Bitcoin from a privacy standpoint is not good for various reasons. First, if you make a transaction with someone, that person now knows your account and can easily find out your bitcoin balance, all due to the blockchain being public for everyone to see. Second, if the bitcoin account you are using was created on a website similar to coinbase, kraken, binance etc, your personal ID is completely tied to your bitcoin wallets created in those platforms. Of course there are ways to circomvert those but in a general sense and at its core Bitcoin is just terrible for privacy.
I wish people would emphasize this more. Bitcoin isn't anonymous, and with the legal requirements for reporting transactions, much of what happens on there can be corellated to real-world identities. Far as privacy goes, it's probably a step backwards even from bank accounts and credit cards since there's no warrant needed to access it.
I disagree. Anyone using bitcoin to he anonymous is doing it wrong; all their transactions are public. Bitcoin is a fine replacement for traditional banking, because there is no way to add ridiculous fees and no way to freeze your assets.
Bitcoin is not private. It's probably even easier to trace than traditional bank accounts. There are better projects focused on privacy. Monero, for example.
In fact bitcoin makes it harder to conceal transactions from your peers. Wallets are pseudonymous and can be correlated to IRL identities if used similarly to traditional banking accounts/physical wallets.
Just because you can't correlate identities doesn't mean you should expect the network to guard your "financial privacy".
Agreed. I know a lot of people who start to flirt with the notion of using Bitcoin, only to have their dreams smashed when they learn how frequently these companies and their accounts are hacked.
It may be anonymous, but its far from being secure.
Bitcoin is not anonymous and not meant to be. It never will be and shouldn't be to gain widespread adoption.
For the average person, I can list a few reasons:
- near immediate transfer of money across international borders
- close to zero fees or greatly reduced fees when transferring money internationally
- safe and secure store of value (for the unbanked)
Then there are the future killer apps that will be created
- tipping on the internet (changeTip / Coinbase)
- programatic money
- smart contracts
- pure play digital banking
- ??
It's hard to see how bitcoin could apply to the general public sitting at your computer in a first world country.
But keep in mind there are nearly 5 billion unbanked or unserved people in the world where bitcoin (or similar) will change their life.
Bitcoin is ridiculously anti-privacy. The public ledger of every single transaction throughout history coupled with everyone knowing exactly how much funds you have in your wallet is kind of absurd from a consumer standpoint.
Just like using a bank account in the real world involves not divulging your account #, bank website passowrd, SSN, birthday, etc.
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