Topic: Bitcoin does not provide full anonymity (Read 553 times)

Do you mean weaknesses in private ownership and data transfer? Well, looking at the performance, all Bitcoin transactions are verified and recorded on the public blockchain, which means anyone in the world can see the user's balance and transaction data, but remember, whatever is used by others to manipulate it is not that easy OP, but all this data transparency is all there is to it and the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to always be careful about doing business with people or organizations you know and trust.

There isn't full Bitcoin anonymity. Crypto is only pseudonymous and needs to be handled carefully. Otherwise, there are many ways one can track your identity while transacting in Bitcoins.

https://pesasi.com/bitcoin-anonymity/

Everyone on this forum already knows that Bitcoin is not a privacy coin, it will not be able to hide your transactions, unlike what other privacy coins do. But even so, Bitcoin is the best coin that people can use today and its adoption is much wider than other coins, so even though it is not anonymous, that does not mean that Bitcoin is not chosen by people for their transactions, because Bitcoin's credibility is much better and more reliable  compared to other coins and even banking.

I think bitcoin is completely anonymous. What makes bitcoin not anonymous is that there is a source that can connect the owner with bitcoin, namely an exchange. On exchanges, all platforms require kyc, this is what makes bitcoin not completely anonymous. Exchanges are a source of problems that bridge between bitcoin and bitcoin owners. If I were a person who used bitcoin for transactions without using an exchange, then bitcoin's anonymity would be maintained

If all exchanges didn't require kyc then bitcoin would be anonymous forever.

I’ve argued for years that this is a actually a very good thing for bitcoin. Would I prefer that bitcoin become entirely anonymous, hell fckn yes I would, but the world governments would put a ban on bitcoin more than they already have, and I don’t want to give them more reasons to try and shut down a good thing. It’s frustrating but not being anonymous is what’s truly best for bitcoin in my humble opinion.

The digital footprint will always exist and it becomes the source used to track everyone connected to the internet.
Transactions made by someone in cryptocurrency are recorded on the blockchain in a transparent manner and can be accessed by anyone.

Even if they use a mixer platform there is always a way to track the transactions that end up on their own real account.
Absolute privacy is not really a given, governments have all access including to the networks we use every day.

There are many tools that can now be used to track user addresses, such as Arkham Intelligence which can be used to trace where assets end up and complete with the necessary image charts.

https://platform.arkhamintelligence.com/

I mean it was never meant to be "anonymous" in the first place. People around the internet would still trace the trails of the transactions through address to address. See how many alts in here still gets busted at the end of the day? Yeah it might not be that usual knowing who's behind the address, but that's why it is just how you defined it -- pseudonymous.

I don't think there's just such thing as "perfect privacy" or "absolute anonymity" whenever you're in the internet.

....and all of them are made by someone and that someone has the control inside the code to do whatever s/he wants. Speaking of mic and camera, yeah they're quite concerning knowing that our smartphones are listening to what we say. Last time I say donuts in front of my phone, ads about donuts just popped up in Facebook news feed.

That is why bitcoin is a decentralized network, in such you could decide to have your privacy guaranteed, bitcoin is meant for us to achieve our wish or desires with financial system and management, blockchain being an open distributed ledger is never a lapse for anonymity to be achieved, there's already a provision for that if you can run a full node or maybe engage using a mixer to do that for you.


Which one is a privacy coin again if not bitcoin, if you choose to allow all you do with your bitcoin transactions open then you are making such decision by yourself, the network has a way you can go on full privacy, talk about the privacy, security and lots more are all achievable only if you know how to get them.

In the end, decentralization does not equal anonymity, this is one thing I believe a lot of us are understanding wrongly,  many people understand bitcoin transactions to be untraceable because Bitcoin is decentralized, this understanding is born out of pure misconception, one and easy way to know this is for the fact that we have a lot of mixers, this is different companies providing Bitcoin mixing services to interested customers, if bitcoin transactions were anonymous, there won't be any need for this mixing services, so for the fact that this mixing services are available and have people patronizing them, should tell everyone of us that bitcoin transactions and not anonymous even though bitcoin itself is decentralized.

