If a privacy coin protocol works in its formally verified and audited design, software, and operational protocols, then you do NOT need to count coins in the coinbase, you do NOT need "transparency" into the blockchain or the database ledger, you simply know through exhaustive formal audit, rigorous design and testing, simulation, opensource, etc that it works, you don't need to "see" it. In fact, Bitcoin and all other cryptos have never been subjected to such high audits. You have foolishly elevated the meme of "transparency" that you see into making assurances and trust that it cannot provide. Assured protocols eliminate the need to put such exclusionary weight and arguments upon "transparency", thereby enabling coin privacy. If you are "trusting" the software, instead of validating the software protocols, then you absolutely cannot rationally be placing $Trillions of money into it. Given that nothing's properly validated today anyways, there's no reason left not to do privacy coins, and every reason to begin doing them well. Expect that Zero Knowledge systems will become much bigger component elements in the space, and that "transparency" aka non-privacy will fall out of favor, not least due to its obvious risk and plan of severe detriment, and very current harm, upon Human Freedom. Got DEX yet? You're going to need it to shift out of all that Bitcoin-BTC into the coming privacy coins that will soon overtake it... Bitcoin-BTC is NOT fungible. Why Satoshi made Bitcoin transparent and not privacy oriented? (self.Bitcoin) submitted 9 hours ago by Advanced_Code1443 Hello, been in the space for a coulple years now, I probably know the answer to the question but wanted to talk with you guys about it. Was pondering the recent BlackRock's ETF filing and its conseguences for the future of the industry and I stumbled upon this problem. Why did Satoshi make Bitcoin transaparent? Was it because he wanted the protocol to be actually adoptable and not only a nieche currency? ​ Let me know what you guys think and, most important, if some one actually knows or remeber the reason behind this feature, since I believe it is expressed somewhere... maybe in the original forum... 12 comments share save hide report [–]NervousNorbert 9 points10 points11 points 9 hours ago (0 children) Why did Satoshi make Bitcoin transaparent? It's not clear what you mean by "transparent". If you mean why he didn't make transactions harder to trace, the simple answer is that he invented the whole tech and there were no techniques to conceal money flows properly back then. So Satoshi didn't sit and think "I can choose to make it traceable or untraceable. I think I'll go for traceable." He understood that traceability is a problem and suggested various measures against it in the whitepaper. 14 years later we have a few techniques to conceal transaction sender, recipient and amount, but they all come with significant trade-offs that may include much larger transaction byte size, and more difficult to audit money supply. These things are hard and involve cryptographic innovation that takes years – you couldn't expect Satoshi to just code it up in a few years on his own before Bitcoin was even public. Those 14 years since inception has given Bitcoin many improvements in privacy, however, and it's still a major focus for many developers. permalink embed save report give award reply [–]iconoclast63[🍰] 6 points7 points8 points 9 hours ago (1 child) Unless the blockchain is open source and public the system would require trust. Unless Bitcoin is trustless and open it's not really an innovation. permalink embed save report give award reply [–]Umpire_State_Bldg 1 point2 points3 points 9 hours ago (0 children) Bob logged into a KYC exchange and bought some Bitcoin. Then Bob sent the Bitcoin to a receive address which had never been used before. To whom did Bob send those Bitcoin? * Alice * Himself * Illinois Nazis * His brother * Marcellus Wallace, who don't like to be fucked by anybody except Mrs Wallace * The babysitter * Lance, the heroin dealer * A terrorist organization * A woman who sells very nice socks from Peru * The St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud Orphanage * Joe Walsh Answer: * Nobody knows (except Bob) permalink embed save report give award reply [–]Relai_Alexredditor for 3 months 1 point2 points3 points 9 hours ago (0 children) Why did Satoshi make Bitcoin transaparent? The network being open to everyone check anything means, no trust is necessary. Was it because he wanted the protocol to be actually adoptable and not only a nieche currency? Bitcoin is still a niche currency. permalink embed save report give award reply [–]pablo_in_blood 1 point2 points3 points 8 hours ago (0 children) The form of digital trust that was essentially invented with bitcoin requires transparency. It’s a public ledger. That’s the whole point. Privacy mechanisms can be (and have been) built on top of that but they aren’t the core innovation that made bitcoin what it is. permalink embed save report give award reply [–]bitusher 1 point2 points3 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Bitcoin transactions onchain are not "transparent" but pseudonymous. This essentially means you can choose between degrees of transparency or privacy. Being able to audit the supply and give people the choice is essential. Day to day transactions were never meant to happen onchain regardless. These are supposed to occur on other layers like lightning payment channels which is very private by default. permalink embed save report give award reply [–]BellSouthUY 1 point2 points3 points 9 hours ago (0 children) LOL but that can be said about any invention. "Why didn't they think about this in the original draft". There was no perceived need for privacy coins in a world where coins didn't exist. The problem had to be created before the solution. permalink embed save report give award reply [–]looneytones8 0 points1 point2 points 8 hours ago (0 children) auditability permalink embed save report give award reply [–]StrawGreeter 0 points1 point2 points 6 hours ago (0 children) Why Satoshi made Bitcoin transparent Bitcoin's transparency is limited to a single link from a transaction input back to the transaction output being spent. This link provides proof that a transaction output is either unspent, or spent only once permalink embed save report give award reply [–]BusinessBreakfast3 0 points1 point2 points 3 hours ago (0 children) So that we can practice "don't trust, verify"