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Comment by throw_m239339 | Hacker News Reader

> given the pro-privacy stance of crypto.

Crypto isn't about privacy, it's actually the opposite. All transactions on the blockchain are transparent as it's literally a distributed ledger. There is absolutely no secrecy or privacy when it comes to how Bitcoin works for instance. And it's by design. Bitcoin inventor(s) goal was for people not to have to trust the secrecy of banks but essentially be their own bank. Whether that goal was achieved or not is anybody's guess...

So I'm not sure what pro-privacy stance you are talking about.

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It’s all open sure, but to imply that privacy isn’t a selling point of crypto is absurd. The privacy comes from the fact that it’s all pseudonymous with no real world identity verification at all.

To pretend that this isn’t a feature — nay, THE feature — of crypto is absurd. There’s a reason why Tornado cash exists, and why bitcoin is the choice of online criminals everywhere.

Pseudonymity is not privacy. If I publish your text messages online but omit the names, your conversations are no longer private, names or no names. And if you publish your transactions to a public ledger, even without names the transactions aren't private.

Darknet markets use monero, not bitcoin. Monero is one of the few currencies that does offer privacy, but it makes up a very small part of the ecosystem, less than 1% by market cap.

> Pseudonymity is not privacy

Tell it to Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi's transactions are not private. They are recorded on the public ledger where anyone can see them.

You are using words without understanding what they mean.

You misunderstood. Let me rephrase.

Who is Satoishi?

Or if that’s too hard to answer. Why do you call yourself after vomit instead of use your real name? (If you really are named after vomit, I apologize.)

>using your real name on social media

You must be new at this.

Who am I? All you know is my pseudonym. You don't know my real name, yet here we are on a public forum having a public conversation. These messages are publicly readable.

Or are you trying to claim that because you have not verified my real-world identity, these are actually private messages?

You’re avoiding the question. I asked you why you chose to be pseudonymous.

Could it be, you desire gasp privacy?

No, it's because I desire pseudonymity.

These messages are not private. They are public, which is why you're able to read them.

I hope this has helped you understand the difference between pseudonymity and privacy. But if it hasn't, there's nothing more I can do to help you.

Dude. You’ve avoided answering a simple question, and instead just keeping repeating the same attempt to distract from the topic at hand through repeated condescension. It doesn’t make you look smart. In fact, it does the exact opposite.

I’d like to think, you’d grow out of this, but we both know you won’t.

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