The white paper is old and there are many new things that will help you to get that anonymity. Then again it also depends on the service provider. I am not saying this just because I am wearing a paid signature, no. It is a way to do it and it is reliable. I am talking about the Bitcoin mixture. It is a great way to put an end to your online footprint and start over. But that also depends on how you are using it.

There will be more advance ways to hide your track in the future for sure. But as long as we are in the present, we have to use what we have at our hand.

There is no way we can be fully anonymous in the market no matter the coin that we are buying or holding, there is always a footprint in the cloud that can lead to a trace. This is why even the Crypto scammers that have hacked different projects are always being apprended because there is always a trace to monitor anybody's activities. Just like the white paper says, Bitcoin is a decentralized currency even though it's not fully decentralized but we can still appreciate compared to our normal fiat currency that always create a bond between the government which regulate the bank and us.

None of the digital projects provide full anonymity, just take a look at the ads in the apps. All of them are based on the things someone looks for via search engines. Also, mic and camera help ad service. Usage of these tools in ad-creating services implies that it can be used not only for ads, but also for deanonymisation. So the anonymity of BTC accounts is easily surpassed with non-anonymity of Android and Ios systems, which know many things about any person saying or typing the word "bitcoin".

Each and everything you do on the internet leaves a footprint. So if you back track those footprints, you can track those and find the first wallet. But... here's the question. You can not get information about someone just by a public wallet address. Your privacy is how you keep it. Your way of making transactions will determine your privacy level.
To me, I still think that Bitcoin is anonymous to some extent, but not totally. When you are using Bitcoin for service, you are leaving some sort of information out there. Which can be track back to you. But if you avoid such services and keep your Bitcoin to your private wallet, you are anonymous.

You are right and the incident that happened to FTX should be an important lesson for anyone in saving the assets they own, so that when the exchange has a problem we don't lose assets there too. I am also a user who trades on binance and whenever I make a profit I will transfer it to a secure repository like Electrum and I will leave enough left over to trade again. Even though it is a little more complicated, at least the assets we have are not at risk of loss caused by a problematic exchange or hacking.

I think this is a basic consideration that needs to be made by everyone who holds assets in the long term and must also be selective in choosing a wallet that has a much better level of security. If it is not of particular concern then we are worried that we will lose the asset/bitcoin we have collected and in the end it would seem a waste if it befalls us.

It is not recommended to store all assets in CEX as it is dangerous, Learn from the FTX incident that made all users lose.
I only trade on Binance and deposit a certain amount of assets for trading capital, and it is also limited, only for a few trading assets.
When the trade is completed, take the rest and some profits made.

You also need to emphasize how to secure your personal wallet.
Secure the Private key, and make sure it is not hacked or exposed to malware.
Everything will be at risk if users do not provide more security to any storage.

Storing all your money in Binance or any centralized exchange is too risky, exchanges are not for storing funds and you can lose your money there if the exchange collapses, just like ftx, Celcius, Three Arrows Capital and others that have bitten the dust did. If the exchange doesn't collapse, they can as well confiscate your money if they have any suspicion about you, or if they think you have just deposited "naughty" coins. Store your coins only in your self cusody wallet like Electrum, Sparrow, etc and own the keys to your money.

It was never meant to be in a such manner that it provides complete anonymous transactions as you can see all the records on blockchain for every address although with mixing services you can get privacy to full levels but not with the Bitcoin as it provides decentralization not being anonymous.

One reason why the government of many countries is fighting so hard to regulate BTC is so as to totally remove the blanket which makes BTC or crypto decentralized fully.

With KYC verification first of all, what should make one assume that they are still anonymous?

I really think the decentralized nature of BTC is to protect the user or investors coins/funds from being particularly quantified. Besides this, any other transactions one intends to do on the network can be tracked unless tools like mixers are used.
For countries where BTC/crypto is banned, digital footprint like emails or sms notifications, icon/logos of exchanges or wallets on the device has done well to reduce any chance of anonymity there may have been.

Bitcoin is anonymous in the sense that transaction do not include real names, as with banking transactions.  They carry however another fingerprint.  Inputs.  When spending ten inputs all at once, it is the same as broadcasting to everyone that one person owned those.  That is the basis of bitcoin's lack of anonymity.  The other part is that you can trace coins, but that is not solid evidence of ownership.

