You can’t think about cryptocurrencies without connecting them to the concept of anonymity.
An unidentified person or group of persons, known only as Satoshi Nakamoto, developed the first cryptocurrency, called Bitcoin. Despite the success that followed, Satoshi has opted to keep his identity a secret.
Satoshi is portrayed as a contemporary hero in this mystery. The Times 03/Jan/2009 “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” was included within the raw data of block 0, or the origin block, of Bitcoin. This was done by Nakamoto. The text is the title of an article regarding the British government’s failure to revive the economy after the 2007–2008 financial crisis that appeared in The [London] Times on January 3, 2009.
As a hero, Nakamoto wished to rid the world of an existing financial system that he believed was dominated by a small group of individuals who were taking advantage while leaving the vast majority destitute. Because they don’t want to be recognized for their kindness, heroes may opt to maintain their anonymity. They carry out the good deeds not for the sake of self-aggrandizement but because they love it. They might also desire to defend themselves and their family from the bad guys for this reason.
I’m not exactly sure why Satoshi Nakamoto chose to remain anonymous, but I believe it benefitted Bitcoin in its early stages. The cryptographic keys to the network alerts were given to them by Satoshi on April 26, 2011, saying he had “moved on to other projects”. With the support of countless volunteers, Bitcoin has evolved into a communal effort. Fighting against a group of people who are united in a cause they believe will benefit humanity is more difficult.
From having died more than 466 times to being regarded as one of the best performing investments today, bitcoin has come a long way.
Sadly, it appears that the current state of crypto adoption is plagued with anonymity.
Over 46,000 victims of cryptocurrency-related scams totaling more than $1 billion were defrauded between January 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. The FTC claims that since the Pandemic began, crypto frauds have skyrocketed by an astounding 900 percent.
I believe that the fact that many cryptocurrency projects are run by anonymous teams helps to facilitate all of these scams. For excellent reasons, some teams choose to maintain their anonymity. Since they are still relatively new, several governments are opposed to cryptocurrencies. As a result, many have been keeping a low profile and producing quality goods. But for negative motives, a lot more criminals continue to operate in anonymity.
It’s way too easy to be scammed because investors have no idea who is behind a project. It’s also harder to track attackers to bring them to justice, making the crypto space a virtual wild wide west.
For crypto to be successful, it has to be adopted by the masses. This means regular people have to feel safe enough to start using cryptocurrency projects. I know you don’t really need to know who created a product before using it. But you have peace of mind when you know who has to be accountable for any issues.
The internet also was once seen as a risky place to navigate. Today, the internet is part of our lives where we do pretty much anything without worrying much about the websites and apps we are using. The internet has to earn people’s trust by solving major issues.
I think the crypto space still has many issues to solve and I think anonymity is a big part of it.
Some of the biggest projects today are a not led by anonymous teams. Everybody in the crypto almost knows who are behind great projects like Ethereum, Avalanche, XRP, Binance or Coinbase.
Many others who choose to stay anonymous usually do it for bad intentions