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Is there any evidence that Satoshi Nakamoto deliberately avoided adding privacy-related protocols and functionality into Bitcoin in order to avoid the ban-hammer?
If so, how did he justify this decision when the very concept of sound money cannot be implemented in an environment where there is no guarantee of absolute transaction privacy?
I think he was a strong advocate for privacy. He reportedly used the IP-masking browser, Tor, for all his public interactions, which is why his public IP address could never be traced back to him.
He introduced password protection to Bitcoin’s JSON-RPC interface, which was crucial for safeguarding user funds, preserving privacy, and ensuring the stable operation of the Bitcoin node. But when it came to incorporating zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs), a privacy protocol, into Bitcoin, Nakamoto expressed difficulty in figuring out how to apply them.
https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/satoshi-nakamoto-zk-proofs-bitcoinhttps://news.bitcoin.com/unraveling-the-online-legacy-of-satoshi-nakamoto-bitcoins-mysterious-creatorSo, he may have faced technical challenges in implementing certain privacy protocols in Bitcoin.
The absence of certain privacy protocols in Bitcoin does not necessarily mean he deliberately avoided them to evade regulatory scrutiny. It could be due to technical challenges or a different interpretation of what constitutes sound money. However, this is mostly speculation as Nakamoto himself has not publicly stated his reasons.