Topic: Anonymity and Privacy while using Bitcoin. Which one is the right word to use? (Read 171 times)
June 19, 2021, 07:48:07 AM
The transaction are anonymitly carried out and privately owned. Whichever word is used here is correct to be honest, I think the technology of Bitcoin is more important than the right word to use. Your identity can still be exposed by a third-party involved in the peer to peer transaction, for example there must be a sender and a receiver for a Bitcoin transaction to happen. Wouldn't there be a mutual discussion for the Bitcoin transaction to happen? It is just private to me.
June 19, 2021, 07:44:06 AM
We talk about Pseudo-anonymity, where you appear to be anonymous, but in reality you are not 100% anonymous. The moment when you link your Bitcoin address to some third party service where your real identity can be tracked, your anonymity is gone. So, if you buy your bitcoins through a regulated third party... you have zero anonymity. 
Even if you bought your bitcoins through an anonymous source, you lose your anonymity when you pay for a product or service where they require your real identity.
(Casinos / Merchants / Hardware wallet providers etc)
Even if you bought your bitcoins through an anonymous source, you lose your anonymity when you pay for a product or service where they require your real identity.
(Casinos / Merchants / Hardware wallet providers etc) 
June 19, 2021, 06:00:59 AM
How is anonymity the correct word when Bitcoin is transparent? Privacy is when you want someone not to know what you're doing in the bathroom; anonymity is when you want someone not to know you're in the bathroom at all.
The expressions may differ in different languages and people as well, for me I see that privacy is that no one knows anything about you at all and anonymity means that people can know what you are doing without knowing who you are.
In Bitcoin, you can know the address, date and quantity without knowing who owns this address or the person who made the transfer, and this is called anonymous in our language.
Privacy varies according to different people and their vision, because some people see knowing the address, date and quantity as a violation of privacy, while others do not mind that because what is important to them is that their true identity is not known.
I hope I have been able to clarify my point.
June 19, 2021, 05:15:26 AM
The two words are closely related to each other, but in the case of Bitcoin I think the correct word is “Anonymity” because the Blockchain is also transparent as the history of all transactions, the addresses of senders and recipients that were sent to them, as well as the timing and quantity that was sent, can also be known as the balance of a Bitcoin address since It was created so it cannot be said that this is complete privacy although the identity of the sender and receiver is unknown, so it is more correct to use the word "Anonymity".
How is anonymity the correct word when Bitcoin is transparent? Privacy is when you want someone not to know what you're doing in the bathroom; anonymity is when you want someone not to know you're in the bathroom at all. June 19, 2021, 04:55:13 AM
The two words are closely related to each other, but in the case of Bitcoin I think the correct word is “Anonymity” because the Blockchain is also transparent as the history of all transactions, the addresses of senders and recipients that were sent to them, as well as the timing and quantity that was sent, can also be known as the balance of a Bitcoin address since It was created so it cannot be said that this is complete privacy although the identity of the sender and receiver is unknown, so it is more correct to use the word "Anonymity".
June 19, 2021, 04:38:02 AM
Actually, I think that anonymity and privacy are both fitting words. Because normally, it can't be known which transaction belongs to whom. And they can't be disturbed by other people too.
June 19, 2021, 04:33:29 AM
I think you can gain benefit from bitcoin both anonymously and privately. I actually do not see any difference between the two. When you enter bitcoin, your anonymisity is ensured already. No one can ever know any personal details about you as long as you do not expose it explicitly. You do not have to worry about your security as long as you stay careful, it is one of the advantage of making payments in crypto. Some people such as criminals take this opportunity so that they can commit crimes and make payments with illegal items without having their identity exposed.
