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Topic: Should Bitcoin merchants help to keep our identity private? (Read 212 times)

full member
Activity: 938
Merit: 137
Confidentiality is a very important issue in the crypto currency. She needs to pay a lot of attention, because more and more we are faced with the problem of hacking. This is becoming one of the global problems, which is not very fond of talking about. I've already been attacked several times by hackers and at the time of preparing the tokens to move someone hacked and intercepted my tokens from me. Now I pay more attention to confidentiality and protection of my data. Therefore, I agree that wallets, or their addresses need to be changed more often.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
but aren't the merchants already changing the bitcoin address they give to the customer. i mean every time a customer goes to a merchant to purchase an item he receives a fresh address, otherwise it is impossible for the merchant to know who paid what if it is 1 address that they give to anyone. they have to keep asking for signed messages from senders to prove they were the one sending that transaction.
sr. member
Activity: 602
Merit: 265
It is the responsibility of both the merchants and the customers - they have to be smart to game the current system. And the easiest way to do this now, would be change the wallet addresses on a frequent basis. Yes, this will create loads of unnecessary account out there but what choice do we have. If the government/financial regulators put some pressure on exchanges, they have no choice to cave in - we have seen that already with the start of KYC rules at the beginning of this year.
newbie
Activity: 98
Merit: 0
I think bitcoin merchants should help maintain the security of our personal identity to be protected and protected from hackers
legendary
Activity: 3542
Merit: 1965
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
I really don't understand the argument 'If you have nothing to hide, why care about privacy'. There are plenty of reasons why you want to have a certain amount of privacy.  

my reply is always
OK mr government spokesman. im installing CCTV camera in your wifes bathroom. as long as she isnt doing anything illegal you have no reason to object??

(excuse my stripper/women in shower examples, its not my normal content of comedy, but it seems to many bitcoiners that this comedy category sparks their imagination to understand the underlying more serious points)

You have no reason to apologize for the examples that you are using, because they are on-topic and spot on for this topic. I have never even considered it from that angle before.

Privacy will always be a hot topic, because you will have to trust that the entity given authority to infringe on your privacy, would not misuse that power. < Example : US Drone operators in Iraq taking footage of private citizens > 
full member
Activity: 868
Merit: 150
★Bitvest.io★ Play Plinko or Invest!
Safeguarding the privacy of the identity of clients is a given responsibility of merchants. I don’t think companies would risk their reputation by compromising their customer database. It would be bad for business.

Exactly and this can be their edge to other merchants that doesn't prioritize their customer's identity. And the fact that when they gain their customer's trust it will bounce back to them as more and more people will patronize their product especially their good customer service. In business, sometimes it's not the product that people wants but the good customer service that they receive when they purchase. And that's a good business strategy.
jr. member
Activity: 140
Merit: 2
REMIIT.IO
Safeguarding the privacy of the identity of clients is a given responsibility of merchants. I don’t think companies would risk their reputation by compromising their customer database. It would be bad for business.
legendary
Activity: 2156
Merit: 1393
You lead and I'll watch you walk away.
OTOH, If you’re dealing with an exchange to buy btc or sell btc then you have to assume every government agent in the world was given all of that transaction info. Transacting at any exchange in the world eliminates, as you say, “any degree of financial privacy”.
Every transaction is transparent in the blockchain in the first place and in order to keep your anonymity in using bitcoin, then all you need to do is to not disclose your identity to anyone and to not announce that a particular wallet is yours. Have a wallet that only YOU knows that you own it. When sending btc to it, transactions must stem from exchanges in order to maximize anonymity using that particular address.

That’s not the problem with exchanges bro. Every exchange requires you to comply with AML/KYC laws. It has nothing to do with your wallet or changing addresses.
hero member
Activity: 1232
Merit: 738
Mixing reinvented for your privacy | chipmixer.com
Why wouldn't they? Think of it this way: traditional merchants and their payment processors promise you that they'll keep your data private. Why should crypto merchants be any different? I know I won't buy anything from any merchant that won't (or uses a payment processor that won't) take steps to ensure my privacy.

