On-chain privacy is key to the wider mass adoption of crypto

Cointelegraph

Published May 14, 2022 04:23AM ET

Updated May 16, 2022 07:20AM ET

Innovations in the crypto space appear daily. Whether through decentralized applications or new ways to implement and use nonfungible tokens (NFTs) within decentralized finance, blockchain technology is innovating at the speed of light. The only thing missing? Widespread adoption. One thing holding this back is the very public nature of the blockchain. DeFi, as it operates now, lacks meaningful privacy. In order to catalyze broad adoption for businesses, governments and individuals, those executing blockchain transactions should expect regular, consistent privacy.

First, we need to define what privacy means. It does not mean pseudonymity, which cryptocurrency purports to have now. Meaningful privacy means that a personal financial account will not be traced and an individual’s wealth will not be exposed. It means a business can protect trade secrets. Privacy means a government’s finances are the business of its people — not the business of dangerous neighbors.

Kieran Mesquita is chief scientist at Railgun, a decentralized smart contract project that brings privacy to cryptocurrencies operating seamlessly with DeFi. He has an extensive background in developing technologies for blockchain and DeFi projects. He was an early adopter of Bitcoin and one of the first people to develop its GPU mining software.

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