User-Perceived Privacy in Blockchain

Simin Ghesmati; Walid Fdhila; Edgar Weippl

Paper 2022/287

User-Perceived Privacy in Blockchain

Simin Ghesmati, Walid Fdhila, and Edgar Weippl

Abstract

This paper studies users’ privacy perceptions of UTXO-based blockchains such as Bitcoin. In particular, it elaborates -- based on interviews and questionnaires -- on a mental model of employing privacy-preserving techniques for blockchain transactions. Furthermore, it evaluates users' awareness of blockchain privacy issues and examines their preferences towards existing privacy-enhancing solutions, i.e., add-on techniques to Bitcoin versus built-in techniques in privacy coins. Using Bitcoin as an example, we shed light on existing discrepancies between users' privacy perceptions and preferences as well as current implementations.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Applications
Publication info: Preprint. MINOR revision.
Keywords: blockchain privacy anonymity Bitcoin mixing wallets.
Contact author(s): ghesmati @ icloud com
History: 2022-05-11: last of 3 revisions; 2022-03-07: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2022/287
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2022/287,
      author = {Simin Ghesmati and Walid Fdhila and Edgar Weippl},
      title = {User-Perceived Privacy in Blockchain},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2022/287},
      year = {2022},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/287}
}