User-Perceived Privacy in Blockchain

Abstract

This paper studies users’ privacy perceptions of UTXO-based blockchains such as Bitcoin. 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.