I believe and I can even assure you that anonymity is not completely true in any system, they may have implemented such an imposing security that it can be seen in this way and many people are confused as they are new to this digital world, but that does not mean that what think, be it true, as many have mentioned, everyone who uses bitcoin is publicly encrypted in the chain of blocks, a kind of book where records are kept, so the addresses and amounts that are within them, can be seen by anyone and starting from there it can be proven that it is not what you think, another important aspect is that, despite the fact that there are other ways to increase the risk of not being discovered by having this coin in your possession to stay safe from those malicious who want to harm you.. for example, not using real personal data.. You have to be clear about the initial purpose for which it was created, and that is that Satoshi did not want people to remain anonymous, if not his approach was it was aimed at innovating a new transaction type that was free from manipulation by third parties.

Really? Like should you even do these? I am not really in favor of this much, I have all my money in my binance account that I did KYC for and nothing has happened to me, before that I was at poloniex, before that it was cryptsy as well, and none of them were neither scammed me (got out before cryptsy end up going down) and none of them gave my information to anywhere that used it against me.

This is why I feel like it is not really a big deal and we should not go overboard with anonymity if we do not want to. If this is what someone prefers then I could just say kudos and move out of their way and let them do it, but I do believe that it is not needed, it is a way too much and shouldn't be done and should be useless at that point.

Yes, and I believe it's a good thing. We should all be grateful to Satoshi for how Bitcoin is particularly designed. There's a perfect amount of balance. A certain amount of privacy is provided by Bitcoin. At the same time, it isn't private enough that law enforcers would be totally blind when it is involved in a crime. Privacy was definitely not the most important thing that Satoshi had in mind when he created it. The result is a cryptocurrency that is easy to adopt even from the side of governments and authorities.

Satoshi wasnt just a careful person; he was the personification of planning and vision. His choice to stay hidden has shown many people how we think we have privacy in the digital age when we really dont.

Yes, centralized exchanges are garbage dumps for people who give up their private rights without thinking. But its not just about them; its also about the way Bitcoin works. Its about putting institutions to the test, spreading power out, and taking power back from centralized organizations. If you dont see how this fits into the bigger picture, you might not be ready for this change.

In the beginning days of Bitcoin, those in authorities were then so afraid that this new form of currency can be utilized by all the illegal activities around most especially drugs and similar transactions since the parties involved in the transactions are not named unlike when you do a banking transfer where records can easily be retrieved by the portal owner. Later on, we realized that Bitcoin transactions are not really 100% antonymous since we can now mine data and see who can possibly be the owners of the wallet address used by the transactions and the record of transaction will always stay in the blockchain for anyone to see.  In case, one is looking for a 100% anonymity, then one has to use privacy coin and not Bitcoin.

I remembered the documentary regarding Jimmy Zhong with this one. He posted is address, and that's the main reason he got traced by the authorities thus, getting arrested.

Bitcoin doesn't really provide full anonymity at first already because you can still track the transactions thru blockchain. It isn't like those privacy coins out there that you can't really track the transaction that are being done. Your identity will not be known if you will not put your Bitcoin address online, or at least kept your personal info.

Bitcoin isn't intended to be anonymous, and it has never been, and I guess it will never be because it can be easily tracked thru the blockchain. On the other hand, if you didn't post your Bitcoin address online, then I guess you can keep yourself anonymous since nobody knows you.

BTC transactions are pseudonymous, that is a correct fact because the blockchain is a public ledger and all transactions can be viewed, and you don't have to doxx yourself for your identity to be revealed through the details of your transactions in the blockchain, all you need do is to use your funds on a centralized exchange or service where you have to register with your ID before using. If you do that, blockchain analysis experts will be able to trace your coins to you if they are really looking for you.

Take note that Satoshi never spent his coins, never did he register with his real identity on any centralized service, so even if we all can see some of his addresses from the blocks he mined, they have no details that link to Satoshi's identity, just an address with a balance. This is why bitcoiners are advised to use decentralized or p2p exchanges to keep their anonymity, or they use CoinJoin services to protect their privacy.

