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I think a legitimate downside to blockchain is privacy. Sure, Stripe can (try to) prevent you from buying marijuana, but with crypto you’re required to announce

by cmckn 5y ago

I think a legitimate downside to blockchain is privacy. Sure, Stripe can (try to) prevent you from buying marijuana, but with crypto you’re required to announce that you’ve bought something from Dr. Chronic on the public ledger. Doesn’t that create an opportunity for discrimination/censorship/prosecution post-purchase? At least with Visa, you have a reasonable expectation that the transaction is private between you and the merchant. If you actually made the majority of your purchases on a blockchain, you’re publicizing a ton of information about yourself.

uncomputation 5y ago
I have the same question. Usually the response is something about using randomly generated IDs/addresses with your “wallet” program managing all these pseudonyms and tying them to your actual identity for your convenience, but I don’t understand how that is any better than our current system where things just are private by nature. I don’t expect people to be okay with their purchase histories being public knowledge.
- deleted 5y ago
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- bruce343434 5y ago
  Monero solves this with cryptographic methods which are beyond me. But it works. Bitcoin indeed not so much - as soon as you can link a bitcoin address to somebody's identity it's over for them.
ashishmax31 5y ago
I'm no expert in crypto. But how would people know that your public key belongs to "you" ?
- deleted 5y ago
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- rwbhn 5y ago
  The other party in any transaction knows enough to "deliver" whatever you purchased. In the world where all your transactions happen on a blockchain, that's everyone from Amazon to the corner pizza shop.
SheinhardtWigCo 5y ago
> At least with Visa, you have a reasonable expectation that the transaction is private between you and the merchant. Eh, not really: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17801880/google-mastercard-data-online-ads-offline-purchase-history-privacy https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17801880/google-mastercar...
- cmckn 5y ago
  Some purchase data being sold through brokers is not the same thing as a consumer buying space on the chain via gas prices to announce their purchases to the world, and then the entirety of the network burning resources to make that information available in perpetuity. It’s also something that’s easy to regulate.

by cmckn 5y ago

uncomputation 5y ago

I have the same question. Usually the response is something about using randomly generated IDs/addresses with your “wallet” program managing all these pseudonyms and tying them to your actual identity for your convenience, but I don’t understand how that is any better than our current system where things just are private by nature. I don’t expect people to be okay with their purchase histories being public knowledge.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bruce343434 5y ago
Monero solves this with cryptographic methods which are beyond me. But it works. Bitcoin indeed not so much - as soon as you can link a bitcoin address to somebody's identity it's over for them.

ashishmax31 5y ago

I'm no expert in crypto. But how would people know that your public key belongs to "you" ?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
rwbhn 5y ago
The other party in any transaction knows enough to "deliver" whatever you purchased. In the world where all your transactions happen on a blockchain, that's everyone from Amazon to the corner pizza shop.

SheinhardtWigCo 5y ago

> At least with Visa, you have a reasonable expectation that the transaction is private between you and the merchant. Eh, not really: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17801880/google-mastercard-data-online-ads-offline-purchase-history-privacy https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17801880/google-mastercar...

cmckn 5y ago
Some purchase data being sold through brokers is not the same thing as a consumer buying space on the chain via gas prices to announce their purchases to the world, and then the entirety of the network burning resources to make that information available in perpetuity. It’s also something that’s easy to regulate.