Bitcoin Privacy Is the Only ‘Big Question’ for Devs, Says Poolin CEO

Bitcoin (BTC) needs to become more resistant to governments as a priority, the CEO of one of its biggest mining pools has said.

Pan: Privacy is Bitcoin’s “real problem”

In an interview with cryptocurrency media outlet Bitcoin Magazine quoted by Forbes on Oct. 17, Poolin’s Kevin Pan suggested privacy should form an essential focus for Bitcoin development.

“The real problem with Bitcoin may be privacy. There is no other big question if the privacy issue is solved,” he summarized.

Pan was commenting as cryptocurrency-related transaction privacy returns to the spotlight as international regulators dissect Facebook’s Libra digital currency. 

As Cointelegraph reported, concerns over user data have formed the basis for rejection of the project from multiple sources, including finance ministers and United States senators.

In the future, Pan continued, Bitcoin will need to provide users with a way to avoid governments targeting them and their wallets.

“What is more troublesome now is if government or law enforcement departments begin to create a blacklist of transaction addresses, it will make certain transactions unable to be packaged. In fact, these can be done,” he explained.

Pan added: 

“But if there is privacy, you can't know who the address belongs to, and you can't determine how much the amount is, and there is no way to control the currency system.”

Improving transaction privacy is already a central occupation of developers, both for Bitcoin Core and off-chain solutions such as the Lightning Network. 

Certain user wallets claim to offer enhanced privacy for users already, but standards differ as developers attempt to seal technical loopholes.