“Privacy is no longer a social norm”
In an infamous 2010 interview, Mark Zuckerberg said, “Privacy is no longer a social norm”, giving the implication that people should just accept it as a fact, move on, and surrender their privacy.
He has a point. In the current online world, privacy is at the very least an afterthought for developers and tech gurus. Data is shared freely and many people don’t even give a thought to what happens with the personal information they input into websites, let alone their Facebook statuses and photo posts. And here on Terra, and most other blockchain networks, users don’t have a choice but to have their financial transactions permanently etched into the blockchain for any prying eyes to see.
When it comes to blockchains, this is a feature, not a bug. In order for a blockchain to function in a decentralised and secure manner, this is how it works. It is the “norm” for these transactions to be public and traceable. But should they be?
While Zuckerberg says one thing, his actions speak to the other. In 2013, he spent $30 million to purchase the four homes surrounding his own to provide himself with a “zone of privacy”. As Glenn Greenwald said in a 2014 Ted Talk,
“People can, very easily, in words claim that they don’t value their privacy. But their actions negate the authenticity of that belief.”
Irony aside, even though he says it’s no longer a social norm, Zuckerberg obviously thinks privacy is important (at least for himself). Surely the fact that the people standing in the way of privacy want privacy is argument enough for privacy on a universal scale, right?
So how do we have privacy in a system like this? On a blockchain where the norm is transparency and information sharing? For Terra, Void Protocol is coming to the rescue. Due to launch in Q2 2022, Void will provide an opt-in privacy solution for users of the Terra blockchain. Users will be able to deposit $UST and $Luna into Void’s anonymity pools, which will be mixed with the funds of other users, then withdrawn into new wallets, obfuscating the origin of the funds. Void also aims to keep assets productive whilst in the pools, with use of Anchor Earn for $UST deposits. You can learn more from their litepaper here.
It is true what Zuckerberg said, privacy really isn’t a social norm anymore, but it absolutely should be, and can be on Terra with Void Protocol.
-Gretskies
Void Protocol Links
🌑 Docs: protocolvoid.gitbook.io/void-protocol/
🌑 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProtocolVoid
🌑 Discord: discord.gg/U9MXyT6a7K
🌑 Medium: https://voidprotocol.medium.com/
🌑 Telegram: https://t.me/Void_ann
