Classified documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden show that the National Security Agency indeed worked urgently to target bitcoin users around the world — and wielded at least one mysterious source of information to “help track down senders and receivers of Bitcoins,” according to a top-secret passage in an internal NSA report dating to March 2013. Source: The Intercept
It seems that accusers of Bitcoin as a darknet currency are slowly proving themselves wrong. The NSA has been able to track down Bitcoin users even though they appear as "anonymous", only to the extent of their physical identity. The user's password, MAC address and web activity have successfully helped NSA piece together "Bitcoin Targets" --The Intercept
Even though the news could be devastating to users who seek privacy, it shines a brighter beam of light on mainstream users a transparent financial platform for anyone with nothing to hide.
This week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told mainstream media that he foresees a “single currency” for the internet coming within ten years. “I personally believe that it will be Bitcoin,” he added. Source: Cointelegraph
Of course, Snowden's focus will be on the privacy of coins since whatever he does is not exactly welcomed by governmental bodies. Snowden is however in favor of Zcash, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency Source: Investopedia. My personal favorite would be Monero having the highest potential as a privacy-based coin. As to daily transactions, scalability is still an issue with the current blockchain technologies.
Hence Smart Media Tokens (SMT), in which the blockchain technology STEEM is built on, stands a chance to outperform the other coins in terms of scalability. Based on the current Weiss Ratings for cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is ranked at "C+", while STEEM was stamped with an approval rating of "B-". The best rating coins are only given a "B" which include Ethereum and EOS. Bitcoin news: Weiss Ratings
-tysler
STEEM coins