It has nothing to do with merchants buying into anonymous ideology or any of that. This should be standard of any business-customer relationship.
when you're dealing with traditional merchants and payment processors, they do that to protect their customers
protection from misuse of fund of their customers by allowing chargeback, if the transaction was found fraudulent
so they keep data private until disclosure is needed for investigation of unauthorized payment

but if you use crypto, there is no reversal chargeback, payment in crypto is final
hence merchants don't need to keep data about the customer, as the payment processors won't return payment in any case
so maintaining customer privacy benefits both merchant and customer on different aspects of each their own
newbie
Activity: 11
Merit: 0
I have watched some videos on Youtube today and they were speaking about Crypto currencies and ways to track Crypto

currency users, through services that they use. Is this the weak link in the privacy chain? Should we ask Crypto currency

merchants to "change" their receiving addresses more frequently to make it more difficult to pin a specific address to a

specific service? If these people want to track all our financial transactions, then we should give them some challenges in

doing this.  Huh

Obviously not all services will adhere to this call/request, but some of these merchants still support the bigger cause and the

reason why most of us use Crypto currencies.  Roll Eyes {Some degree of financial privacy}  Roll Eyes

depending on our own beliefs, and it makes no sense to trust our identity to other people. Every purchase of btc sales you need to tell is important and not all transactions should be transparent to custumer, we can not trust in others we do not know how far the person's experience of bitcoin
hero member
Activity: 1834
Merit: 759
Why wouldn't they? Think of it this way: traditional merchants and their payment processors promise you that they'll keep your data private. Why should crypto merchants be any different? I know I won't buy anything from any merchant that won't (or uses a payment processor that won't) take steps to ensure my privacy.

It has nothing to do with merchants buying into anonymous ideology or any of that. This should be standard of any business-customer relationship.
member
Activity: 392
Merit: 39
We are split on this one. One group still wants to have anonymity in their transactions while the other group knows that if we want Bitcoin to be accepted more we want to sacrifice that feature of these cryptocurrecies. Crytocurrency as a payment method needs to be tracked and the users be identified in order for it to be allowable in a larger scale of acceptance. I don't even know why some consumers still wants to be anonymous on something, as if they are buying on illegal drugs with it.
It is not a question of something being legal or not. It goes along the lines of valuing one's privacy.

For instance, whenever I have this option I don't pay with a debit card, but rather I pay in cash. Similarly, I don't post my pictures (nor of my family) on Facebook.  But note please, that both paying with a Visa card and posting pictures on Facebook are legal activities.

Similarly, I would prefer to be anonymous while paying with Bitcoin. Of course, you have to provide the shipping address to the merchant, but it shouldn't involve leaking more info than necessary, and certainly not allow any third party to link your many purchases together and to your person in particular.
legendary
Activity: 4424
Merit: 4794
I really don't understand the argument 'If you have nothing to hide, why care about privacy'. There are plenty of reasons why you want to have a certain amount of privacy.  

my reply is always
OK mr government spokesman. im installing CCTV camera in your wifes bathroom. as long as she isnt doing anything illegal you have no reason to object??

(excuse my stripper/women in shower examples, its not my normal content of comedy, but it seems to many bitcoiners that this comedy category sparks their imagination to understand the underlying more serious points)
full member
Activity: 560
Merit: 105
yes it should be like that, should the place of exchange should maintain a very sensitive identity because if your data has been leaked it will be dangerous and do not let your data in trading because it is very dangerous.
legendary
Activity: 4424
Merit: 4794
I have watched some videos on Youtube today and they were speaking about Crypto currencies and ways to track Crypto
currency users, through services that they use. Is this the weak link in the privacy chain? Should we ask Crypto currency
merchants to "change" their receiving addresses more frequently to make it more difficult to pin a specific address to a
specific service?

for merchant tools like bitpay. they use unique addresses per payment already.

If you’re the customer of a brothel where you routinely cheat on your wife and you pay the same receiving address in btc every time and the only thing they sell is sex then you’re in trouble.

EG. if the stripper has a QR code tattoo'd to her butt.. your wife can easily find out the exact stripper which ruined the marriage just by QR scanning the ass of all strippers while they are pole dancing until th right address grinds up.

solution:.. pimps, do not let your sex workers get a permenent tattoo of an address they are stuck with for the rest of their lives

It's not the service itself that you should be afraid of, It's the payment processor (BitPay in this case) which is pretty much used everywhere now. You could read this about the privacy and security concerns: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/wallet-developers-express-security-concerns-over-bitpays-payment-protocol-policy/

the whole bip 70 is not a security flaw

what it is, is when you are at a merchant shopping cart YOU (not the network).. YOU are displayed a QR code. which is not just a bitcoin address but  a bitcoin address with a lil extra.