Incorrect. Anonymity can never be guaranteed through using Bitcoin and I'd go as far as to say that it is almost never achieved with the activities that the average Joe would engage it. There are various points of failure present when one is trying to cover their track by disassociating various transactions from each other and that can be exploitable. The "degree" of anonymity that you can achieve is dependent on the various precautions and/or measures that you take to try to ensure your anonymity. With sufficient resources and if you're a person of interest, you'd have to go through even more loops to which I'll say that you're better off trying to use a crypto that is focused on your privacy. June 19, 2021, 04:12:55 AM
Make sense. Just curious how many are still can manage to keep their anonymity from everyome except Satoshi. So indeed you also give up that, everyone must have sell their bitcoin right?
Yeah. I suspect this is the reason Satoshi never sold his coins. By selling, you're potentially compromising your anonymity and he/they definitely never wanted that. If you want to be anonymous witb BTC, either never sell or do it through Bisq only (although I am not 100% sure Bisq is very strong against exit node attacks and other vulnerabilities/attack vectors?).It's all about time before you can get to somehow, with maximum care, keep your BTC anonymous from start to end. Once XMR <-> BTC atomic swaps get real, it's gonna be very easy to keep BTC with no traces of your identity. You just swap from XMR to BTC, hodl it and when you want to sell, move back to XMR and nobody will know a thing.
June 18, 2021, 06:25:50 PM
I think you can gain benefit from bitcoin both anonymously and privately. I actually do not see any difference between the two. When you enter bitcoin, your anonymisity is ensured already. No one can ever know any personal details about you as long as you do not expose it explicitly. You do not have to worry about your security as long as you stay careful, it is one of the advantage of making payments in crypto. Some people such as criminals take this opportunity so that they can commit crimes and make payments with illegal items without having their identity exposed.
June 18, 2021, 10:37:00 AM
Bitcoin transactions are not private, privacy is about someone not being able to observe and document those actions, the blockchain is public, there is no privacy about transactions, the only thing that makes them semi-anonymous is that you can't link the sending address to a person in most cases. Bank transfers are private, only you and the receiver or sender will know about that transfer, nobody is able to monitor it freely, the merchant that has got 100$ from you won't be able to look at a chain and see all the payments you have made in your entire history from that bank account, but the same time they are not anonymous since they are linked to your name and ID details.
Do not mind me there, the blockchain is open to be public, so it is public, not private. Which means bitcoin transactions are public, but yet pseudonymous because the transactions can only be accessible on blockchain but can not be linked to the person making the transaction(s) if the the person is maintaining privacy while such person making the transaction can be regarded as anonymous, because who made the transaction is not known. 
June 18, 2021, 10:35:13 AM
The only way to stay as close to anonymous as possible is by never selling your coins for anything physical (or even digital such as games). As long as you sell your Bitcoins, you have cancelled your anonymity and I think there are other ways you could do this as well besides selling.
Make sense. Just curious how many are still can manage to keep their anonymity from everyome except Satoshi. So indeed you also give up that, everyone must have sell their bitcoin right? Quote from: stompix link=topic=5344431.msg57260016#msg57260016
And how do you keep your privacy when you spend those coins?
Cant disageee with that cause you are right but keeping it as long as I can is the preventive way of keeping my privacy somehow. 
June 18, 2021, 10:28:01 AM
I don't think it's a language problem. At least, in my native language there are also two separate words for privacy and anonymity, so the issue of choosing the proper word persists. If we treat anonymity as merely the lack of identification by name, then Bitcoin can indeed by used anonymously. However, since all transactions are publicly available, it seems weird to call it an anonymous currency, so the term 'pseudonymous' is preferred. As for privacy, Bitcoin allows for some precisely because the transactions are not automatically linked to one's real identity, but it also doesn't seem to be the best word for describing Bitcoin because transactions can be easily traced and observed by anyone.
June 18, 2021, 10:24:49 AM
No, it is private. Example of anonymous transactions are that of monero in which no record of public ledger, so nothing known about the transaction.
