It is no secret that privacy has always occupied a special place within the blockchain domain pretty much since the inception of technology. Some would even argue that blockchain would become obsolete without its privacy feature and quickly lose its unique value proposition. As of recently, the crypto flock has been going back to basics. Bitcoin's latest Taproot upgrade, issued to make the network's transactions more secure, is one of many examples of privacy being put forward above anything else.

This is why it should not be surprising that Vitalik Buterin proposed stealth addresses as a potential way to obscure NFTs ownership. In a Monday's Twitter post, the young prodigy suggested that such a solution would be lighter-weight to private NFTs powered by Ethereum, destined to save the industry compared to other methods on the table. Vitalik rarely preaches, but the community tends to take his words seriously when he does. Following the flock's movement, let's discuss the validity of Buterin's words and try to connect them to a bigger picture. Let's dive in.

The Monday Night On Twitter

On a Monday night, Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin once again talked about anonymity, this time for the NFTs ownership. In a nutshell, he suggested that no one apart from the sender and the receiver would see that the NFT indeed made it into another person's wallet. On top of that, he pondered the possibility of generalizing the scheme to smart contracts wallets.

In the same Twitter thread, he maintained that this low-tech approach would add a lot of needed privacy to the NFT ecosystem. According to him, such an idea has a lot of potential for NFTs built on the Ethereum blockchain, and it may not be long before the market ubiquitously implements this feature.

Vitalik words come on the back of the news about Consumer Group in the US demanding that celebrities, including Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton, disclose their NFT activities. In a group letter, the organization reminded that everyone must reveal any material connected to NFTs that are being promoted, citing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules.

After a couple of rug pulls, most notably associated with another celebrity Logan Paul, the NFTs were getting a bad rep around the clock. So as always with crypto, the truth is somewhere in the middle. The enhanced privacy might be beneficial, but with the current state of affairs, it would only facilitate the malicious activities that have already taken the NFT industry by storm.

PrivaCrip: Privacy That The Community Needs?

PrivaCrip (PRCR) is an upcoming project that understands better than the rest of the flock that if crypto and blockchain did not adapt, they would face the same fate as web 2.0. Against general understanding, blockchain technology is not as anonymous as people tend to think. For example, most of the criminals from the notorious dark web website Silk Road were found by the FBI purely based on their wallets' information and transactions between them.

I am trying to say that blockchain data is still public and available for anyone to take advantage of. This problem becomes especially evident when users engage with different DeFi activities. This is why PrivaCrip (PRCR) wants to enable meaningful use of crypto and blockchain, where users and enterprises will have control of their data. In order to ensure it, the project introduced the concept of programmable privacy, which is somewhat similar to Vitalik's stealth NFTs.

If the PrivaCrip (PRCR) project succeeds in its endeavour, the crypto community could finally enjoy a blockchain application that, by default, protects your data, enabling you to use it permissionless across the board. Such a unique feature has the potential to provide more security when creating DeFi applications and other manifestations of Web 3.0.

What To Make Of It

Although the aspect of privacy is undoubtedly paramount, it comes with a hefty price. Although Buterin and PrivaCrip's value propositions resolve specific problems, they also create additional ones. Namely, more privacy equals more opportunities for malicious activities, and the last thing the industry needs right now is another massive fraudulent scandal.

However, the enhanced privacy of users' information would also prevent major companies from collecting data for advertising, as happened with data from Web 2.0. As always with crypto, the truth is somewhere in between, but one thing is crystal clear: if the industry wants to move forward, the privacy question should be addressed ASAP.