What is a Privacy Blockchain?
Learn about Privacy Blockchains like Safex and Monero, and why they are important.
A Privacy Blockchain is a niche subset within cryptocurrency generally, whose design and underlying philosophy is focused on the sovereignty and rights of each individual user, and the blockchain properties are designed in such a way as to help protect those rights.
Privacy Blockchains are seen as contentious by some, with different advocacy groups pushing agendas both for and against the technology. One of the groups is pushing the narrative of how data privacy is associated with criminal activities and how we should leave it all transparent without using privacy features because we all have "nothing to hide." Allusions that one has "something to hide" while all others choose to be transparent, honest, and innocent are shallow comprehension of the reality in which we live. Privacy blockchains are made to protect valuable information, it doesn't matter if they are of high value according to the market or the observer. This information that one wants to prevent from spreading and wants to keep private can be any personal data such as money transactions, residential address, online purchases, family-related information. So there is the key to the actualization of privacy: it's not about hiding; it's all about protecting. And, it's a matter of choice, but everyone should have the right to this choice.
As we know them today, blockchains are primarily associated with money transactions, which can attract unwanted attention.
However, Privacy Blockchains have features specifically designed to protect user information from public access and scrutiny, such as:
- Wallet Balances not publicly visible
- Transaction Obfuscation
Although not exclusively so, most privacy blockchains have implemented the CryptoNote application layer protocol, which was proclaimed as an evolution of the ideas behind Bitcoin when it was released, and is focussed on protecting user privacy. To date, over 170 different privacy blockchains using CryptoNote have been created.
The most well known, Monero, was one of the first blockchains to implement Cryptonote. Other privacy blockchain protocols include Conjoin (Dash), zk-SNARKs (zCash), and Mimblewimble (Beam).
Safex Blockchain is also a privacy blockchain that uses the CryptoNote protocol. While most privacy blockchains offer nothing more than a simple medium of exchange currency to send between two parties, the Safex Blockchain is purpose-built to facilitate global, borderless ecommerce, and includes a full suite of advanced marketplace protocols hard-coded into the blockchain itself.
Read more about privacy in online world.