Is the blockchain anonymity compatible with the real business world?

I. Introduction

When the Internet first appeared, the whole society placed high expectations on the Internet, and believed that it could do a lot of things, for example, that it can achieve decentralization and that it can bring freedom of speech to people. As it turns out, the Internet does do a lot, but there are still things that it can't do.

For example, the feature of anonymity was once thought to be possible by the Internet, and the Internet did indeed do it for a certain period of time, so at that time there was a saying on the market that "no one on the Internet knows that you are one." Only a dog."

However, today, the real-name Internet system is already "standard" in the country, whether you are at home online, in the office, or in Internet cafes, no matter how many strange names and nicknames you have, when the regulator needs to find When you are, they can always find you easily.

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Anonymity has not been realized in the Internet era, and it is somewhat frustrating, so people put their hopes on the blockchain.

Second, anonymous bitcoin

The emergence of Bitcoin has indeed given people a bright feeling, and it is now believed that Bitcoin has achieved sufficient anonymity. Although it is not absolute anonymity, although we can still find a certain correlation through the correlation analysis between the exposed address and big data, this anonymity is enough, as Jiang Zhuoer said, “We already have deep Gray, we don't necessarily need pure black."

However, Bitcoin may be just a special case.

First of all, bitcoin is a currency, and the function of money is very simple , that is, trading and transfer. You see the banknotes in our daily life, which are also anonymous. One banknote and another banknote, new banknotes and old banknotes are no different for personal use. If you charge cash in real life, you don't care what the name of the person giving you cash, so cash can be considered anonymous.

Bitcoin also inherits this feature. When you make a transaction, as long as you receive bitcoin, you don't have to care about the name of the person who gives you bitcoin. Receiving bitcoin means the transaction is completed successfully.

Many government regulators are certainly abhorrent to this anonymity of Bitcoin, because many criminals are using this feature to engage in criminal activities. The government certainly does not want the Bitcoin model to be established, but the government does not have the ability to stop the bit. The currency, the bitcoin is banned, so the bitcoin is living on its own strength and has become a part of real life.

Third, blockchain and anonymity

The anonymity of Bitcoin is so strong, and the blockchain has been claimed by the media to let people master their own data and completely solve the problem of privacy leakage. This makes us feel that it can be anonymized through the blockchain. What can't be done on the Internet, maybe in the blockchain era.

However, I personally think that the feature of anonymity is also difficult to achieve in the blockchain. Strictly speaking, it should be the same as the Internet era. It can be done technically and cannot be implemented in practice .

First, the blockchain is a technology, and then it is just one of many technical means.

What does this sentence mean? Blockchain is a technology that is used, but there are products outside the technology, there are markets outside the product, and there is demand outside the market, even if the blockchain itself can achieve anonymity at the technical level. The characteristics of the real-name system are still needed at the product level and the market level.

Blockchain is also one of the many technical means. Generally speaking, a product requires multiple technologies to cooperate. It can be understood that the blockchain is like an ATM machine. When you go to the ATM machine to withdraw money, you only need to insert the card to enter the password to ensure that you can withdraw the cash. The ATM machine itself does not need you to enter the identity, and You don't need your extra information, but that doesn't mean you are completely anonymous, because your card is tied to your personal information.

The same is true in the blockchain field. Using a blockchain can provide you with a service, but this is just an automated service. It is just a part of the entire industry chain. When you are doing other business, you Still need a personal identity.

In particular, the blockchain is considered to be a value exchange network, generally a value exchange between assets, and the amount involved may be large, so the whole process of the entire value exchange is credible. If the whole business process is divided into two parts: the chain and the chain, the blockchain can only guarantee that the part of the chain is credible, but the part under the chain and the blockchain itself cannot be guaranteed.

You can imagine such a scenario. For example, two people transfer equity transactions, one sells equity, and one pays digital currency as a consideration. The whole process can be completed on the blockchain. It is necessary to go to the industry and commerce bureau to transfer the account. Fully intelligent contract operation, transfer is the right, very convenient, very smooth.