Bitcoin transactions are not private, privacy is about someone not being able to observe and document those actions, the blockchain is public, there is no privacy about transactions, the only thing that makes them semi-anonymous is that you can't link the sending address to a person in most cases. Bank transfers are private, only you and the receiver or sender will know about that transfer, nobody is able to monitor it freely, the merchant that has got 100$ from you won't be able to look at a chain and see all the payments you have made in your entire history from that bank account, but the same time they are not anonymous since they are linked to your name and ID details.
Actually can. How can a super careful guy whom doing a lot of bitcoin transaction using mixers can be traced without violating some terms by such third party? Unless the mixer site have a way to access customers information amd they breach their service term to give up some info regarding the customer. However this only works on crime purposes I guess.
And how do you keep your privacy when you spend those coins?
Mixers are being used to break the links when somebody wants to trace your movement, so :
I get paid by X, I use a mixer, I buy something from Y, no matter how closely you watch all the payments made by X you will never find out one of his employees bought something from Y. That doesn't change the fact that X knows who I am , and that doesn't change the fact that Y also does as I went to him to buy the stuff or he had it delivered to my home
June 18, 2021, 10:08:13 AM
Bitcoin transactions are pseudo-anonymous which means its, not 100% anonymity and you can be traced in some way even if you mixed the coin if you involved in something highly offensive as per the laws but it gives privacy to anyone who wanted, they no need to visit a bank to make a transaction and also the receiver no need to reveal his identity to receive money.
June 18, 2021, 10:00:56 AM
Actually can. How can a super careful guy whom doing a lot of bitcoin transaction using mixers can be traced without violating some terms by such third party? Unless the mixer site have a way to access customers information amd they breach their service term to give up some info regarding the customer. However this only works on crime purposes I guess.
The only way to stay as close to anonymous as possible is by never selling your coins for anything physical (or even digital such as games). As long as you sell your Bitcoins, you have cancelled your anonymity and I think there are other ways you could do this as well besides selling.Once you buy a phone from me through BTC, even if those Bitcoins have been mixed and so, even if this happens P2P, I know your public address so I know who exactly you are on the blockchain. Monero gives you anonymity instead: besides the amount received, there is nothing you get to know about me. It's very close to cash payments, but even those are numbered (have a serie written on it).
You can't really be anonymous when a ledger is transparent, but you can definitely achieve high levels of privacy.
June 18, 2021, 06:01:38 AM
Privacy and anonymity is the same in my opinion so either word you choose it will be the same for bitcoin. Anonymity is a bit debatable though since bitcoin is sometimes considered pseudonymous.
June 18, 2021, 02:08:02 AM
There is no real anonymity with bitcoin if you are exchanging for fiat which is what 99% of people do with crypto, and while crypto is linked to fiat there really is no "privacy" or anonymity and even if you purchase an item legitimately using only crypto there will always be a trace on it just like any other sale.
June 17, 2021, 11:50:59 PM
1. VPN + Tor
Do you really need to combine VPN and Tor?3. Wasabi, Joinmarket, Samourai
Some sources for recommended wallets and reviews.
June 17, 2021, 10:06:33 PM
But you have to understand that there are blockchain analysis company that can find the link of your address and identify the person itself. Perhaps the best question is how to protect our identity and what measures to make it private?
1. VPN + Tor
2. Tumbling services or bitcoin mixers
3. Wasabi, Joinmarket, Samourai
There could be more practice to really protect our anonymity and privacy.
1. VPN + Tor
2. Tumbling services or bitcoin mixers
3. Wasabi, Joinmarket, Samourai
There could be more practice to really protect our anonymity and privacy.
June 17, 2021, 09:44:43 PM
Also, you can stay private with bitcoin transactions but not completely anonymous because if need be, you can be traced by the authorities who have alligned themselves with some technologies to do so, that is not anonymity.
Actually can. How can a super careful guy whom doing a lot of bitcoin transaction using mixers can be traced without violating some terms by such third party? Unless the mixer site have a way to access customers information amd they breach their service term to give up some info regarding the customer. However this only works on crime purposes I guess. Jump to: