thestreet.com
As Bitcoin adoption expands globally, privacy is emerging as a renewed focal point.
It is not an abstract ideal anymore, but a practical concern for everyday crypto traders and governments alike.
That shift was on display at Bitcoin MENA, where wallet developers discussed how transparency on public blockchains can clash with real-world financial needs.
In a conversation at TheStreet Roundtable, Vikrant Sharma, founder and CEO of Cake Labs, explained how Bitcoin wallets are adapting to that tension.
Bitcoin users grow more privacy-aware
Sharma said more Bitcoin users are becoming aware of privacy. Instead of being alarmed, they are more informed about how easily transaction histories and balances can be traced on-chain.
For many, especially those using Bitcoin for payments or donations, publicly exposing their full financial history is increasingly undesirable.
"People want to use Bitcoin on the go and they don't want to reveal their history and balances and all that. So I think that that segment is definitely going to grow for Bitcoin," Sharma said.
He noted that this awareness is driving demand for privacy-focused wallet features.
To address this, Cake Labs has implemented tools designed to reduce transaction linkability, including Silent Payments and PayJoin version 2.
According to Sharma, Cake Wallet was the first Bitcoin wallet to support both features, signaling a broader push toward practical, opt-in privacy rather than full anonymity.
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Silent Payments becomes a solution
Silent Payments aim to solve one of Bitcoin’s most common usability challenges: address reuse. Best practices discourage reusing addresses, but constantly generating and sharing new ones can be cumbersome.
With Silent Payments, users share a single reusable “silent” address. Each time someone sends funds, the sender’s wallet automatically generates a new, unique on-chain address derived from the recipient’s keys.
Only the recipient can detect and spend those funds, preventing observers from linking payments or tracking balances.
Sharma pointed to online donations as a clear use case. Instead of posting a static Bitcoin address that exposes every incoming payment, users can publish a Silent Payment address that preserves privacy by default.
Usability remains the main hurdle
Despite growing interest, adoption has been slowed by technical limitations.
" The demand is there but people shy away, because of the syncing issue," Sharma added.
Silent Payments currently requires wallets to scan the blockchain to identify incoming transactions, a process known as syncing.
This can be resource-intensive, particularly for users who don’t open their wallets frequently.
Sharma compared the process to privacy-focused blockchains like Monero, where wallets must scan blocks to find relevant transactions.
To improve usability, Cake Labs is integrating a new lightweight server model that should significantly reduce syncing friction and improve the experience for non-technical users.
As these improvements roll out, Sharma expects privacy-focused Bitcoin usage to continue growing.