Bitcoiners discussed on social media with Edward Snowden. Snowden spoke in favor of privacy, saying it is key to the fungibility of money.
Edward Snowden, well-known data privacy and security activist, does not believe that the implementation of Taproot improves the privacy of Bitcoin as a protocol.
In an interview during the Ethereal Virtual Summit 2021 conference, which took place days ago, Snowden claimed that the fundamental privacy issues of Bitcoin are not solved by Taproot, even though people are excited about this implementation.
Snowden argued about how the difference between conventional Bitcoin addresses and the new format introduced by Taproot can be used to violate privacy by forensic investigators, in a simple way, he said.
Alex Gladstein, who is Chief Strategic Officer (CFO) of the Human Rights Watch foundation, took to his Twitter to respond to Edward Snowden’s claims, including one calling the Lightning network a “shenanigan,” a term used to refer to an issue that is complicated and even comical.
Snowden responded, questioning Gladstein’s summary and its accuracy. Snowden said that the disastrous privacy of Bitcoin is the ‘missing stepping stone’ of cryptocurrencies. Each expert understands that it is a problem but, as experts, they know how to compensate for the risks in their interactions with Bitcoin, and therefore do not feel the urgency to repair privacy, “he said.
Snowden Stated that Privacy Guarantees the Fungibility of Bitcoin as a Currency
Snowden says that the core of cash is fungibility. This means that every dollar spent by a plumber has the same value as that of any other worker. There is no discrimination. An analysis of the main chain of Bitcoin reduces its fungibility. Only privacy guarantees fungibility.
In another comment thread with developer Matt Corallo, Snowden stated that neither Taproot nor Lightning comes close to improve Bitcoin’s privacy issues, and there are some arguments about how they harm privacy.
While Taproot and Schnorr serve as a conduit to achieve certain Bitcoin transactions have greater privacy, such as opening or closing a Lightning channel, the anonymity set would increase as more users make Taproot transactions.
Taproot in Bitcoin Would Increase its Privacy Due to a Major Usage
Edward Snowden is not the only one who has pointed out that Taproot does not necessarily fix all the improvable aspects of Bitcoin privacy. Other consultants state that it is necessary to create tools and make some improvements to Lightning to get the maximum potential of Taproot.
However, and although the activation of Taproot has not been without controversy, the community awaits this implementation, which is currently in the activation period.
Through Speedy Trial or rapid test, the miners have had the opportunity to signal their support for Taproot. However, in the current period of difficulty, it will not be possible, as not enough blocks were mined (1815 of 2016 of the period of difficulty) to achieve it.
By: Jenson Nuñez
