Privacy advocates score gains after Binance collapses under pressure

Privacy advocates scored a major victory in June with Binance announcing that it was backing down on a decision to remove privacy coins for users in a number of European countries.

As a result of the move, users in Italy, Poland, Spain and France will be allowed to continue trading tokens including Zcash (ZEC), Monero (XMR), Decred (DCR), Horizen’s ZEN, Verge (XVG), Dash (DASH), Secret ( SCRT), Firo, Navcoin (NAV), MobileCoin (MOB), Beam and PIVX.

Banning the coins would be a major, big wrong. Privacy coins empower individuals against financial scrutiny by providing enhanced transaction security, and crypto communities should be thankful that Binance no longer intends to remove them from their lists. In the modern climate of over-surveillance and general lack of confidentiality for users everywhere, its importance cannot be overemphasized.

Related: Binance was wrong to boot Monero, Zcash and other privacy coins

The fungibility of these coins, making every single unit interchangeable and censorship resistant, is an advantage they have over almost any other cryptocurrency, and losing these extra layers of security and anonymity would have been an incredible loss to the community.

Privacy coins have gained popularity in recent years due to the emergence of a series of strict regulations. In fact, Binance’s decision comes on the heels of the European Union smoothing out its much-discussed standards for digital assets, the recent Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. Having just been signed into law, the European Securities and Markets Authority will also launch a MiCA consultation process in July. It’s fair to say there’s quite a bit of movement in the space, and we may not have seen the last of what Europe has in store for the crypto industry.

But the truth is that privacy is a basic human right protected by the United Nations. Article 12 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “no one shall be subject to arbitrary interference with his privacy” and that “everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attack”, so why would crypto be different?

This concept is all the more important in the digital age, as the risks of data exploitation are increasing exponentially and technology giants have every means at their disposal to prevent people from taking control of their private data.

In fact, Binance’s decision reflects the complex balance between regulatory compliance and user privacy needs that exchanges should strive for at all times, even as they face international regulations that vary from country to country, and even if some countries decide to enforce stricter rules. rules than others.

Related: SEC charges against Binance and Coinbase are terrible for DeFi

As for the future implications of the Binance decision – as well as those arising from the intense regulatory pressure looming in Europe – we could see a potential increase in demand and subsequent development of the privacy coin industry. Ironically, Binance’s precedent could very well lead to wider adoption of privacy coins, as it may prompt other exchanges to reconsider their stance on privacy coins, potentially leading to greater availability. We will see.

At the end of the day, this week’s news draws attention to the real power of community sentiment when it comes to shaping crypto policy and regulation. “We have revised how we classify privacy coins,” reads the cryptocurrency exchange’s official statement, “after carefully considering feedback from our community.” Reading between the lines, what’s clear is the backlash they’ve received over the past month worked.

It’s hard to overstate how necessary privacy really is in the crypto industry, which is why we can’t back down when it comes to fighting for it every chance we get.

The gist of this is that community influence on Binance’s decision demonstrates its power to shape the future of the crypto industry – and we shouldn’t forget that.

The crypto community must come together to continue fighting for privacy. It forms the basis of Web3. And, as the Romans used to say, ibi semper is victoria ubi is concordia: There is always victory where there is unity.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to and should not be construed as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.