gianlucatassara on Nostr: HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BITCOIN PRIVACY: Privacy is a fundamental human right. If ...
HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BITCOIN PRIVACY:
Privacy is a fundamental human right. If you use bitcoin carelessly, other people (strangers, companies, governments) will know every movement you make and how much money you have.
There are 5 main ways to improve your privacy:
1) Never tell anyone how much bitcoin you have: I know this can be tempting. But as soon as someone knows how much bitcoin you have, they can simply force you to give it to them by putting a gun to your head, kidnapping your daugther or sending you to jail until you give away your money.
2) Run your own node (and use it): If you have a hardware wallet and connect to Ledger, Trezor, or any other company's node, you're basically sharing with them every move you make and how much money you have. This is absolutely crazy. Please learn how to run your own node.
Once you have your own node, you need to start fresh with a new seed, as Ledger or any other company could still have your XPUB from the old seed and know your every move forever and ever.
3) Don't buy KYC bitcoin: Stop giving your government ID to centralized exchanges or companies. This is nuts! Try to find bitcoin communities, Whatsapp groups, Telegram groups, decentralized exchanges, P2P apps, etc. If you look hard enough, you will eventually find ways to buy bitcoin (even BIG amounts) without giving your personal information to companies.
4) Keep your KYC and your no-KYC bitcoin separate from each other: If you do end up having some KYC bitcoin, please make sure to not mix those UTXOs with your no-KYC ones. If you mix them up, then the companies where you bought your bitcoin could trace you down, figure out approximately how much bitcoin you have, etc.
Use Sparrow Wallet to take care of this. Mark your UTXOs with labels. Use a block explorer (from your own node) to trace down those UTXOs you can't find. Move your KYC bitcoin to other wallet or passphrase to avoid mixing it up with your no-KYC. Etc.
If all of this is too complicated or you have way too many UTXOs you can always start fresh and have a new wallet exclusively for your future no-KYC bitcoins.
5) Use coinjoins to prevent people from tracing down your movements: The blockchain is public. If I sell you 10 BTC, I can then keep an eye on that transaction and see if you move it around, how much you move around, etc. By using coinjoins you make it difficult for others to trace your movements. Use Samourai Wallet, Sparrow Wallet, or other similar wallets.
I've heard bad things about Wasabi, so I would be personally cautious about them.
That's it.
Please take care of your privacy.
Privacy is a fundamental human right. If you use bitcoin carelessly, other people (strangers, companies, governments) will know every movement you make and how much money you have.
There are 5 main ways to improve your privacy:
1) Never tell anyone how much bitcoin you have: I know this can be tempting. But as soon as someone knows how much bitcoin you have, they can simply force you to give it to them by putting a gun to your head, kidnapping your daugther or sending you to jail until you give away your money.
2) Run your own node (and use it): If you have a hardware wallet and connect to Ledger, Trezor, or any other company's node, you're basically sharing with them every move you make and how much money you have. This is absolutely crazy. Please learn how to run your own node.
Once you have your own node, you need to start fresh with a new seed, as Ledger or any other company could still have your XPUB from the old seed and know your every move forever and ever.
3) Don't buy KYC bitcoin: Stop giving your government ID to centralized exchanges or companies. This is nuts! Try to find bitcoin communities, Whatsapp groups, Telegram groups, decentralized exchanges, P2P apps, etc. If you look hard enough, you will eventually find ways to buy bitcoin (even BIG amounts) without giving your personal information to companies.
4) Keep your KYC and your no-KYC bitcoin separate from each other: If you do end up having some KYC bitcoin, please make sure to not mix those UTXOs with your no-KYC ones. If you mix them up, then the companies where you bought your bitcoin could trace you down, figure out approximately how much bitcoin you have, etc.
Use Sparrow Wallet to take care of this. Mark your UTXOs with labels. Use a block explorer (from your own node) to trace down those UTXOs you can't find. Move your KYC bitcoin to other wallet or passphrase to avoid mixing it up with your no-KYC. Etc.
If all of this is too complicated or you have way too many UTXOs you can always start fresh and have a new wallet exclusively for your future no-KYC bitcoins.
5) Use coinjoins to prevent people from tracing down your movements: The blockchain is public. If I sell you 10 BTC, I can then keep an eye on that transaction and see if you move it around, how much you move around, etc. By using coinjoins you make it difficult for others to trace your movements. Use Samourai Wallet, Sparrow Wallet, or other similar wallets.
I've heard bad things about Wasabi, so I would be personally cautious about them.
That's it.
Please take care of your privacy.