People confuse the word privacy with the word anonymous.

If you connect your real life identity to your Bitcoin wallet address then obviously someone will know who that address belongs to. And by someone I mean any centralised platform under control of an entity (who has to follow whatever regulations the government tells them to follow). In most common cases this means cryptocurrency exchanges which have your kyc.

Bitcoin was never meant to be anonymous. Criminals who want anonymous money, use paper cash.

Bitcoin is private. Which means no third party can take it away from you without your permission. Not even the government.

Traceable but as long as you don't go out of your own way to doxx yourself you're practically anonymous. Granted IP addresses are a thing and you can be tracked through that too but if that was the case you don't need bitcoin for it anymore. Bitcoin could provide full anonymity. Just cause transactions could be traced doesn't necessarily mean that you could track who the person is, and that is the primary ground that you need to fulfill in order to break the "bitcoin is anonymous" argument.

Imagine if bitcoin was a true "pseudonymous" cryptocurrency as what people are making it out to be. With proper investigation and tracking, you could even find out who Satoshi Nakamoto really is! After all his addresses are open for people to see, right?

Its Pseudonymous on saying about being anonymous on which we know that on the time that you would be touching up exchange platforms then this is where you would really be removing that anonymity but
in overall if you are really that making transactions p2p then there's no way on knowing on whose behind on that said wallet address. This is why it would really vary on such situation or condition that you are
really dealing with. So whats the big issue with this if it doesnt really offer that full anonymity? If you are really that minding about touching privacy coins then Monero or Zcash would be your choice
but if you do really still love on engaging with Bitcoin then its your choice. It is really just that hard not to make use of these exchange platforms specially if we are really that engaging with fiat conversions
and other centralized services which we do know that it is really hard to resist on specially if you are really that needing to make use of it. This is why we do make out those kind of choices.

I think this system will go like this. So KYC on one side and anonymity on the other. Neither will completely destroy the other. I don't think this is a problem.

It is said that Bitcoin does not provide complete anonymity. Whether it is or not, I don't think that's what we should be worried about. It should be questioned why those who have anonymity problems have such a problem.

We invest in Bitcoin because we wanted to have profit not because we wanted to have full control of our money.  It is already given that when you own Bitcoin you get all the feature Bitcoin gives but why are we holding and hoarding it?  If we want to make use of the Bitcoin feature then we should have been using it for our transaction not holding it waiting for the price to uptrend and sell at our target price.


As long as we do not connect the wallet address to the centralized services that have our identity, it would be hard to track who owns that BTC.  Of course, mixing services give more privacy and anonymity and make tracking way harder than normal transactions.

Bitcoin gurantees Anonymity if you are running a full node. There is no way your private info could be leaked through the system unless you are connected through a centralized system like the typically internet or using things controlled centrally. Lack of gurantee for Anonymity means users true identities can be revealed through the Bitcoin system by hackers, govts etc.
The issue is with centralized system or single point of failure, and this could be fixed by also running the Bitcoin system through decentralized "Internet" or through other systems that guarantee privacy/anonymity with no one in the middle or more powerful entity to violate it. A properly decentralized system means power and control of system are equally distributed to its participants, and the ability to abuse the system by anyone is checked & prevented by everyone

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Don't say Bitcoin is Anonymous... The name/identity which is not hidden is Bitcoin.  Better words to use are "Bitcoin is Anonymity-friendly", "Bitcoin is pro anonymity" , etc.

So, while Bitcoin transactions may not reveal the true identity behind the wallet addresses, they leave breadcrumbs that can be followed by the savvy investigators. It's like a digital detective story where the truth is hidden in the blockchain. So, embrace the pseudonymity, but remember that the dance floor is never truly.

I strongly believe that bitcoin transactions are very much anonymous when there are no third parties involved such as the exchange and in most cases organisations outside exchanges that requires KYC for verification purposes. Transactions can only be comfortably and conveniently traceable when there is a pieces of owners identity as a result of kyc undergone in line with regulations of the third party in question. These makes bitcoin holders vulnerable to identity leakage and counters the sole reasons for which bitcoin was founded.

