, atleast they disclosed it before and not like Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook or Instagram.

Just telegram cannot bring a end to privacy in cryptocurrency space just that its users who are not into crypto mainly because of Bitcoin but some of their benefits will have to be patient, and I don't think there are enough information provided to telegram, its just number and nothing more because even the username is anonymous.

I have never seen any important thing about Bitcoin on telegram, in fact, in the beginning, I thought it is the main place where scammers based to cheat newbies to cryptocurrency because it is a big platform that is used to promote altcoins.
Therefore, the request to provide details of telegram users have nothing to do with general privacy of cryptocurrency users, it is only on some altcoins, but decentralized coins like XMR, and BTC have nothing to do with telegram. Government can only control centralized sysytem and not decentralized system.

This is why you should avoid a centralized structure if you are someone who is focused on privacy. All these changes in Telegram policy happened after Durove was arrested and he has now succumbed to the pressure of international governments. I do believe that in the future an alternative platform similar to Telegram will be launched which will be more privacy-centric and will now be controlled by a centralized authority. All privacy coins except Monero have ceased to exist. In the coming years, we might not see Monero due to centralized exchanges delisting it, but for now, it is doing quite okay.

is he only sharing the IP address of crypto users on telegram when required or he will share the address of all users of telegram? Telegram and most of the sites that requires us to impute our phone number or email address won't promise that they will keep you anonymous by all means regardless of what's at stake. Even Whatsapp that promises end to end encryption still sales your data and gets access to your information without your knowledge so thier is no point of looking at this as though it's a big deal. Most of the users of telegram that use it for airdrop don't care much about thier privacy as long as it doesn't get to do with the stealing of whatever benefit they want to get from thier Airdrops.
Anything that's like a centralized exchange that's controlled by the government can't guarantee your security. I remember that the SEC in my country ordered all the fintech companies to supply to them the details of their users who are carrying out crypto transactions through their mobile apps. What can you do in that instance when you've already given all your details including your name, phone number, address, and even other banking details to that app? It's going to be easy for them to trace you and prevent you from enjoying any form of privacy and anonymity.

Because of this? No. Telegram is very popular in the crypto industry, but it is still a messaging platform and not a "crypto project", thus whatever comes out of the arrest of Durov Pavel does not directly affect the crypto industry, at least not bitcoin.

That being said, the government is fighting privacy in the crypto industry, they direct centralized exchanges to delist privacy coins, they go after mixers and they don't want people to use No-KYC services. As a bitcoim user, you can still use your coins privately anyway, but the truth is that only a few people are ready to go through the hoops.

Is actually a big concerned to the cryptocurrency space just as what #2 already said lot of people do not care and what they are mostly interested is how accessible the site could be to them and how they are using it. To me it's just about a matter of choice and what intension you have towards using it,, those who are using it for their evil did would definitely panicked about the sudden change. But guess what this might likely affect their token price TON since is not maintaining anonymity anymore.

The only privacy coin that I know so far and that people are using very well, even if most exchanges don't appreciate and recognise it, is Monero.
 
Some other projects—I mean, the new one—might claim to be privacy coins, but deep down they are far from it, so if you are preaching what's not true, you don't expect people to go make use of it. Aside from now, new people that are coming into crypto don't care about privacy.
 

That's not the end, nor is it even the beginning. Privacy is at the minimum, and the government will try to always control and have access to users data. That's why you, as someone who cares about privacy, should take it upon yourself to protect it. Avoid using centralised systems; you can't be under a centralised system and still want to remain anonymous.

Making their own IP address, what do you mean? Well, whatever that means, the advice is to use whatever tool is necessary or make one for yourself that will help you increase your privacy, Tor VPN, or whatever way you are accessing any public domain.

This is no different from exchanges, casinos and any website that have everyone's IP addresses when they're required and asked for their participation and provision of these by the government if needed.

Not yet the end, these known privacy coins are still there. We do not lose hope even they're cracked down, maybe some hope will be gone when they're completely stopped.

While keeping your privacy, nothing to worry about if you're not doing some sketchy activities.

The reality is that the majority of Telegram users (crypto users or not) do not care. They use the app because its available on multiple platforms, and because it's superior to WhatsApp and other alternatives. Not because Telegram does not share their private data. I doubt anyone has read the privacy policy to start with.

As for privacy coins, then I think XMR is doing just fine. I mean given that many exchanges banned the coin.

The latest news concerning the arrest of Telegram CEO now is that Telegram will share users IP addresses and phone numbers to the governments when legally required.

The question that pop up in my head is will privacy and anonymity flourish in the crypto space at all? I don't care about anything else that this man did, what he created or invented is what's causing this problem presently.

Also majority of new privacy coins are not just doing well, I've watched few since 2022 but man, they seem abandoned due to lack of interest.

Do you think it is the end for anything privacy in crypto space?

Would you advice anyone to start making their IP addresses because of these issues with the governments?