Topic: Safety of Btc ussage (Read 512 times)

Bitcoin is traceable if you don't do coinjoin, your friend isn't exaggerating. Monero is orders of magnitude more anonymous than bitcoin, and its developers are working to employ even more privacy technologies every day. Absolutely use it, if you want anonymity.

It's pretty bad for saving money, comparably to bitcoin, though: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/monero/btc.

Bitcoin is pseudonymous therefore there is ways that you can make it anonymous not that the transaction wouldn’t be public but won’t be traceable to you. Just as you have said if it is not sent to an address on a platform tied to your KYC then it is safe, also there is the IP address of the user linking up addresses through the use of public nodes and not having yours, having your own full node prevents this or using Tor/vpn too. The simplest method though not to link addresses together is to prioritize the use of new address for new transactions, this ways if been utilize can keep you anonymous

Bitcoin transactions are recorder on a public blockchain making them traceable to some extent. Although your identity isn't tied to you bitcoin wallet, advanced analytics can link wallet addresses to individuals which raises concerns for those who value privacy.

Monero is designed for privacy. It uses advanced cryptographic techniques like ring signatures and stealth addresses to hide transactions details making it much harder to trace. This makes monero a preferred choice for users who prioritize anonymity.

Whether to switch depends on your needs. Bitcoin remains highly secure and widely accepted which is an advantage for general use. Always weight your priorities and do your own research before making a decision

Bitcoin has always been easy to track, that is no news. I never used Monero, I know it's untraceable (I think) but I also know that many exchanges delisted it so it depends how you want to get that money out of the system. And the other question is: do you actually need something untraceable? Otherwise you may simply complicate your life.

And about tracking bitcoin, the other person needs to know about your transaction or knowing your wallet address otherwise there is no way to know who the owner is, you just have an address.

One of the things that makes people pick intrest to invest in bitcoin is because of the privacy so they believe so much that bitcoin will provide maximum security and also protect there identity of investing in bitcoin and with the help of public ledger you will be able to trace a particular transaction and it actually a good thing because very single details about that transaction will be known so is it not better so times because when someone is sending to you it can easily know when it will confirm when you check the mempool. Monero Is a good privacy coin to buy but sometimes I feel is people that do some criminal act are the once's that seriously love Monero and I love the way the system is designed and anytime anyone can do some checkings, and what you said is true there is no way you will use Monero that people will not suspect you of doing something shady and I don't dispute that fact some times  because majority of you protect there transactions thay way are those that actually do laundering if they want to look into those case seriously.

So you believe what your friend said?
You said that there were no problems while using Bitcoin, which means Bitcoin is safe to use. Various large companies such as MicroStrategy, Tesla and the country of El Salvador have stored Bitcoin in large amounts for the long term, so far their assets have been safe, even El Salvador has made huge profits from Bitcoin investments. MXR is not easily traceable, but there is no other coin better than Bitcoin, although bitcoin transactions can be traced because they are visible on the blockchain, but it will not make you hunted by the authorities after making a transaction.

Bitcoin is secure for most purposes, but since all transactions are recorded on a public ledger, they can potentially be traced. Monero focuses on privacy, concealing the details of a transaction-the sender, receiver, and amount. This makes Monero very popular for anyone seeking to conduct private transactions, however with this level of privacy and anonimity you will also raised a suspicion that people who use monero might use it for something illegal. On the other hand bitcoin is also working on its privacy with updates and second-layer solutions. In the end, it depends on your priorities: if you are mostly worried about privacy, Monero might be a better fit; if you would prefer a widely accepted and open one, then Bitcoin is still a good option.

The times are changing indeed.
Remember when everybody at the start of the Internet era got caught in some fishing scams or stuff like that?
Crypto is coming full circle and follows that path - so in any case, we have to stay vigilant and do every action, both in and out of the blockchain - responsibly.

It depends on why you are even trying to hide your transaction using XMR, if you are a scammer trying to defraud people using XMR transaction you are fooling yourself, because you will still be caught, a massive crime like scamming people can be exposed by the FBI, they just need to work with XMR team and something will be done about it.