Most of these happens as a result of government policies given to third parties if they must operate within their jurisdiction which makes them handicapped and left with no choice forcing their members to undergo kyc and their information stored on their data base which makes it easier for them to trace transactions and know owners of bitcoin assets.

For transaction matters not really since every transaction you made has been record on blockchain so provably you cannot rely if you want to be anonymous with this coin. But eventhough with that it doesn't give any problem to its users since even by now mang people use bitcoin in anything they want. If they are worried about their traceability they can use mixers to wash their transactions.

The OP argument is indeed not wrong. Because the anonymity that exists in bitcoin is not always absolute or absolute. But does it hurt investors in bitcoin? and does it hurt investors in bitcoin? in my opinion of course not.
Because bitcoin really can be owned with an anonymous identity. Like pseudonyms created for wallets, and like pseudonyms used to buy bitcoins on crypto exchanges. Although, transactions made in bitcoin are public and it is possible for these transactions to be traced or tracked by other people. But back again, most investors in bitcoin, I'm sure most of them must have an anonymous wallet name or email name. So even though transactions in bitcoin can be tracked by anyone, even so, it's not certain that real identities can be found out. Because all identities associated with bitcoin, using anonymous personal data

So in conclusion, even though bitcoin does not have a very absolute anonymity system, in my opinion this is enough to be able to protect the identity of every investor in bitcoin. And most importantly, it doesn't harm investors in bitcoin and it doesn't disturb the comfort of investors in bitcoin. So in my opinion, the issue of anonymity discussion related to bitcoin does not need to be debated at length. Because there are also people who think that bitcoin doesn't always have to be anonymous, so everyone must have different thoughts about this, even though the majority of investors in bitcoin, do say that bitcoin users must be anonymous.

But you could use many thing that will increase your privacy level, so it will not make you have no privacy when use Bitcoin.

The first task is avoid any centralized exchange or P2P that will ask KYC, use no KYC P2P e.g. robosats, agoradesk etc or decentralized exchange e.g. Bisq.

Second, use a non custodial wallet, run full node and use Tor to access it, no one will know your IP address.

Third, use Bitcoin mixer that will able to mix your coins and no one can link your old address with your new address.

Bitcoin was never created to be anonymous in mind, there are some facts that shows that Bitcoin is far from been anonymous.

Bitcoin has a public address that can always be tracked back to an ip address or even to any exchange account, if the investigation is to be carried out properly, an identity will be unveiled.

Let's also not forget that buying Bitcoin isn't anonymous too, those exchanges where you swap your Fiat to Bitcoin all requires some kind of verification, such as driver's license or national identity cards.

Pseudonymous is the right calling word for Bitcoin instead of anonymous.

The right word to use should be pseudonymous and not anonymous. The Bitcoin system is transparent and anybody can have access to check your transactions and how much you are worth if your address is known. That's why it is important to do everything possible to avoid revealing your identity to untrusted individuals or organizations. If possible avoid exchanges and other crypto services that asked for KYC. Total anonymity in Bitcoin transactions is complicated but mixers can be of good help. They will help to make the tracing of transactions more complicated for individuals and the government. But we also have roles to play to maintain our privacy.

and it cannot be denied, we still need CEX to exchange it for Fiat or P2P services which require using an account to send the Fiat, 100% privacy is still not possible.
Some CEX and Bitcoin exchange services that read IP and require KYC are subject only to the system that governs them.

Like CEX which must comply with the government, so the data will be owned by the government.
Full anonymity is still not possible if you and I still need Fiat.

It's true that every transaction is registered on the blockchain and can be tracked, but transactions can only be traced back to the real user who carried them out, depending on the platform the person is using to exchange and hold their Bitcoin. Some mobile wallets have the ability to store someone's IP, which can be tracked. Secondly, if one is using some centralised exchange that compels users to carry out KYC, most of those CEX as well store users IP. The only thing is that most users are very reluctant about their privacy, and we are still using some services that can still track our real identities through our Bitcoin transactions.

