Part 7/14:
Privacy and Regulatory Pressures: Enhanced privacy features are essential, yet they often clash with regulatory demands. CoinJoin, confidential transactions, and other privacy-enhancing techniques are either limited in adoption or face regulatory crackdowns, as seen with services like Wasabi and Samurai Wallet that had to shut down or restrict their offerings.
On-Chain Data and Loss of Anonymity: Bitcoin’s transparent ledger means that, with current tools, balances and transaction histories are often easily linked to identities or identities can be inferred, undermining financial privacy. Developing scalable, privacy-preserving protocols that withstand regulatory and technical scrutiny remains an urgent need.