I don't trust people in crypto anymore, some people are here to learn the good stuff only to use it against innocent people in the world, rob them of their hard earned money, days ago hundreds of scammers were caught in my country, they are all into crypto scams and frauds, now even legit crypto investor and miner like myself don't have the confidence anymore because it now seem like every person involved in crypto are scammers.

I really want to believe that nothing bad will happen, but there is less and less hope. It seems like my government has gone crazy. All they have been doing in recent years is banning everything completely. Soon it will even be scary to fart. What can we say about crypto? The authorities themselves don't give a damn about the laws and will calmly use crypto to bypass sanctions, but the average person will get it for doing this.

Bitcoin transactions are publicly seen by everyone because Bitcoin blockchain is a public one, not a private blockchain. Fortunately, with many Bitcoin transactions a day, or since 2009, how do I know that one transaction belong to who?

I can not know it, except if that sending and receiving addresses or one of them was publicly posted somewhere and was archived somewhere. If I don't have that information, I know nothing about that Bitcoin address and that Bitcoin transaction, nothing about identity of sender and receiver. It's good enough, safe enough to use Bitcoin blockchain.

Remember to use Change address, avoid reuse address, and you will have better privacy.

Privacy for Bitcoin transaction, advices.

As others mentioned, it's not that it can be tracked, but that transactions are public by design. So yes, any on-chain transaction is out there for anyone to see. But then the matter of identifying the people or entities behind the wallets and transactions is a different issue, which largely depends on a person. If you leave your BTC address online in profiles that contain identifiable information, someone with a proper interest and enough time can figure things out. But that's not a BTC design issue and not generally an issue, unless you're severely privacy-oriented.

Everyone sees safety+privacy equally in both legal and illegal aspects. Privacy is the most important thing for our safety. Privacy is important for us to protect ourselves from all kinds of harm.

If you think about it, those who trade in BTC legally must look after their funds and protect everything, so they must give the most importance to privacy and maintain privacy. If you prioritize security, then someone must give importance to privacy.

On the other hand, if you think about it, those who trade in BTC illegally must look after their funds and protect everything. However, those who trade illegally are always worried. They are always afraid that their privacy has been broken in some way. They always have different kinds of fears working inside them. Those who trade illegally are also worried that disaster may come to them at any time. However, I have seen that those who trade illegally cannot maintain privacy at some point to protect their privacy. Their secrets come to the fore, and they are caught.

That is not always true, privacy is important for so many reasons, even if you are not into anything illicit, one of the things i learnt when i got into BTC is how to keep my funds private, don't talk too much about my BTC's and use privacy solutions when i have to.

My point is that, it is wrong to believe that only people into illicit business have to worry about privacy, that is what the government wants to establish with the whole bullshit of 'clean' and 'dirty' coins, and in that way attacking BTC's fungibility.

Agreed through and through.
If there is no centrilized entities at place or something like illegal activities plus centrilized entities - everyone is good to go without XMR and be secure. In a privacy sense too, though XMR gives a bit more in that department.

your friend doesn't seem to really understand how bitcoin works and how it can be said to be pseudonymity. all transactions on the bitcoin network are recorded on the blockchain, meaning that everything is tracked, but as long as you don't use a centralized exchange that uses KYC, doesn't use repeated addresses, and uses the TOR network, it's completely safe and secure. so what your friend said was an exaggeration, and you don't need to switch to monero just for that reason alone.

In such a case - I totally agree. It's never wrong to double-check or take measures. Because your safety is your responsibility. And I hope you won't get into trouble anytime soon.

In my country, for example, there may be some legal problems if you use Bitcoin. So it would not be superfluous if I take slightly increased security measures when using cryptocurrency. Lately, something has even become scary. I do not want to end up under arrest because of these trifles. That is why it is necessary to use not only confidentiality, but also to protect yourself as much as possible.

Don't bring the devices with your funds, lots of em, with you around.
Period.
A phone should be always with you if your funds (some of them even) are there, a cold storage wallet, or another type of wallet - in a safe place, etc.

Definitely your friend is exaggerating, it's not required to convert your Bitcoin to Monero or use Bitcoin mixer, especially if you don't care with privacy at all.

