ABOUT PRIVACY AND CRYPTOCURRENCIES
The original Bitcoin Whitepaper (2008) stated that:
The traditional banking model achieves a level of privacy by limiting access to information to the parties involved and the trusted third party. The necessity to announce all transactions publicly precludes this method, but privacy can still be maintained by breaking the flow of information in another place: by keeping public keys anonymous. The public can see that someone is sending an amount to someone else, but without information linking the transaction to anyone. This is similar to the level of information released by stock exchanges, where the time and size of individual trades, the "tape", is made public, but without telling who the parties were.
As an additional firewall, a new key pair should be used for each transaction to keep them from being linked to a common owner. Some linking is still unavoidable with multi-input transactions, which necessarily reveal that their inputs were owned by the same owner. The risk is that if the owner of a key is revealed, linking could reveal other transactions that belonged to the same owner.
So, from the beginning there was a concern about identity protection in financial transactions. Given the impact of blockchain technology in our lives, any user should be aware of available methods to protect their private data as a fundamental human right .
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
UNITED NATIONS Universal Declaration of Human Rights
A careful user has a greater ability to preserve privacy today than ever before. Consider just one question: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? The identity of a public figure who had an immense impact and a definite computer presence may never be known because he used his own privacy tools.
Wendy McElroy Privacy – Do Not Come Late to the Revolution
Advances in information communication technology are dramatically improving real-time communication and information-sharing. By improving access to information and facilitating global debate, they foster democratic participation. By amplifying the voices of human rights defenders and helping to expose abuses, these powerful technologies offer the promise of improved enjoyment of human rights.
But at the same time it has become clear that these new technologies are vulnerable to electronic surveillance and interception. Recent discoveries have revealed how new technologies are being developed covertly, often to facilitate these practices, with chilling efficiency. As the previous High Commissioner cautioned in past statements September 2013 and February 2014, such surveillance threatens individual rights – including to privacy and to freedom of expression and association – and inhibits the free functioning of a vibrant civil society.
UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS Office of the High Commissioner The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age
