Topic: Is the society matured enough to handle privacy? - page 3. (Read 623 times)

A society can work with total privacy; what it can't work with is total secrecy, which is what you probably meant.

Privacy is when you don't want to be known from the whole world. Secrecy is when you don't want to be known by anyone. A private matter can be revealed when it is desired by the individual. But, a secret matter must not be revealed. When you send a message over the internet using strong encryption, it's not necessarily meant to be kept secret, but read by only those for whom you intend to.

Not only can it work, but it's fundamental for the society's safety, for the preservation of democracy and freedom of speech in general.

People like their conform more than they like privacy. It has always been like that and Bitcoin is no exception. When I ask someone where do they keep their crypto, the answer is almost always on an exchange. They care about their privacy but not enough to go trough the trouble of creating their own wallet. It's easier for someone else to keep their crypto just like they trust banks with their fiat money. I have given up explaining why should they keep their crypto on their personal wallets and not on an exchange.

When you're talking about privacy, any third party aside you is not able to manage your privacy...your data is almost all over the internet how would you know when they're leaked... let me draw your attention to mark Zuckerberg Data and privacy leaked which lead to him been interogated by Congress men should be a sign enough that the society isn't mature enough to handle privacy.
I think that the society as it is right now can't handle privacy with the increasing numbers of hackers everyday on the internet, not sure.

The op's saying many want Bitcoin to fund illegal activities, but IMO it was the case before, years ago, whereas now Bitcoin is being carefully watched and, in many cases, regulated, so it's not very efficient to ditch fiat for it for illegal stuff. I think instead the main motive is using fiat as money, but Bitcoin as an investment. And it can also be judged, sure, but people can do what they want and use Bitcoin the way they see fit. After all, Bitcoin wasn't built to be as private as possible, or otherwise all transactions wouldn't be visible on the blockchain. So privacy matters more to some and less to others, and talking about society as a whole is simplifying things. Also, I don't think it's right to judge people for not caring enough about their privacy. Privacy is a right, not an obligation, and if some are okay with KYC procedures, for example, they shouldn't be blamed for being 'not mature enough to handle privacy' IMO.

I don't see much difference either pre or post blockchain innovation. We can only see how these people's identities deal with their money when confronted with something decentralized, when they can hide behind more "private" finances or have their own financial sovereignty.

Privacy is not only used for evil, but also to protect against evil.

Decentralization and privacy are not the same. Privacy is not letting others know about your actions, decentralization is lack of central control over system.

A society with total privacy can not function, because things like law enforcement, taxation, military conscription and lots of other things. A society with total decentralization would also be dysfunctional, because it wouldn't be able to defend itself, solve any major crisis, have any national program and so on.

If a country ditched their national currency for Bitcoin, they would be extremely vulnerable to its volatility and it would be very hard to perform certain functions. Imagine if a country sets a budget of 100,000 BTC for the next year, and Bitcoin crashes by 30% and now they have to find more BTC or cut some programs. Then Bitcoin rebounds and the plan needs to be changed again.

Its true that fiat has so many restrictions that we feel uncomfortable talking about personal privacy, but don't forget that fiat is the measure of the value of all other things including gold. Without fiat we wouldn't be able to determine the value of bitcoin, getting rid of fiat entirely and replacing it with a decentralized currency would be impossible. I think a world where both bitcoin and fiat coexist is better, fiat is still essential in our daily needs.

We can completely choose what we want. Good and bad things always go together. And of course, disseminating knowledge to shape usage behavior is always important to see how that field will be used. Personally, I'm middle-aged, so I'm not too harsh on money laundering through privacy issues, but like the OP mentioned, information security reasons are what we need.

Privacy is a double-edged sword. Whether you implement it or not, there is always a set of advantages and disadvantages. There's an inevitable overlap. But it's not an issue of maturity. What you can see of humans today is what humans are. The issue is that there will always be a compromise. Without which, something is sacrificed. For example, we all want the government and everybody else to fully respect our privacy but, at the same time, we also want the authorities to assure our safety. The two can't be fully guaranteed at the same time.

I am pro-capitalism so I wouldn't mind an economic system in which Bitcoin and fiat co-exist, with Bitcoin acting as a competitor to traditional currencies to keep them in check. Fiat, or digitalized currencies will exist regardless if Bitcoin is mass adopted. You don't need to be a pro-BTC absolutist to recognize its merits as a global currency while also including in the conversation the probability that fiat will be around.

With the way things are looking, fiat currency will be rebranded as CBDC's and those digital tokens will then compete with Bitcoin. If a country has the economy to sustain the competition, I don't see an issue. Let the consumers decide whether they'd rather keep their funds in crypto or fiat. With how irresponsible is, it shouldn't be a hard choice.

Nah, I don't think that they are going into bitcoin because they are going to do some illegal things. Maybe just a small percentage, but majority of people are into bitcoin because it is one of the best asset right now.


