Anonymity - good or bad?

[Daiana]

How many of us use aliases in the crypto world? It's fascinating how biases related to sex, age, skin color, or body type seem irrelevant here—it's purely about your ideas and actions. I was on a call the other day, the presenter used a voice changer and there was no video. It felt freeing to engage purely based on the exchange of thoughts.

However, this anonymity has its downsides, it's easy to get scammed. Additionally, there are legal concerns, especially regarding taxation. Some countries are even reducing anonymity to prevent tax evasion. What do you think is a good balance between maintaining privacy and reducing potential misuse in the crypto space?

[Findingnemo]

Privacy and anonymity are two different things that most of the time we get confused with one another.

Anonymity is good but it will not be allowed by the governments to be used in any form that's why exchanges delisted them so only users has to buy from decentralised marketplace if they want to use it.

Whereas privacy is indeed to maintain by everyone that restricts others from knowing what we are into.

[joniboini]

Before we talk about the balance, it is also important to see what's the standard that we use to judge it. As a customer, I'd love full privacy, so I don't need to register or give any personal info for any kind of services that I use. But it is nearly impossible for a business to do that. On the other hand, a customer can't verify if their data is not abused, since they have no control over how a business manages their data. I think an ideal solution is to allow customers to see how the company manages their data and decide whether they can keep their data or not, but it is probably not possible as of now for that solution to be mainstream.

[vegasus]

There will always be positive and negative sides to anonymity. But this will depend on our personal judgment, more likely where this will lead. For me personally, this actually has a more positive impact. Because, we will not be related to certain rules, we are free to express and also take action without people knowing who we are. And we can also keep what we do, own, and develop a secret, for our own security too. Because many crimes occur after they know our data well.

However, this anonymity has its downsides, it's easy to get scammed. Additionally, there are legal concerns, especially regarding taxation. Some countries are even reducing anonymity to prevent tax evasion. What do you think is a good balance between maintaining privacy and reducing potential misuse in the crypto space?

The point is, don't be easily persuaded by people you barely know, and with various very attractive offers that will tempt you to take them. Because this is a digital world where cyber crimes are numerous and easy to commit without a trace. So, I personally prefer to respond to various contacts, calls, or whatever when strangers contact me, whether via email, chat, social media, and so on. Because it would be very risky for us. It's better to hide and never trust anyone in a digital world where we don't know who they really are.

[MrSpasybo]

Privacy and anonymity are two different things that most of the time we get confused with one another.

Anonymity is good but it will not be allowed by the governments to be used in any form that's why exchanges delisted them so only users has to buy from decentralised marketplace if they want to use it.

Whereas privacy is indeed to maintain by everyone that restricts others from knowing what we are into.

I believe they are related: they both deal with user information, and in some cases this information is respected, while in others it is not. Striking a balance between anonymity/privacy and convenience has always been a challenge in the crypto market. If anonymity is a priority, DEXs are a better choice than CEXs. Conversely, users will choose CEXs if they prioritize convenience, good liquidity, and a wide range of trading pairs.

Governments will always demand as much transparency as possible in the financial market in order to easily control and prevent illegal activities. We must accept this for crypto to have a legal existence and become more valuable in the economy.

In the past, before DEXs became popular, I missed out on many profit-taking opportunities just because I didn't want to go through KYC on CEX. I thought I would just hold my crypto and become rich when all the tokens in my account would be worth as much as ETH. Reality is not rosy, most of the tokens in my account have become worthless, and I have missed out on the opportunity to earn thousands of $.

[TomPluz]

In my own view, all people must have the right to privacy and anonymity all the time though this right can be waived voluntarily most especially in exceptional situations maybe involving the law and government regulations. There are a lot f reasons why people would prefer to be private and not to divulge or open up themselves to the public and as for me the number reason is personal protection. Now, we should understand that this right is not absolute because there are those who are infringing on the rights of other people using the shield of anonymity thinking that they can abuse this right in order to pursue their own interest at the expense of other people. We should be using this right legally and above board so that things will be smooth and nobody can be hurt. So to the question whether this can be good or bad, the answer lies on how we are using it.

[yhiaali3]

The issue of privacy and anonymity is a bit complicated. People always want to maintain their privacy and try to hide their identity, especially in the digital world, but in reality the issue has many dimensions.

Most normal people like to hide their identity but scammers try hard to hide their identity to scam people while governments consider everyone who hides their identity in the world of cryptocurrencies to be a scammer.

The problem facing all those who hide their identity is that if you are defrauded, you will not be able to recover your money because you have hidden the necessary data to prove that you own the stolen assets.

In fact, finding the balance between these things is very difficult, so you are either giving up some of your privacy or giving up some of your money if you are exposed to fraud.

