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How is digital currency, in general, anonymous? Bitcoin records all of your transactions, publicly, essentially forever. If at any point in time there is a way

How is digital currency, in general, anonymous? Bitcoin records all of your transactions, publicly, essentially forever. If at any point in time there is a way to tie your identity to _any_ of the transactions made in your lifetime, then all of your other transactions get deanonymized retroactively. Maybe you made a mistake, maybe a bug is introduced into the Bitcoin software, maybe the government passes a new law, etc. Cash doesn't have this issue. The bills I'm paying with when buying coffee at Starbucks, don't give you visibility into all of the purchases I've made with cash for the past 20 years. The only exception would be crypto like Monero, but it's not the rule. Bitcoin is the flagship coin which somehow got people to think it's anonymous. All it takes is for the government to require you to use the same wallet that's tied to your identity and then every citizen's transaction, past or future, is traceable to a degree that is just not possible with cash. That's a dangerous capability and we, the people, should make sure not to slowly end up in such a situation.

dougk16 5y ago
Look into privacy coins like Monero.
- spurgu 5y ago
  He mentions Monero.
jrm4 5y ago
Right. I mean, basically you're as safe as your public-key/username. If you can make your wallet in some kind of very off grid way, the same way you'd have to use Tor; cash laptop, McDonald's wifi, etc.
- ziml77 5y ago
  It doesn't matter how secretive you are when you create the wallet, that's not where the privacy issue lies. The problem comes from your use of the wallet. If you only use the wallet to pay for digital goods and only access those digital goods through multiple layers of protection, then you're probably fairly safe. But that's not very realistic. If bitcoin were to become the primary way to pay for things, you're going to be buying physical goods with it. If you order something online then they have your shipping address to associate with your wallet. If you buy something at a physical store then they can see you and know what wallet paid them. And lets say you maintain one wallet for the secret all-digital stuff and another wallet for everything else (or however many wallets makes sense for you), it's better that way, but all you have to do is slip up once with the secret wallet to be screwed. Everything you did with that secret wallet can now be associated with you even if the transaction happened 20 years ago.
stickfigure 5y ago
The relationship between Bitcoin and Monero is symbiotic. Bitcoin brings legitimacy and (for crypto) security. Hedge funds, corporations, and other big money can hold bitcoin. Yet it's easy enough to convert between BTC and XMR, so they are effectively fungible.
- chollida1 5y ago
  > Yet it's easy enough to convert between BTC and XMR, so they are effectively fungible. That's not what we mean in finance when we say fungible. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fungibility.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fungibility.asp

dougk16 5y ago

Look into privacy coins like Monero.

spurgu 5y ago
He mentions Monero.

jrm4 5y ago

Right. I mean, basically you're as safe as your public-key/username. If you can make your wallet in some kind of very off grid way, the same way you'd have to use Tor; cash laptop, McDonald's wifi, etc.

ziml77 5y ago
It doesn't matter how secretive you are when you create the wallet, that's not where the privacy issue lies. The problem comes from your use of the wallet. If you only use the wallet to pay for digital goods and only access those digital goods through multiple layers of protection, then you're probably fairly safe. But that's not very realistic. If bitcoin were to become the primary way to pay for things, you're going to be buying physical goods with it. If you order something online then they have your shipping address to associate with your wallet. If you buy something at a physical store then they can see you and know what wallet paid them. And lets say you maintain one wallet for the secret all-digital stuff and another wallet for everything else (or however many wallets makes sense for you), it's better that way, but all you have to do is slip up once with the secret wallet to be screwed. Everything you did with that secret wallet can now be associated with you even if the transaction happened 20 years ago.

stickfigure 5y ago

The relationship between Bitcoin and Monero is symbiotic. Bitcoin brings legitimacy and (for crypto) security. Hedge funds, corporations, and other big money can hold bitcoin. Yet it's easy enough to convert between BTC and XMR, so they are effectively fungible.

chollida1 5y ago
> Yet it's easy enough to convert between BTC and XMR, so they are effectively fungible. That's not what we mean in finance when we say fungible. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fungibility.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fungibility.asp