I also does not agree with your premise here, fiat or central banks are one of the pillars of society and they have been with us for centuries. True, bitcoin disrupts the financial system, but it doesn't mean that it will take over and replace fiat is this is what you are trying to drive at.

Your idea could (unfortunately) actually become reality in the next years. The European Union is already trying to make a new law in order to add a KYC feature to every single address used to withdraw/deposit to an exchange. Of course even the CEXs are against this because it would take a huge amount of time and energy to check and register ever address used by every single user.

I have thought a lot about it, personally I think that governments and banks will eventuality release their own wallets in which you will need to pass KYC just to have access to them, they will never reveal your private keys or seed words and you will be able to use your coins everywhere there is a government registered business that deals with cryptocurrencies, obviously people like us will never accept something like this, but it will not surprise me if regular people actually did as they care way more about convenience than their own rights and the principles behind bitcoin.

If the government had greater control over bitcoin transactions, Bitcoin would no longer be a decentralized asset because of the clearer exposure to every transaction made. This also depends on how the regulations apply in the government.
But I believe the government can not make full or greater control. governments only regulate what they can regulate.

privacy becomes important when it comes to decentralization, about bitcoin and about cryptocurrencies.

Nothing is bad in privacy, it either you handle it all by yourself or else its not privacy at all.


You're right, but when we consider the rate of those that use it for investment and those for illicit acts, we can see the difference is much visible enough with about 96:04 ratio and in percentage base on my personal view, even in fiat currency lot of illegal stuffs are much higher than in bitcoin, we have to understand individuals differences and mentality once it comes to a community settings and we cannot for that evade the benefits of bitcoin in relation to illicit activities some used it for.


Privacy is never abused in any way just because some people may take the advantage to perpetrate fraud, people that fall a victim of scam should be one way or the other blamed and take responsibility for that, because they might have been carelessly unaware with what is meant to be their private data being revealed to scammers knowingly or unknowingly, if one has a property and fail to secure it, then it may end up falling in the hands of looters.

What to say about the history of humanity? Different phases, different ways to trade with or without privacy.
Our ancestors used to live free, hunt for their own foods, slowly started growing crops and mastered new technique for the same.

Slowly came the era when few were good at making weapons, few were good at farming and few were good at arts and so on.

So what they did? They wisely started sharing those things. They traded food for cloth, art for stones and pebbles, metals for food and so on.

Was there a system? I don’t think so. But they did it at “free will”. They set out their personal weightage to everything and traded. It was more or less decentralised system.

However, as the revolutions started hitting, came the King rules, systematic settlements where there was rule. Money starte printed on stones, metals and only that was valued and was traded.

They devalued the so called PRIVACY of personal stuff, no one cared about your art skills or foods or cloths. If you have Kings coin then only you can have trade.

This is what we doing today with fiat in more organised manner with clean prints and stamps.

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Coming to your question of privacy:
Have you heard the news? Banks getting robbed, people getting robbed on streets, people buying Cocaine with fiat and criminals around the world getting their money ceased for illegal activities?

Why bitcoin is privacy concern if fiat was so much regulated and yet it can not stop the criminal involvement?

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Bitcoin is perfect trading asset, similar to what our pre ancestors did.

I am able to send it at my will, whenever I want and how much I want. In addition to this the value is versatile and it my look out when to trade its and at what value. That’s my privacy bubble.

Better not to stress out yourself on something like this because we do have our personal own view or taking about privacy.Some would really be going into that illegal means and some would just stay or

stick when it comes to privacy matters and dont really go into other means which maturity doesnt really always been indicated on how you do make use of privacy
whether you would go to negative or just simply stick into its main benefits and with decentralized and anonymity aspect then it is really hard to tell on whose
the one do really make some advantage of it.

when it comes to privacy and Fiat, everything will go back to normal in the discussion because even though there are many things that are not profitable in fiat, but still this cannot be broken just because of that. Fiat is still there and will continue to exist until whenever regardless of the presence of Bitcoin or not we cannot eliminate Fiat in circulation.
Their presence is something that will be absolute because indeed their support is very large from the government, so it will be very difficult to eliminate it, especially for now they are still very much needed for most people in their daily lives.

A complete abandon of fiat money will likely not happen (atleast not anytime soon) the most likely scenario is bitcoin may become a Commodity while fiat will still be used in everyday life,was this sathois's plan for bitcoin ? probably not but it is what it is.

No matter how a maximalist anyone wants to be on Bitcoin, I still find it difficult to believe they will jettison the whole idea of fiat completely. It's very unlikely that will succeed if anyone embarks on that. Cryptocurrency will continue to need fiat to survive. If not, Bitcoin price and value won't be checked based on fiat. Again, we should realize that there's nothing like complete privacy when it comes to any system man controls or indulges in. There must be a leak somewhere. In furtherance, the argument that cryptocurrency aids illicit activities can't be a reason to hate it. Every other instrument of value has been known to have been used as a medium too for illicit activities, be it cowries, Fiat, gold. Just name them.