[bettercrypto]

I agree with what you are saying, although here in our country there are many laws that are being implemented regarding the Data Act privacy law, and it is also true that our government also does not want anonymity here because, as much as possible, they want our government to have a record of all the citizens under their jurisdiction.

And this is why we are in the field of cryptocurrency or bitcoin business as well. Right?

[Findingnemo]

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Governments will always demand as much transparency as possible in the financial market in order to easily control and prevent illegal activities. We must accept this for crypto to have a legal existence and become more valuable in the economy.

In the past, before DEXs became popular, I missed out on many profit-taking opportunities just because I didn't want to go through KYC on CEX. I thought I would just hold my crypto and become rich when all the tokens in my account would be worth as much as ETH. Reality is not rosy, most of the tokens in my account have become worthless, and I have missed out on the opportunity to earn thousands of $.

Exactly, the government will seek transparency and all the user data that whoever is involved in trading of crypto assets to track the taxpayers which is inevitable if crypto has to be considered legal.

Most of the DEXes are not really decentralized as well so we need to be careful while dealing with random decentralized exchanges with the thought that we are completely anonymous and no need to report our income to the government and evade taxes.

It's so unfortunate that you missed making money, just like me I had the opportunity to bag even in millions in 2018 cycle but I was sol reluctant to not to try taking the risks.

[Gladitorcomeback]

How many of us use aliases in the crypto world?

If it's about platforms such as this forum where you are not required to verify your identity or have your actual name as your username to be able to participate or do anything, I guess all of us or most of us use aliases here, but if it's about centralized platforms that most of us use such as exchanges, then we are compelled to use our real identity because you can't use those services otherwise and it might not be a choice but a compulsion for most.

What do you think is a good balance between maintaining privacy and reducing potential misuse in the crypto space?

What do you mean by potential misuse? You can maintain your privacy if you keep utilizing decentralized platforms as long as you can because it's not a permanent solution since authorities will soon target them as well and then there will be no choice.

[hugeblack]

There is a difference between privacy, which is one of your rights, and tax evasion. You can maintain your privacy and comply with taxes. Maintaining privacy means reducing the exchange of your personal data with third parties and providing the minimum possible amount of data to government agencies that you can sue if that data is leaked. Therefore, creating Verifying your identity and providing your data to any company or platform is reckless behavior and increases the possibility of it being sold on the dark web.

[bayu7adi]

If only this anonymity could be controlled in quantity, it would certainly reduce the bad impacts that exist. The government is always afraid of the damage caused by implementing something, but actually it also closes down some of the good effects of making a decision to eliminate an innovation.

Anonymity of course has good and bad impacts, some bad activities may need to be reviewed and tightened so that people don't misuse this anonymity feature. For me personally, anonymity is a good thing it really benefits me personally. And I'm sure few people resent this personal gain.

[Rubel007]

One of the reasons why cryptocurrencies have gained so much popularity that is freedom. A cryptocurrency user especially bitcoin user can keep himself completely anonymous. He is not accountable to anyone for his financial resources. There is no chance even to seize political power or exert financial pressure on anyone. In the traditional system, the more money a man owns, the more enemies he has. But crypto is the only way to live a safe life while keeping your wealth to yourself. Although there is a noble intention behind this innovation, some people use it to cheat and for this governments don't like to remain anonymous.

[Baofeng]

How many of us use aliases in the crypto world? It's fascinating how biases related to sex, age, skin color, or body type seem irrelevant here—it's purely about your ideas and actions. I was on a call the other day, the presenter used a voice changer and there was no video. It felt freeing to engage purely based on the exchange of thoughts.

However, this anonymity has its downsides, it's easy to get scammed. Additionally, there are legal concerns, especially regarding taxation. Some countries are even reducing anonymity to prevent tax evasion. What do you think is a good balance between maintaining privacy and reducing potential misuse in the crypto space?

If you used anonymity let's say to avoid paying taxes intentionally, then that could be a issue here as you are taking advantage of it. But if you just wanted to stay under the radar and not anyone can follow your tracks then that's where the practice of anonymity comes in.

But then again, as much as you want to practice it, someone could have your data without you knowing and they could used it as a weapon against you. So it's hard to shield ouselves at this period, maybe before we can live in private and without the limits of being anonymous, but not in today's era.

[KingsDen]

Privacy and anonymity are two different words with different meanings, but be it privacy or anonymity, the government is against it. But then the government can infringe people's privacy but might not be able to do same with anonymity. There are tools and ways to be anonymous without offending the government but this cannot be said about privacy. At a time, the government will try to force you to submit your data in one way or the other, going against this will mean going against the law.

I think an ideal solution is to allow customers to see how the company manages their data and decide whether they can keep their data or not, but it is probably not possible as of now for that solution to be mainstream.

The wrong way of managing the data can be shown customers while behind the scene, other things are happening. It is safer when you don't release your data at all than trusting someone to manage your data the way you like.