Privacy & Scaling in Distributed Ledgers (Level 3)

Public blockchains trade transparency for privacy. Scaling (throughput and latency) is another important practical issue.

Privacy approaches

• Pseudonymous addresses — provide some privacy but can be deanonymised.
• Layer 2 and privacy protocols — e.g., mixers, zk-SNARKs provide stronger privacy but add complexity.

Scaling approaches

• Layer 2 solutions (payment channels, rollups)
• Alternative consensus mechanisms (proof-of-stake, delegated models)

Exercise

1. Compare one public blockchain and one private/permissioned ledger: list advantages and expected use-cases for each.