(its the bitcoin URI feature)
EG
bitcoin:1R4ndQm9ir2761987q7k3VcALC8YQ?request=https://walmartstore.com/r/aBcdE&order=123&memo=bakedbeans&value=0.0001

YOU and only YOU see this. its not something published onto the blockchain.
your wallet can then auto fill in not only address to send, but how much and what your buying.

your wallet can then send the signed TX through the normal network(not extra URI info).. and/or
send the signed tx+URI data as a pushtx api call to the store direct so that you can memo them 'deliver by 4pm'

again this is for you and your wallet to know what its for, not something that gets identifying info locked into the blockchain
legendary
Activity: 1792
Merit: 1283
We are split on this one. One group still wants to have anonymity in their transactions while the other group knows that if we want Bitcoin to be accepted more we want to sacrifice that feature of these cryptocurrecies. Crytocurrency as a payment method needs to be tracked and the users be identified in order for it to be allowable in a larger scale of acceptance. I don't even know why some consumers still wants to be anonymous on something, as if they are buying on illegal drugs with it.

Even if you are not using Bitcoin for illegal activities, you still have very good reason to want to remain anonymous.
KYC for small transactions is just ridiculous in my opinion, you're handing over copies of personal documents to a potentially insecure website.

The government also doesn't have to know what I purchase on the internet, nor does anyone else for that matter.
If I decide to donate some Bitcoins to Wikileaks or whatever other organization, I don't really want my government to know that.

I really don't understand the argument 'If you have nothing to hide, why care about privacy'. There are plenty of reasons why you want to have a certain amount of privacy.  
sr. member
Activity: 630
Merit: 251
a bitcoin merchant must maintain and ensure the privacy of its users. I think this could be a problem if a merchan does not guarantee its user data, because if anybody intends to malicious then our data can be misused for criminal acts. this is what I fear and I'm sure the merchant will not help, unless the tracking request comes from the authorities.
hero member
Activity: 1806
Merit: 672
We are split on this one. One group still wants to have anonymity in their transactions while the other group knows that if we want Bitcoin to be accepted more we want to sacrifice that feature of these cryptocurrecies. Crytocurrency as a payment method needs to be tracked and the users be identified in order for it to be allowable in a larger scale of acceptance. I don't even know why some consumers still wants to be anonymous on something, as if they are buying on illegal drugs with it.
full member
Activity: 476
Merit: 107
OTOH, If you’re dealing with an exchange to buy btc or sell btc then you have to assume every government agent in the world was given all of that transaction info. Transacting at any exchange in the world eliminates, as you say, “any degree of financial privacy”.
Every transaction is transparent in the blockchain in the first place and in order to keep your anonymity in using bitcoin, then all you need to do is to not disclose your identity to anyone and to not announce that a particular wallet is yours. Have a wallet that only YOU knows that you own it. When sending btc to it, transactions must stem from exchanges in order to maximize anonymity using that particular address.
hero member
Activity: 994
Merit: 544
I have watched some videos on Youtube today and they were speaking about Crypto currencies and ways to track Crypto

currency users, through services that they use. Is this the weak link in the privacy chain? Should we ask Crypto currency

merchants to "change" their receiving addresses more frequently to make it more difficult to pin a specific address to a

specific service? If these people want to track all our financial transactions, then we should give them some challenges in

doing this.  Huh

Obviously not all services will adhere to this call/request, but some of these merchants still support the bigger cause and the

reason why most of us use Crypto currencies.  Roll Eyes {Some degree of financial privacy}  Roll Eyes

If you have joined an exchange which requires you to submit valid ID's and legal documents before they can approve your account then your records will be kept by the exchanges in conformity with the AML and KYC regulations. Of course it is not the merchants who will expose you identity but the exchanges and the central banks. The submitted documents will also be sent to the central bank and thus if your income or profit in btc is questionable the exchange will be ordered by the AML commissions to conduct an investigation.
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