Why are we working on confidential transfers at @aptos? Why does financial privacy matter? If your head hasn't been buried in the sand for the past decade, you might've noticed what goes wrong when *your* data is in *other* people's hands... A short thread 🧵

Second, from a computer science point of view, Phil Rogaway put it best in his passionate position paper (): _"Minimizing data collection is part of the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct"_ Privacy isn't a feature: it's a professional obligation.

Maybe philosophical arguments don't convince you, so, here's the practical one: Every "private" database eventually gets hacked and becomes *public*! We've learned this the hard way. Get your head out of the sand! I'll refresh your memory 👇

Yahoo (2013-2014): account data for 3 BILLION accounts compromised. The largest data breach ever (I think?)

Facebook (2019): 533 million users' phone numbers and personal data posted online.

LinkedIn (2021): 700 million records (92% of all users) scraped and sold.

T-Mobile (2021): 76.6M people affected, including SSNs and driver's license info. $350M settlement.

T-Mobile again (2023): Another 37 million customers breached via a vulnerable API. These folks never learn → We must encrypt everything; under our own keys!

MOVEit (2023): Zero-day exploit hit 2,700+ organizations, affecting 93.3 million people.

National Public Data (2024): 2.9 BILLION records leaked — SSNs, addresses. The company filed for bankruptcy.

AT&T / Snowflake (2024): Call and text metadata of 110 million customers stolen.

Change Healthcare (2024): Up to 190 million Americans' health records breached. The largest healthcare breach ever.

Catch my drift? 👉 You need *your* data, in *your hands*, encrypted under *your keys* — not pinky promises from (0-skin-in-the-game) companies that "take your privacy seriously." The only data that can't be leaked is data that was never exposed to begin with.

@rinegade @Aptos @Zcash In other words, the temptation for government to change them post-deployment will be too strong. Or, it feels like government-issued & "decentralized" are in strict tension. Maybe America, with its separate state powers, can hope to achieve such decentralization. Seems hard.