- Staying anonymous in DeFi
- Identity disclosure games
- A different point of view – publicity helps business
- What is better?
Blockchain was originally invented to support complete user anonymity. Its inventor Satoshi Nakamoto is still unknown – he thereby established blockchain’s anonymity as part of its ideology.
Recently, however, some tend to reveal their true identity, and it is not about public figures, only.
Staying anonymous in DeFi
Decentralized finance is also based on the principle of anonymity. Until a user makes a transaction linking their cryptocurrency wallet to a bank account or an electronic payment system account, they remain anonymous. However, this very fact acts on regulators and bureaucrats like a red rag on a bull. From their point of view, it is unacceptable to lose control over financial flows.
Nevertheless, the teams that create services in DeFi prefer to remain anonymous.
Identity disclosure games
The individual who founded the DeFi analytics panel DefiLlama still remains under the pseudonym 0xngmi. He/she offered to pay 1 Ether to whoever would be able to reveal his/her identity.
A quest of sorts involves a detailed explanation of how the mystery is supposed to be solved.
If successful, 0xngmi will, for a relatively small amount of money, reveal how an identity can be traced on the blockchain. For now, however, there are no winners – 0xngmi remains unknown.
Oxngmi has written a guide called “How to Stay Anonymous.” It is an open book where anyone can make their own entries. The guide promises to be the most comprehensive manual on hiding one’s identity in blockchain.
A different point of view – publicity helps business
Many people at DeFi, on the contrary, reveal some details about themselves by becoming pseudo-anonymous. Or completely de-anonymize their identity. Everyone does this for their own reasons. Some are convinced that without publicity WEB 3.0 cannot exist, because trust is very important. Some seek publicity. In this way, founders of companies attract investors and customers, users to their applications. From their point of view, revealing the identity of the developers will create an atmosphere of trust.
What is better?
Everyone decides for himself. However, in today’s world, anonymity is not only a way to protect yourself, but also to make your point.
Some hide their identity out of fear. The experience of Terra founder Do Kwon showed that when people get in trouble, they always find someone to blame. A man who lost money in the TerraUSD collapse broke into Kwon’s house.
Others have beliefs that go against the policies of the states in terms of tolerance. For example, 0xngmi recently pointed to Charlotte Fung as the person behind the anonymous Miya account.
Milady Maker, founder of the NFT art project, allegedly used this pseudonymous online profile to spread hatred towards minorities through social media. After that, Milady Maker’s value plummeted and Charlotte had to leave the project.
Obviously, the value of a project does not depend on the true identity of its founder. Sometimes, on the contrary, it even hinders it by obscuring users’ eyes with old merits or mistakes.
Grug, a pseudonymous Twitter account, told Cointelegraph his reasons for remaining anonymous as CapitalCrug:«”I think the main reason that I chose to be anonymous is so that I can participate in and help maintain the same type of irreverent culture that I found so cool about crypto from the start.»
In fact, blockchain with its anonymity is a great way to start at the beginning, leaving the past behind.
Many people think anonymity is a good loophole for crooks. But real crooks will find opportunities everywhere, whether on blockchain or in a store near your home. What is the difference between the anonymity of a cryptocurrency owner and the anonymity of an alleged bank employee calling to scam you for money? In any case, you are responsible for the loss of your finances, and it is either impossible or not interesting to track down and find the intruder. So, is the protection that cryptocurrency opponents constantly point out to us worth the opportunity to be yourself without revealing your name?