The fact that people still don’t know what bitcoin is all about and compare the function to being anonymous baffles me a lot. There’s indeed privacy and security in bitcoin but that does not guarantee you enough privacy when banking on a centralized exchange where your identity would have been known by them. Privacy and safety of bitcoin is more linked to using decentralized exchange but your transactions can still be traced whereby the true identity can be known since it is not displayed like the public key they can use to trace the funds to ones wallet address. Bitcoin is not anonymous but it gives you total control of your own funds unlike the traditional fiat banks who owns the full possession of your funds..

Have you come across any statements from Satoshi indicating that Bitcoin transactions will be anonymous? I haven't found any such statements. If there are no statements by Satoshi regarding Bitcoin's anonymity, then creating posts like these seems pointless. Bitcoin is meant to be decentralized, allowing you to be your own bank through a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet. Therefore, you should prioritize protecting your own anonymity if you prefer not to reveal your involvement with Bitcoin.

There are also cryptos whose anonymity is much stronger than in Bitcoin. They are categorized as privacy coins. I think I can use them better if my goal is to hide my identity as they are straight to the point. There is no need for me to use a Bitcoin mixer as that is only a waste of time and a waste of money because these mixers are not free.

I think that there are still platforms which doesn't asked a KYC or they are not mandatory like they can only come out once you are dealing with larger amounts. We must understand that Bitcoin was created to counter the centralized currencies or to remove the third party, so we should not expect other things to it.

You should try to separate the anonymous function from transactions, the blockchain is safe and is quite open to the public and if you intend to be more anonymous then do not use a centralized exchange that asks KYC to be completed, so you don't need to worry about tracking the transaction process that you run. Now there are many mixers that provide services without KYC and I think anonymity will be much safer when you use it. Transparent that is meant that all can be traced when we first download the wallet or after the transaction is carried out, but all that can be known is address the is not the actual identity of the owner of the address.

Therefore avoid any exchange that request KYC if you want to look more anonymous, bitcoin is much more respectful of privacy but will be quite transparent when involved in transactions. At least this system is much better than the system that has ever existed, both products offered by the government and from any institution that moves in groups.

KYC is nothing more than a leash that governments and centralized entities slap onto the necks of free-thinking individuals like us. People have "adapted," for sure, but at what cost? Getting less and less private? Its like putting on chains and saying, "This feels nice."

What are mixers? Ha! They're just a short-term fix. It might hide the deal for a little while, but if the government wants to see, they will. Consider it. You're dancing in front of the whole world, with all eyes on you. All they have to do is flip a switch.

KYC is silly! A plan to keep the power structures in place and control the story. Its not about being safe; its about being in charge. Whoever thinks otherwise is just not seeing how the game is really being played. But go ahead and use that brief cover that a mixer gives you to feel better.

I don't know why people still think that Bitcoin is fully anonymous. It's transparent and decentralized, this is the power of Bitcoin. For full anonymity, there are other coins like Monero.

true, I agree with this statement. Apart from that, I think the involvement of KYC also makes transactions on exchanges not completely anonymous, especially the fact that the transactions we make can be tracked from address to address. It's just that, I think at the moment, it's not as important and people have adapted to that. However, you can use a mixer to completely disguise the transaction you're doing just and do peer to peer transactions, however, if you use an exchange that requires KYC, it's still possible to trace it, especially for government people on the management side. tax.

Years ago people used to think that bitcoin was anonymous, nowadays everybody should know that it's not like that. You could try your best to remain anonymous by never using exchanges that required KYC and without buying online products that would be sent directly to your home address. If you are extremely careful maybe you could still remain anonymous at the end.

Bitcoin is a decentralized coin and uses blockchain technology due to which all its transactions are stored on a distributed ledger.  If you use a non-custodial wallet where you have only one private key, you don't need to do any KYC verification.  And your wallet doesn't bear your name. so how someone can track your real identity? you can done bitcoin transaction totally in a anonymous manner. But if you want to make transactions that no one can anger, you can use private coins like Monero. no one will be able to track its transactions. But Bitcoin is fully decentralized so its transactions can always be publicly tracked and there is no way to stop it.

