Topic: WHY PEOPLE ARE NOT TAKING THEIR PRIVACY SERIOUSLY. - page 2. (Read 873 times)

Governments are increasing their surveillance efforts with the excuse of preventing (or minimizing) as much criminal activity (money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing) as possible. But we all know their real intentions. They will ultimately abolish privacy/anonymization techniques to prevent people from getting true financial freedom. Only government officials and bankers will be able to achieve privacy.

Even though governments won't be able to shut down decentralized mixers, most people won't dare to use something that's "banned" from mainstream use. Those who are caught mixing "behind the scenes", will either face fines or jail time. It's a dark future we're heading into. So prepare yourself for the worst.

I understood better when you discussed it like that. I agree that it's all about the balance that you have and not just focusing on the transactions. I never thought of it that way. I do agree that it's already visible to who you are sending it to, seeing the balance. Aren't there workarounds with that already? Or just the mixing or joining thing is the solution?

Well, I have noticed that a lot of people just don't care about the privacy thing, as long as the Cryptocurrency or blockchain, or even whatever payment platform they are using is serving them as needed.

Another thing again I have noticed is that most people would complain about how they don't have hundred percent privacy with these companies, but at the end they still go back to these same companies. Maybe they would be all taken seriously, when they start to take themselves serious by staying away or boycotting platforms that tries to invade their privacy.

never said that I have a pile of coins worth millions.

But if you look at the first three or four million blocks many are not touched.

So quite a few may not be in the shape you are in.

The case for privacy for those early untouched blocks is real. But we all know they stay frozen.

That the world we're living in. If you're going to spend some of the bitcoin you're going to tell the exchange what other coins you've got on the same address.

They're going to bring in laws for regulated exchanges but American law won't be the same as New Zealand or Mongolia. It's going to be about the country you're living so laws are going to be different. In time trying to keep some crypto swaps private's going to get restricted so we're going to lose more privacy.

years ago i split my hoard up into different pots of funds for that exact reason
short term play/trade/exit money
mid term hoarding to play the occassional market price wave
long term just hoard

dont blame the CEX that you decided to keep all coin on one UTXO/address

In addition to being a privacy violation, the concept behind this has resulted in the shooting deaths of a few American rappers, as sharing their whereabouts and real-time activities makes them vulnerable to assailants who view their skill as a barrier to success.
Returning to cryptocurrency, this will leave investors and holders vulnerable to unscrupulous attacks.
Having said that, it is unfortunate that some people will continue to disregard their privacy unless they are taught a valuable lesson.

It is easy to say why hide a balance. But if you have 25 legit btc in your wallet worth about  1.1 million and you want to cash out a coin why must you reveal the other 24.

I am USA based I have been doing btc a long time.

If I mined a block in 2012 and I am sitting on the entire block of 50 coins cost basis of $500 USD. At ten a coin. Reported mining earnings of 500 in 2012. I am 100% legit tax compliant.

Now I pull a coin from the wallet send it to coinbase and let it sit.  I still owe no tax. but coinbase gets to see my other 49 coins.

Now a month later I cash the coin and get 45k I owe cap gains and pay it.

I did nothing wrong. But I have surrendered my legal privacy to 49 btc.

I should be able to not surrender privacy in this case.


reality is this very likely not the biggest reason to hide your balances. but it is fully legit in the usa.

people just need to get smarter and stop thinking privacy is default..
after all an empty house does not come with curtains or blinds. when you move in you need to get curtains and blinds to stop the neighbours peeking in your windows, yep privacy in your own home is not default when you move in

a few idea's for those talking about "privacy coins" and "anonymity enhanced subnetworks"

heres an idea for you
create a network in secret and write a white paper
dont mention privacy, dont mention cryptocurrency, dont mention virtual asset(VA)

instead describe it as a PPDA "private property digital asset" and file it with the patent office... and bam you have invented a new class of technology which can be defended in court if governments wanted to re classify as a currency, cryptocurrency or Virtual Asset
(NFT are treated differently than cryptocurrencies, so make a PPDA as different to CC as possible in its descriptions)

now part of the white paper would be to not call services that swap fiat for your PPDA as an exchange/Money Service. instead call them retailers that allow the buy.. and auctions that allow the sell of the PPDA

use terms that ensure your privacy coin is not a privacy coin even if it at code level provides that utility for people who use it

the government are themselves putting their 'CBDC distributed ledger' in a different category to 'VA blockchains' even though they are very similar in their technology

be smart. learn what regulators are categorising and think of something outside of that..

its why uber didnt use the name ubercab's  to avoid taxicab regulations

It's difficult to accept but what you're saying's possible. If it's going to happen ppl won't be able to stop it because govts want to control the movement of finance. Crypto exchanges are being targeted to make them comply with govt rules so they've got to be centralised with KYC. If they go after decentralised exchanges ppl won't be able to swap crypto without giving away info.

It could be what privacy's going to mean tomorrow.

Think about those everyday moments you post online, like what you eat or who you're with. While it might seem harmless, sharing that information in real-time can reveal clues about your routines and habits, making it easier for someone to track you or invade your privacy.

Even if you wait a few days before posting, remember that nothing online truly disappears. Those seemingly insignificant details can add up over time, painting a detailed picture of your life for anyone who knows where to look.

The desire for validation can be especially dangerous when it comes to sharing sensitive information. We see this with people who post about their finances, including their Bitcoin transactions. While Bitcoin is supposed to be anonymous, openly sharing those details exposes you to potential financial harm.

The internet is like a public square - anything you share there becomes part of the record, and it's virtually impossible to erase it completely. That's why it's so important to be cautious and think twice before you hit "post."

