How privacy is necessary in DeFi for real-world usage

Non-explicit transparency in DeFi is a bug

Finding bugs in software is a critical aspect of software development, as it helps ensure the reliability, security, and overall quality of the end product. The process of bug hunting involves rigorous testing, systematic evaluation, and constant vigilance on the part of developers and quality assurance teams. The same is to be said of DeFi. After its birth, rigorous testing, and maturation, we have come to realize it has a bug: transparency!

Privacy is not just a right, but a core feature within financial systems

Privacy is essential to the world's financial systems because it fosters trust, security, and competitiveness within the global economy. Financial privacy enables individuals and businesses to conduct transactions with confidence, knowing that their sensitive information is protected from unauthorized access and misuse.

This privacy plays a crucial role in safeguarding financial assets and preventing fraudulent activities such as identity theft, money laundering, and financial fraud. Moreover, it encourages innovation by allowing companies to develop new products and services without the fear of competitors stealing their proprietary information.

In a world where data breaches are becoming increasingly common, maintaining financial privacy is paramount to preserving the integrity and stability of the global economy. Without it, the trust that underpins economic transactions would be eroded, ultimately leading to a decline in investment, trade, and overall financial growth. Without privacy, most of the world's current financial systems would fall apart.

Not all transparency is bad

Of course, transparency has its place and can be equally important to ensure a fair and democratic world when utilized explicitly and correctly. Some of the places where transparency is preferred are:

• Supply chain management: Transparency can provide end-to-end visibility of products and goods as they move through the supply chain, allowing companies and consumers to verify the origin, authenticity, and ethical standards of products.
• Voting and elections: By leveraging blockchain technology, transparent and secure voting systems can be developed to minimize electoral fraud, ensure voter privacy, and provide real-time, verifiable results.
• Intellectual property and digital rights management: Artists and content creators can register their works on a transparent blockchain, enabling them to track usage, ensure proper attribution, and simplify royalty payments.
• Charity and donations: By using a transparent blockchain, charities can ensure that donations are properly tracked, allowing donors to verify that their contributions are used as intended and increasing trust in the organization.

Transparency when it comes to finance should be explicitly utilized where it is a matter of public or multiple stakeholder interest. Zano comes with auditable wallet and trackable seed functionality for when such cases are necessary, following a private by default model with opt-in auditability.

What would happen if all stock exchange transactions were public?

If all stock trades were made public (as is the nature of transparent DeFi) even before the trade has been executed, it would have several negative effects on individuals:

• Loss of privacy: Revealing investors' trading intentions would expose their personal financial strategies and risk profiles, making them vulnerable to scrutiny and potential exploitation.
• Market manipulation: Publicizing trades beforehand could provide malicious actors with the opportunity to manipulate stock prices to their advantage, exploiting the information to artificially inflate or deflate stock prices to profit from other investors' positions.
• Front-running: Public disclosure of trades could lead to ''front-running'', where opportunistic traders use the information to execute trades ahead of the original investor, effectively changing the stock price and negatively impacting the intended trade's outcome.
• Reduced investment incentives: Knowing that their trades would be exposed before execution, some investors might be discouraged from participating in the market due to concerns about privacy and potential market manipulation, leading to reduced investment activity.
• Increased volatility: The pre-announcement of trades could lead to increased market volatility as traders react to the information and adjust their positions accordingly, potentially causing fluctuations in stock prices unrelated to the underlying fundamentals.
• Information overload: With every stock trade disclosed, market participants would be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data, making it difficult to discern valuable insights and relevant information, potentially leading to suboptimal investment decisions.
• Negative impact on liquidity: If publicizing trades before execution discourages participation in the market, it could reduce the liquidity of stocks, making it more challenging for investors to buy or sell securities at their desired price and time.

Overall, making all stock trades public before they are executed could lead to less efficient, less stable, and less secure markets, with significant negative consequences.

Transparent DeFi is leading us to Tyranny

The rise of transparent DeFi applications and technology has inadvertently created an environment ripe for exploitation by tyrannical governments and malicious actors. As individuals increasingly embrace decentralized financial services, the wealth of personal and financial information available within these transparent systems has become an irresistible target for oppressive regimes and unscrupulous individuals.

The very transparency and pseudonymity that promised liberation from traditional financial structures have been twisted into a tool for surveillance, control, and manipulation. Governments are harnessing this data to tighten their grip on citizens, monitoring every transaction and quashing dissent, while cybercriminals and other nefarious actors exploit security vulnerabilities to perpetrate fraud, identity theft, and other illicit activities.

In this dark future, the once-promising dream of DeFi as a liberating force is reduced to a nightmarish landscape of rampant abuse, invasive surveillance, and financial insecurity. All-in-all, privacy has become an absolutely neccessary security feature in the world of DeFi and Zano will be on the forefront of introducing these innovations to the world.

Zano's Confidential Assets will go live with the Zarcanum hardfork, expected for July 2023. Want to read more about Zano's confidential assets? Check these articles out:

• https://blog.zano.org/introducing-zano-confidential-assets/
• https://blog.zano.org/the-power-of-private-tokens/

Linktree: https://links.zano.org/

Written by community member @kekzploit.