Lately, there has been an increased interest in privacy and security. Identity theft is a growing concern and data breaches happen more often than anyone would like. The recent Equifax data breach affected 145 million Americans and resulted in personal information such as addresses, social security numbers, and birth dates being stolen. Although the breach occurred between May and July, the public wasn't notified until September! Because of incidents like this, people are becoming more cautious about who they hand over their personal information to. It has become clear that third parties cannot be relied upon to keep our information safe. This extends from credit card companies to online marketplaces.
Examples of governments and businesses overstepping their bounds are also bringing attention to the importance of privacy. Recently, there has been a buzz about the Chinese government's efforts to implement a social credit rating system. The government will monitor people's behaviors and ban rights such as travel or property ownership if it deems a person to be untrustworthy. Not only does a system like this require a gross invasion of privacy, but it also requires that you adhere to someone else's opinion of appropriate behavior. increased is a perfect example of how we sacrifice freedom when we don’t protect privacy. Incidents like these have led to an increased demand for the option to remain anonymous.
What Are the Advantages of Anonymity?
While issues such as those described above could theoretically be solved by simply increasing data security, the root of the problem lies in the fact that we are willing to forgo privacy and hand over our information in the first place. Centralized businesses and governments tend to have interests that are in conflict with the individual. When we give up our privacy, we transfer some of our personal power to these entities so that they may have power over us. Giving up too much personal power naturally leads to an erosion of liberties. So while data security is definitely important, a decentralized solution that respects privacy has clear advantages over trying to solve the issue within the context of the centralized systems already in place.
An area where we see this philosophy being applied is in anonymous crypto exchanges. These exchanges don't require users to verify their identities, which means they don't need to share details such as name, date of birth, address, or personal documents. This allows them to trade without the worry of having someone find out how much capital they are working with. People have various reasons for wanting to trade anonymously, but whatever the reason we all have the right to our privacy and to preserve our hard-earned wealth.
How Does BitBay Address These Issues?
BitBay is one such market that allows you to create your own private markets, enabling you to engage in anonymous trading of goods and services. The benefits of this are that unlike with a centralized market, there aren't any arbitrary rules to follow, such as a limitation on the number of items you can list, and you don't need to entrust anyone with your sensitive personal information. You have more control over your business and can run it how you see fit without some third party looming over your shoulder. You can focus on more important matters, like making sales, rather than worrying about whether or not you're in compliance with community guidelines.
Furthermore, the decentralized, transparent nature of blockchain technology means that the platform can never be shut down and records can never be destroyed. Contracts between two parties are always available and immutable so that there aren't any misunderstandings or chances of fraud. With a more traditional marketplace, a buyer could claim that they never received the item you sent. If you threw away the tracking information, the arbitrator would take the buyer's word and you would be forced to give them a refund. Smart contracts eliminate this possibility and ensure that both buyer and seller are incentivized to fulfill their obligations to each other.
Another benefit of anonymous trading on BitBay is that sellers save a significant amount of money on fees. Since all transactions are paid for in BitBay, there's no need for credit card, PayPal, or other third party fees. And because the platform is decentralized, there's no one to take any sales or listing fees, either. All transactions occur directly between the buyer and seller. To ensure anonymity even when buyers and sellers need to exchange some information to close a sale, BitBay uses an anonymous and encrypted messaging system known as Bitmessage.
Privacy, freedom, and peace of mind are just some of the many advantages of anonymous trading platforms. As people move away from the old model where identity theft is common and excessive regulation stifles growth, BitBay aims to be a leader in this emerging market.