People keep asking lately whether on-chain privacy can really “hide” things. My expectations are pretty low: to put it bluntly, a public blockchain is just a big plaza, and what you can do more of is “expose less,” not “disappear.” Don’t tightly link your address to real-name onboarding channels, and don’t put your salary/living expenses in the same pocket as the money you use for meme-coin shilling… These are self-protection steps, but if you truly run into regulatory/compliance checks, what needs to be seen can still be traced along the trails.

The income of miners/validators, MEV, and fairness in transaction ordering have also been getting criticized again recently—I can understand that retail investors feel that way too. You clearly sent the transaction you intended, so why does it always feel like it’s half a beat behind, and you get squeezed a bit? No matter how reasonable privacy tools sound in theory, in real life you’ll still be stared at with the look of “what are you hiding?”, and the whole boundary becomes really awkward.

My partner even complains that when I make a transfer, it “looks like money laundering,” and I can’t be bothered to explain too much… In any case, I just treat it as if there’s no on-chain privacy—if it leaves fewer traces, then better. Don’t fantasize about one-click invisibility; let’s start with that.