Privacy coins are probably the most controversial topic in cryptocurrency. Some people love privacy coins and think all coins should have privacy components built into them. Others think privacy coins are nothing but but ways for bad actors to launder money and avoid taxes. I personally think there are both pros and cons to privacy coins and that this is a complicated subject matter. Over the course of the week I am going to do a few articles on this subject matter:
- Article One: An introduction to Privacy Coins
- Article Two: The Benefits of Privacy coins and arguments for why they should exist and be legal
- Article Three: The downsides that privacy coins bring to society and arguments for why they should be illegal
- Article Four: Final Thoughts
I am going to do my best to hide my personal beliefs on this matter. Instead, I want everyone to think for themselves and perhaps leave comments giving their beliefs and opinions. Many people will argue that people like us do not get to decide if privacy coins are outlawed or not; but I disagree. We are the pioneers of the cryptocurrency space; some of us will influence politicians and leaders on how cryptocurrency should be treated. The cryptocurrency community needs to come to consensus before the government butts in and makes the decisions for us. A united community has a chance of directing the future.
What is a Privacy Coin?
Bitcoin is pseudo anonymous. The public address that you send Bitcoin to is just a string of letters and numbers; the public address does not say my name or email address (unlike Paypal or Venmo). However, once I send Bitcoin to someone they know that's my Public address and they know how much Bitcoin I have. Or if I buy Bitcoin from an exchange and KYC with them they know exactly who bought the Bitcoin and know which wallet it was sent to. My Bitcoin transactions are no longer private and individuals, organizations, government entities, and businesses can watch my public addresses' transactions.
Yes, there are ways to make things more private like using a different Bitcoin address every time I receive payment (something the authorities don't frown on) or using a Bitcoin tumbler (something the authorities do frown on but don't declare illegal). Regardless, it's very difficult to make my Bitcoin transactions private using the Bitcoin network because Bitcoin wasn't made for privacy.
However, there are coins that seek to give privacy by making it impossible for people to know your wallet's true address. In other words, you can't type in a wallet address onto a blockexplorer and see what transactions have taken place. I will not go into detail on how they do this because each network has different methods and of course some are better than others. I also freely admit I am not an expert on the technical details either; I just know they are attempting to keep public addresses private.
Famous Privacy Coins
Many people will automatically think that these privacy coins are scary and dirty but if you have been in the crypto community a long time you have probably already heard of them. Here is a short list of some of the more popular ones.
- Monero
- Dash
- Zcash
- Verge
- Horizon
- Pivx
- Beam
- Grin
- Phore
- Deep Onion
Many of these coins are easily bought on popular exchanges and you can get Monero, Dash, Horizon, Zcash, on major exchanges like OKEx. As far as the cryptocurrency community is concerned these coins are mainstream and established. Both Dash and Monero have been around for over five years which is ancient according to cryptocurrency standards; these two coins are highly established.
Conclusion
Stay tuned in for my next post on privacy coins; it's going to be an argument for why the world needs privacy for cryptocurrency. But don't assume I am pro-privacy because the week after I am going to make strong arguments against it in the next article! Please do not downvote any future articles because you disagree with them; I promise there will be an article that you do agree with. I will do my best to remain neutral throughout this whole process and mask what I truly believe.
