What’s More Important, Privacy Or Crypto Adoption?

Published 5 years ago on July 09, 2018

What’s More Important, Privacy Or Crypto Adoption?

Within the crypto-community, it is almost as if there are two major camps. Firstly, the crypto-privacy camp and secondly, the crypto-adoption camp. These distinctions have arisen simply through the fact that privacy and adoption clash. What I mean by this is that in order for crypto adoption to become realistic, the community may need to surrender crypto privacy. Likewise, for privacy to continue as the main feature for cryptocurrencies, all notions of crypto adoption need to be washed away.Until this trade off is finally settled, we won’t see adoption and we won’t see a totally private cryptocurrency jump to the fore, therefore as a community we need to settle on which route we want cryptocurrencies to take. Privacy will keep cryptocurrency elite, volatile and away from government control. Adoption on the other hand will introduce crypto to the masses and could very well change the world forever.Therefore, we have to ask ourselves, what’s more important, privacy or crypto adoption? It’s a hard question to answer. Obviously, those who value their privacy and those who may be using cryptocurrency for illicit purposes, privacy is the way forward. On the contrary, those who fear crime and deviance are more likely to be up for cryptocurrency adoption. In terms of being a payment solution, adoption is likely to be the best bet, but on the other hand, using cryptocurrency as an asset for investment, privacy needs to remain. For me personally, I believe that adoption is going to be more beneficial for the general population, though this is at the expense of privacy and at the expense of investors too. For adoption to happen, volatility needs to decrease. Initially, I believe that adoption will lead to a huge spike in price, which in turn will lead to a mass sell off. Once this happens, cryptocurrencies will find a far more balanced price, once they become real-world currencies. Therefore, investment won’t be as attractive, however by this point, hopefully most investors will have sold off during the adoption boom. There is of course no right or wrong answer to this question. The beauty of decentralisation also means that nobody gets to decide the answer. Realistically, cryptocurrency can exist in the mainstream and within a private theatre too. Eventually, privacy or adoption will take over, though this will be as a result of organic interaction, therefore the real answer to the question - Just wait and see. Investment Disclaimer

Robert Johnson

Robert first came across Bitcoin in 2016 during a meetup in Belgium, and has been hooked ever since. With a background in Economics, you can find Robert frequently looking at the Twitter feed of the SEC for any regulatory updates relating to Bitcoin and Crypto in general.