I think the whole idea of placing bitcoin as a pseudonymity and not fully anonymous is basically because of its usage, if you look at even the explanation people make that it is stored publicly on the blockchain you will still ask yourself ok if all the addresses becomes linked to each other can it be traced back to its owner, the Answer to that now is certainly based on the way the owner of the address uses it. If the owner transact or uses centralized exchanges with KYC protocol then it can simply be traced to such person but imagine someone using a decentralized exchange and doesn’t have any KYC linked with any platform then it will be hard to certainly get such person which in turn is full anonymity to me. So it is certainly a matter of choice.


Such people can only be caught if they mixed the coins and then send it to a centralized exchange or any wallet that has link with any exchange that the person provides their KYC to. Only centralized platforms can lock the funds but if it was send to a decentralized platform or even Wallet then I doubt that such funds can ever be recovered. You can only see the transactions on blockchain because it is public but tracing it to the owner is something else

It's not fully provide anonymity, but it provide anonymity on a certain ways, compared to the way that bank transfer move money from one account to another, those accounts has the full identity of its owner, Bitcoin doesn't and that is anonymity. It's true that the transaction is traceable but if the person chose not never to reveal or sign their address then no one could connect the address to anyone.

Actually not, it's because of Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, there's no decentralized currency before. Cash is something that could be pseudonymous because we don't know exactly the person we transact if we handle a lot trades, we only remember a little bit about the face, cloth etc, but we're don't remember exactly the face, the name, and any other identity.

Well absolute anonymity isn't a childish wish, you need to check Monero and Bisq.

"Pseudonymity" is what makes Bitcoin so revolutionary! You have most of the facts right, but let's boil it down even more. When we look at the big picture of human history and development, systems are built on trust. Bitcoin, in all its glory, is a big change that combines private and trust.

Yes, the blockchain is transparent. Then what? The goal isn't to hide behind curtains, but to show that our banking system is broken. But even though Bitcoin is public, it gives you more protection than any bank account ever could. "Absolute anonymity" is just a childish wish. Every method leaves traces behind. If you don't like it, you might not like this crypto world. Change or you'll fall behind.

It's not really about anonymity. But about a system that is decentralized or not centralized. Bitcoin can be said to respect privacy more but is still transparent in the transaction process. And of course that is one of the many advantages that can be obtained simultaneously from using bitcoin. We can maintain the privacy of our identities, but we can still transact transparently and another advantage is that we are in full control of the assets we have in bitcoin. If we transact with random IP connectivity or through a VPN and also use Mixer then maybe users who want to remain anonymous can take advantage of it.

My first thought was that OP is new and doesn't yet really understand how this forum works. This should be moved to "Beginners & Help" if it's supposed to be an informative post.

Pseudonymous is the only word i have been using for it. And i can't count the number of times when i have corrected new people calling bitcoin anonymous.

I also don't understand what OP is trying to tell us here. But when it comes to anonymity, cash offers much better anonymity than bitcoin or any other method, but we have never been informed by the government that cash has anything to do with criminals like what they are propagating about bitcoin. But I wonder, if we use bitcoin mixer, how can they be tracking us? Isn't a mixer the best solution so no one knows we are holding bitcoins? Many mixers have been shut down by the government because they fear and think criminals are using them to get around them, but I don't think only criminals use mixers but normal users also use them.

Saying it’s commonly referred to as Pseudonymous is something strange to me as, I can rightly say am hearing this for the first time in this thread which makes the term not so common or very suitable for this description.

Talking about additional information for the possibility of linking an address to a user, that’ll be doing KYC on centralized exchanges and the fiat account used in receiving payment from p2p transactions that has to do with fiat/btc/crypto transfer. Yeah, that’s possible, other scenarios is like we have on the forum but, that just ties an address to a user rather than actual physical identity.

Where it really lies is, on an exchange and that’s why, not having a third party in a transaction is what should be but, the issue of trust in the space and who gets to exchange first often creates a log of problem.

Something users deal with case by case.

Most individual that have invested in Bitcoin already know that bitcoin doesn't offer full anonymity but that doesn't prevent us from investing in Bitcoin. We're not investing in Bitcoin because we want full anonymity but because we want full control of our money and Bitcoin offers that control fully therefore that's enough reason to invest in Bitcoin. We have to be careful individually so we don't exposed our Bitcoin address on social for it to be linked to us.

