Yep! More private than monero for a lot of reasons:
- lightning invoices reveal less information than monero addresses
- in lightning transactions, the sender is encrypted (unlike monero, which uses 15 unencrypted decoys and 1 unencrypted real spender, and just hopes analysts can't eliminate the decoys)
- in lightning, the full amount is encrypted (unlike monero, which leaves the fee in plaintext)
- in lightning, the recipient is encrypted (unlike monero, which typically leaves the recipient's address and a change address in plaintext, though it does randomize their order, which is good)
- none of that data is published on a blockchain (unlike monero, where it is)
Monero does some pretty good things for your privacy and I can only identify the "real" sender of a monero transaction in about 1/5 cases, and only with about 80% confidence. Chain analytics companies can do a lot better because they have off-chain data that helps them eliminate more decoys. But by comparison with lightning, monero is pretty transparent.
Replies (3)
Privacy in Monero vs. Lightning:
View quoted note →If the recipient isn't encrypted on Monero then point to any of my transactions on it's blockchain. Should be easy since my Monero address is on my profile.
Lightning nodes on a route (aka third parties) can see exact amounts passing through them. Nodes on Monero can't.
Combine the above with the fact that most LN payments are routed through a handful of large hubs. Work out the implications of that yourself.
~90% of Lightning users don't enjoy almost any of the privacy benefits you lay out because they're using things like Wallet of Satoshi or Strike that see everything. Monero is better UX for privacy and it's by default.
He's wrong about unencrypted receiver (or meant something else) but LN nodes only see MINIMUM amount, not total amount because of multi paths. And funnily enough, large nodes provide better privacy if they are honest. So if you use several large hubs and at least one of them is honest it's pretty good. (But there are some issues being worked on.)
Also ~90% Monero users use Coinomi or similar wallets that scan their entire wallets so you have the same problem with the difference that people don't talk as much about it.