That's sad because it gives governments more power/control over people's lives. With privacy/anonymity, it's hard (if not impossible) to get ahold of your entire life. Most people have nothing to hide, so they don't care about privacy at all. This will slowly but surely lead us into a future where privacy-preserving techniques will be banned by mainstream governments for good. Hiding your utmost sensitive information from the government, will raise nothing more than suspicion.

When you see governments attacking mixers and no-KYC exchanges, it means they hate privacy. Now there's a situation with a BTC mining pool censoring transactions linked to Samourai wallet's "Whirlpool" privacy-preserving technique. For the average Joe, this is nothing. But for hardcore crypto and privacy enthusiasts like me, this is alarming news. Hopefully, privacy will prevail on the long run. As long as there are people defending their right to privacy, nothing else matters. Just my thoughts

That's the sad reality and people rarely bother about their privacy and end up regretting later. I don't understand why do we have to be transparent ? Crypto is not made for that and we need our own privacy but due to the recent crackdown on mixers people has started thinking that if they use mixers then they are committing a crime or getting into something illegal which isn't the reality. We have right to have privacy on every single thing let it be crypto or any other details just like our bank balance and account details or secret pins and password.

We need to understand one thing that unless we do something illegal or go against law we don't have to justify or feel pressure about as this is an psychological game played to make crypto a decentralized and open source stuff so that they can have more control over our finances.

Wether we accept if or not, it is a matter of time before privacy will be dead I regards to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. The recent developments have already shown that anything that has privacy attached to it will either be taken down tagged a bad name like "dark net". The authorities want to see everything and they will stop at nothing to achieve that, we don't have a choice other than to comply like we are already doing.

Maybe they have to find a new meaning of privacy,  like privacy provided by the authorities or controlled by them.

At the moment, we might still feel there can be privacy in the digital space but soon we will come to term with reality that nothing is and will be really private

Totally, that's should be the point of all of this stuff, there's a reason why bitcoin's got a public ledger so why hide something when a lot of people can benefit from not hiding and as you've said already, scammers are taking advantage of these features that many crypto offers, there's not a lot of people that I know that are happy or hyped up about the privacy that crypto wallets or mixers offers and I do agree with that statement, if you have nothing to hide then why be scared? No one can tamper a transaction that's already been done already and I think that if mixers and wallets that hide transactions cooperate with stuff involving money laundering and criminal activities, they might be able to keep their businesses but at the core of it all, it breaks the principle of privacy so a lot of people are still divided about this to this day. Sometimes the good of the many is what matters and in the case of this one, the people that will benefit from transparency is larger than those that won't benefit.

This is definitely not about one person's privacy but the importance of many. If you think about it, many people get scammed and their money has been transferred to a wallet and will be mixed or any of that "shady" "hide" stuff that you are talking about. To prevent that and have a hope to return it, it should be transparent and can be seen on the blockchain, which is the "decentralized" part of cryptocurrency. It's not just about "not hiding" but to be transparent is to let others know that you have nothing to hide.

This is not for selfish reasons, but for the many, I think.

Of course it is a different thing to show your transactions in a "BANK" but don't you think that the essence of cryptocurrency is that it's decentralized? It's transparent. If you use it, it should be accepted that it will be transparent. Do you want to go back into the fiat system where banks are in charge and it's important that you are the client? I think you're missing the point of crypto being decentralized.

To answer your rant/title, is probably because and I do believe so that privacy is such a tiring chore and that taking the serious measures and having a presence of mind when it comes to your security takes up a lot of time for so many people and we are living in a fast paced world that wants us to do more in a 24 hour timeframe so maintaining and keeping an eye on something that can just work without your supervision is a waste of time for some people. Or a lot of us have surrendered our right to privacy and our private lives that we don't care anymore, this is probably the easiest answer to that rant.

I feel like Ocean Mining has the right to choose who they are going to work with if they deem fit or something like that because if we are not free to do that then what is the point of having these freedom that we have, I just don't like the idea that some people are attacking them or something like that. And to answer the question about the bank transactions, I definitely would show it to them if they have the warrant to check it out.

Not showing their balance is actually entirely upto them as a people and might be their culture or their business idea or whatever that sounds sacred to them but again, the chain in which they exist doesn't entirely have that feature.

If they feel like they want to enjoy true privacy while still on a blockcain solution, they should consider using privacy blockchain as it solves a whole lot of problem.

KYC for currency was normalised DECADES ago.
bitcoin 2009-2013 was not a currency it was deemed private property which made it feel different to fiat currencies.. however being declared a currency in 2013 meant the fiat rules are applied to crypto services.

just because the bitcoin network does not ask for ID it does not mean the businesses that operate in the US become immune to US law.
note the difference between the bitcoin network which laws cannot snap apart. vs businesses which law enforcement can snap handcuffs on business operators breaking the law.

business operators are not default immune from the law simply by using bitcoin. so they need to think smarter. learn the law then learn the loopholes to.. not evade(illegal) but legally avoid the law traps

bitcoin users are not by default anonymous/ghosts simply by holding bitcoin, their activities off the network can link them to certain things. people need to think smarter. learn the law then learn the loopholes to.. not evade(illegal) but legally avoid the law traps

As new crypto users come, it seems that people  doesn't care about one of the characteristic of cryptocurrency which is privacy. They only comes here to earn profits and not care about the privacy they should have by using crypto. It's alarming to see people who use crypto that normalize KYC procedures, as they think it is the way it should be, just like what banks do all over this years. I like privacy and I also like having the convinience along with it.

To be honest, I submitted KYC on some platforms that I used but it doesn't mean that I like it, if there's a chance of finding alternatives or not submitting entirely, I would definitely choose it.

I just don't like the idea of normalizing the KYC stuff, we don't submit KYC years back and today, the major platforms are now requiring KUC.