Crypto Needs Privacy To Scale in Payments, Says Binance Co-Founder

Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance, said the lack of privacy for onchain transactions is one of the biggest hurdles to the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange and for payments. He gave a concrete example: “Lack of Privacy may be the missing link for crypto payments adoption.

Imagine a company pays employees in crypto onchain. With the current state of crypto, you can pretty much see how much everyone in the company is paid by clicking the ‘from’ address.” Zhao discussed the issue in a conversation with investor Chamath Palihapitiya and also cited physical security concerns tied to onchain transparency.

The comments come amid a revival of privacy and the cypherpunk ethos — the ideology at the heart of cryptocurrencies, peer-to-peer digital money that can be transferred without centralized intermediaries, and the encryption of online communication to shield messages from surveillance.

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