When an individual wants to improve their anonymity, they can make use of mixers or tumblers and make tracing of their transaction more difficult or impossible. The use of wallets that offers a new Bitcoin address for each transaction also helps in keeping us anonymous.

Yes, absolute anonymity is not an inherent aspect of the Bitcoin protocol, Bitcoin is transparent because all transactions can be traced and its many branches can be traced from the first day of the birth of the wallet, but all that can be known is the addresses only without knowing the true identity of the owner of the address.

The main problem lies in centralized third-party services that force users to submit to KYC, AML standards and force their users to apply them by providing official documents, if you use these centralized services once, this will lead to linking between your bitcoin addresses and your identity, and here privacy is eliminated in a way complete.

Yes, absolutely right. But if one wants then he can completely remain anonymous as if he uses mixer to mix the coins and hence the Bitcoins cannot be tracked. Moreover now where ever you go, which service you use, you are asked for KYC, so yes without KYC you can’t withdraw Bitcoins into cash also. So practically if we see, then Bitcoins don’t exactly provide full anonymity. But it’s atleast better than these centralised banks.

If you really understand this your statement made then i don't think you will have to create this topic for any reason, blockchain is publicly open and secured, if you think you want more privacy with transactions, run your full node, make use of layer 2 transaction or better make use of a bitcoin mixer.


Should in case you don't want that, then refer to my first reply quote above.


It is by running a full node, thinking about privacy then go get bitcoincore software and download it to run a full privacy node

Correct, now what?

There have been many thread pointed out if Bitcoin is pseudonymous and not an anonymous coin, even though there are still few users wrote Bitcoin is a privacy coin or something like that, there's always an old user corrected that mistake.

I mean, I don't see a good point or something that make me learn a new thing.

It is not necessarily a bad thing. There are fully anonymous chains (the most famous one is monero) too but they are not as widely adopted as bitcoin. It is because we still have to pay taxes and the government wants to know who their business partners are ( the taxpayers) KYC is becoming huge lately and anonymous chains like monero are dying off slowly. (pretty sad imo) In the end bitcoin's semi-anonymity will help it to survive through this mess. Would it be better if the government banned crypto completely? At least we still can trade and do business with bitcoin.

What exactly is the point of the topic? Are you trying to state the obvious which is already an established knowledge or fact on this forum or are you asking a question? I would assume you are asking a question and try to provide answers from what I understand.

Bitcoin is not anonymous. It has never been and this is why it is easier to launder money using the US dollar and it will forever be untraceable than it is to use Bitcoin even when you use mixers it will still be tracked. So many mixers have been seized because this.

Those transactions are just addresses of the wallets on them and not the name of the owner of that wallet, the reason that bitcoin transactions can be traced to a person is because they did a transaction on a website that has some sort of KYC policy so some people who transacts in bitcoin gets identified by cyber forensics, still better than using a credit card though, one swipe and they'll know what's your location. If you're really concerned about your privacy then using a bitcoin mixer might help you a lot, it mixes (as the service suggests) your coins with other coins so that the link to your target address is broken.

To this day, this is still confusing some people, Decentralized is not anonymity, Bitcoin transaction is transparent, and your funds can be tracked, Stupid criminals use Bitcoin transaction because they believe no one is watching, and some got away because the amount of their money around is happening on daily basis but they can always be caught when their time is up, and every old transaction they did, even year's ago will still be on the blockchain.

I think Monero and Sero are still the better anonymity crypto projects, there was once a time when Monero was targeted because the government believed it was a near-perfect gateway for criminals to move funds around, we all thought it was the end for Monero at the time but they somehow won the fight.

Bitcoin is fully decentralized and that doesn't make it an anonymous coin.

Bitcoin is commonly referred to as "pseudonymous" rather than fully anonymous. Although transactions are registered on the public blockchain, the connection between wallet addresses and individuals' identities isn't direct. Nevertheless, transactions are traceable and subject to analysis. Additional information can potentially link specific transactions to certain individuals or groups. It's worth mentioning that privacy-improving methods can heighten anonymity while utilizing Bitcoin, yet absolute anonymity isn't an inherent aspect of the protocol.