Since Privacy has been a theme recently, and I've been on both sides of this , let me share something around "The Privacy Paradox" where Convenience Always Wins. Every few months, the internet rediscovers “privacy.” New data breaches hit the headlines, governments push new bills, and crypto Twitter declares that privacy is a human right. And yet, nothing changes. We keep using the same apps, tapping the same cards, and accepting the same cookies. The truth is simple: people care about privacy only until it costs them convenience. Everyone Says They Care About Privacy. I mean a lot of surveys sound reassuring. For example: - According to Pew Research, 71% of Americans say they’re worried about data collection. - In Asia, 68% of users claim to be “somewhat or very” concerned. - In Singapore, 77% list privacy as a top concern when dealing with brands online. But actions tell a different story. We use Gmail despite privacy worries, auto-save our cards for one-click checkout, and trade our behavioral data for discounts or speed. We say we care — until friction shows up. The Comfort of Convenience. Payments expose this paradox best. Every @Visa, @Mastercard, or @AmericanExpress transaction leaves a digital trail: where you shopped, how much you spent, even the type of merchant. That data flows through banks, processors, and analytics firms. And still, card payments dominate — not because they’re private, but because they’re effortless. For most retail users, convenience feels like value. Privacy feels like an ideology. You can’t touch it, you can’t measure it, and it doesn’t give you cashbacks. The Privacy–Convenience Trade-Off. If you look at Behavioural economics this is called the privacy–convenience trade-off. When given two choices — one seamless but intrusive, another private but slower or costlier — humans overwhelmingly choose the first. It’s why we store passwords in browsers, log in via social accounts, and rely on centralised apps. Friction is expensive — not just in time, but in lost engagement, conversion, and scale. The Illusion of Outsourced Trust In many regions, users delegate responsibility to institutions. A recent survey showed 75% of Singaporeans believe their bank should protect them from fraud and cybercrime. So privacy becomes outsourced — something managed for us, not by us. People expect their bank, wallet, or app to handle it invisibly. Blockchain and the Cost of Privacy: Web3 promised a different world — one where users owned their data and transactions were transparent but trustless. Ironically, that transparency created a new privacy problem: everything on-chain is permanent and public. Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) emerged as the solution. They allow users to prove something true — ownership, identity, solvency — without revealing underlying data. But privacy has a cost. Generating a ZK proof is computationally expensive. It consumes time, gas, and hardware resources. This means privacy doesn’t just add UX friction — it adds economic friction. That’s why most ecosystems optimize first for cost and usability before scaling privacy by design. The Polygon Approach At @0xPolygon, where we command one of the world’s largest retail payment user bases — the highest in @USDC and third-highest in @USDT0_to — we’ve always prioritized cost and UX first. That's why we have been the cheapest of all EVM chains on average. Low fees and fast finality are what bring users and merchants on-chain. That’s the foundation. But privacy, as I often say, is the luxury good of Web3 — once people are comfortable, they start demanding discretion. - Institutions already do. - Retail will follow. So we’re taking two parallel bets: - @0xMiden, a next-generation ZK rollup focused on private smart contract execution. - And a new in-house privacy product that we are designing for the institutions. Our goal is not to force a trade-off between privacy and usability — but to collapse it. To make privacy affordable, invisible, and default. The Inevitable Conclusion Privacy will only win when it stops being a feature and becomes infrastructure. Until then, convenience will keep winning — because it’s cheaper, faster, and easier to understand. But make no mistake: the paradox won’t last forever. But for a couple of years it still will exist. We aren't going to solve privacy in a year or two, because there is too much to solve for. As the rails mature, the next wave of fintech and Web3 adoption will hinge on trusted usability — not just open access. The winners won’t be those who sell privacy as a luxury, but those who deliver it as a standard. Thanks @0xMert_ for instigating this debate on privacy.