Web3 as we know it isn’t the solution to user empowerment – it actually made things worse
The post Web3 as we know it isn’t the solution to user empowerment – it actually made things worse appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. The following is a guest post and opinion of Dr. Benjamin Beckmann, CTO at Midnight. Blockchain technology leaves us far more exposed than you might realize – certainly more exposed than the traditional financial system does. Take the example of buying a cup of coffee. In the traditional financial system, the transaction is simple: you tap your card and walk away. The barista forgets about it as soon as it’s done, and your bank ensures that nobody has access to your transaction data. In other words, no one knows when, where, or what you bought, except for you. Now, imagine the same transaction in the world of Web3. The details of that coffee purchase no longer end at the counter. Instead, they become part of a public record. While transactions are pseudonymous, wallet addresses and behavioral patterns can be analyzed over time, allowing third parties to infer your identity and track your financial activity. Anyone could, in theory, see when, where, and what you bought, as well as who you’re transacting with. But this is not the default: wallet addresses are not universally linked to real-world identities. The risk arises when patterns emerge over time, especially if someone repeatedly transacts with the same wallets or uses exchanges that require KYC, making it easier to draw inferences about their activity and link it to a real identity. While not every user will necessarily be compromised, linking routine transactions – groceries, subscriptions, gifts – over time could create a detailed map of your personal habits. This kind of transaction tracing has been exploited before. In a well-known case, attackers tracked wallet activity on OpenSea to identify high-value targets, leading to a phishing attack that resulted in over $1.7 million in stolen NFTs. Worse still, Web3’s very reputation for transparency leads both institutions…
The post Web3 as we know it isn’t the solution to user empowerment – it actually made things worse appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
The following is a guest post and opinion of Dr. Benjamin Beckmann, CTO at Midnight. Blockchain technology leaves us far more exposed than you might realize – certainly more exposed than the traditional financial system does. Take the example of buying a cup of coffee. In the traditional financial system, the transaction is simple: you tap your card and walk away. The barista forgets about it as soon as it’s done, and your bank ensures that nobody has access to your transaction data. In other words, no one knows when, where, or what you bought, except for you. Now, imagine the same transaction in the world of Web3. The details of that coffee purchase no longer end at the counter. Instead, they become part of a public record. While transactions are pseudonymous, wallet addresses and behavioral patterns can be analyzed over time, allowing third parties to infer your identity and track your financial activity. Anyone could, in theory, see when, where, and what you bought, as well as who you’re transacting with. But this is not the default: wallet addresses are not universally linked to real-world identities. The risk arises when patterns emerge over time, especially if someone repeatedly transacts with the same wallets or uses exchanges that require KYC, making it easier to draw inferences about their activity and link it to a real identity. While not every user will necessarily be compromised, linking routine transactions – groceries, subscriptions, gifts – over time could create a detailed map of your personal habits. This kind of transaction tracing has been exploited before. In a well-known case, attackers tracked wallet activity on OpenSea to identify high-value targets, leading to a phishing attack that resulted in over $1.7 million in stolen NFTs. Worse still, Web3’s very reputation for transparency leads both institutions…
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