However, this is only the part of the chain. If the transferor of this equity is not out of his own will, but because the private key of the wallet in charge of the asset is cracked by others, and is forcibly sold by others, if the case is appealed The court, the ultimate probability of this equity transfer transaction was revoked by the court.

If the entire transaction is anonymous, you can't find the buyer, can't find the seller, and can't find the hacker's whereabouts. So what about this value exchange business? Also talk about trust?

Therefore, it is not enough to have the trust of the chain in the whole process. The blockchain is a part of the whole social life. In the end, it needs to be integrated with all aspects of society. In the end, the chain and the chain must be coordinated development, and the chain. The next part must be a real-name system. There is no doubt that the part of the chain must also be real-named at the same time to match the development of the chain .

Fourth, real business and anonymity

Some people say that since the real name of doing business is so important, why is Bitcoin successful? Since Bitcoin can succeed, why are other businesses not successful?

This question is very good, my answer is the above answer: Bitcoin is just a special case.

The function of assets is not as simple as money, and the function of assets is much more complicated. In addition to Bitcoin, in most other business practices, such as the issuance of stocks, trust products, and points, these business practices involve a lot of chain behaviors, all involving the transfer of ownership, involving the rights behind the assets, Obligation to transfer, for example, after I receive the stock, it involves subsequent dividends, voting, and sometimes even involving going offline to open the board. It is impossible to accept the cash banknotes.

In fact, you only need to ask yourself such a question. What if there is a dispute in this transaction? If both parties to the transaction are anonymous, there is no way to resolve the dispute.

Some people say that asset collateral through chain is a reliable solution. However, on the one hand, mortgages occupy a large amount of assets, which reduces the efficiency of asset operation. The most fundamental problem is that all things cannot be solved through asset collateral .

Before you solve the problem through asset collateral and transfer, you must have at least one clear responsibility to identify, and most of the time, the parties to the dispute have a process of squashing. It is difficult to clearly define the responsibility of each other. The process ultimately requires the involvement of a third party to identify responsibility, and third parties must understand the information of both parties in order to understand these things, which is not possible with an anonymous system.

Most of the business in our daily life is more complicated. It requires deep collaboration between people and people. It requires deep information sharing behind the whole chain. It involves all parts of the chain and involves subsequent rights. The issue of the distribution of obligations must also require a real-name system.

Five, no anonymous, but have privacy

There are many people who may confuse anonymity with privacy, but in fact these are two completely different concepts.

Just like you use Alipay, the external transfer is generally a real name transfer. If the transfer amount is large, you need to know the other party's name. It is obvious that the transfer transaction here is not anonymous, but your asset balance, loan balance, home address, etc. Personal privacy information has not been disclosed, this is privacy, no anonymity.

At the same time, there are a large number of websites and apps on the market. Although it does not require your real-name authentication, it can provide some functions. However, when using this app, you need various authorizations, and you need your phone number. Need to read your text messages, photos, but also your storage permissions. It can be said that although it does not necessarily know your name, your operating habits and personal privacy information are very serious. This is anonymous and has no privacy.

Of course, there are some cases where you have both privacy and anonymity; in some cases, you have neither privacy nor anonymity, so I will not give you an example.

To sum up, that is to say, both anonymity and privacy are non-conflicting, and the identity is open, which is conducive to the development of commercial activities; it is the basic right of everyone to master privacy . You can open your identity to some important activities, but you don't reveal your privacy. Privacy is still completely in your hands. I think this is the mainstream of the future business world, and it is also the mainstream direction when the blockchain is on the ground.

Sixth, Kevin Kelly talks about anonymity

Kevin Kelly once specifically mentioned the feature of anonymity in the book "Inevitability":

The Internet makes it more likely than ever to truly achieve anonymity, but it also makes it harder to actually achieve anonymity in real life.

Every step forward on our way to cover our identity will go further on the road of uncovering identity and making ourselves completely transparent.

In a civilized society, anonymity is like rare earth metals. Large doses of such heavy metals are the most deadly toxins known to organisms. But a small amount of anonymity that is difficult to detect is good or even necessary for the system.

In any system I have seen, when anonymity becomes the norm, the system must fail.

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