The most important thing is the device you use to hold Bitcoin is completely safe, don't bought the device contains a lot Bitcoin to everywhere and know how to safely save your seed phrase.

It's enough in terms of safety.

You do have a point too.
Each person feels differently about their privacy - and rightfully so, I guess.
You can't mess up a cake with additional cherries on top.

People can care about their privacy, without being criminals or have criminal activities with their funds. Privacy matters for everyone, it's different in importance with different people. You don't need to be a criminal to want privacy for your Bitcoin transaction.

In life, when you go to public locations, you don't need to be a criminal, too feel uncomfortable when someone behind you or on one side (left or right), tries to look at your phone or laptop. It's privacy care.

If people don't publicly said they are Bitcoin investors, they have bitcoins, they will have better safety for their bitcoin fund because less people know about it, and less potential bad guys will try to do something like killing them, stealing these coins.
Physical Bitcoin attacks.

Privacy and safety comes together. Security, privacy and safety are in a pyramid with mutual interactions.

A friend of the OP may be onto something Or maybe he is just very fond of the privacy+security combo.
In any case, I agree with you - if there is no illegal stuff in question, nothing would be a problem for a person not using XMR, but just BTC.

Yes, BTC transactions can be tracked, and so what? Are you trying to hide the origin of your BTC funds? Are you committing crypto crimes?
Safety means that you are able to protect your crypto from hackers and scammers. Privacy means that nobody knows that you own crypto and nobody can trace the origin of your crypto. Achieving safety+privacy is great, but in most cases you shouldn't worry about your BTC being traceable on the blockchain(unless you are doing something illegal). I hear many people complaining about the high XMR transactions fees lately. I don't use XMR and I can't tell whether this is true or false.

What term of safe are we referring to? Anyone can secure their holdings without switching to XMR. If you’re after the privacy it’s common choosing XMR meanwhile bitcoin for long run is profitable, XMR is more private and stable meaning it can be use as fiat in most location and it promotes anonymity unlike bitcoin blockchain. If bitcoin doesn’t support same features as XMR although your friend is right but it doesn’t make bitcoin unsafe, I disagree and if you feel like converting your coins it all depends on your goal.

I always find it funny or confusing because it is transparent and at the same time anonymous. BTC represents most of it but for others or the privacy coins like Monero, they can be the ones that are non-trackable. Hence they are called as that 'privacy coins'.

The only thing is that I find what his friend say offensive against BTC. Only because BTC can be tracked, does it also mean it is now unsafe? Dang. Maybe he is only doing some shady activities, for him to say that. Having a friend like that is the ones that is not safe. And besides, like we said earlier, BTC is still partially anonymous, so we should not worry if we are conscious about our privacy.

If he can take some of the lessons that have been presented by some of the previous people then I am sure he will have a conclusion for the privacy and security issues in storing his bitcoin assets because there have been many suggestions and inputs that have been given and now it is up to him to choose which one.

That is true because using bitcoin should be much safer when someone is able to protect it and there are now many safe storage places that can be used or utilized. Monero has its own advantages and may not be compared to bitcoin because both have different sides depending on the use that is utilized by people. Everything that is online should not be so safe because there are still gaps to be infiltrated but it depends on how someone is able to secure it.

I don't agree that Monero is a hype, Monero is a great cryptocurrency, especially for privacy and other features it offers, like low fees, etc. Both BTC and Monero are great to use, it depends on what you are looking for as a crypto person. Op is surely wrong with their understanding of BTC, because pseudonymity does not mean 'unsafe', and in case they do not know, your cryptocurrency is only as safe as the device you store it in and your opsec.

In my opinion, Monero is only necessary for you to use if your BTC is of questionable origin, which might arouse the suspicions of exchanges and off-ramps.

There's nothing inherently wrong with BTC, but businesses choose to treat bitcoin as 'fungible' and make classifications for 'good money' and 'dirty money' (which is inherently a flawed comparison because the paper trail can easily be destroyed by using Coinjoins, but said businesses don't like that and blacklist all coinjoins as well).

On the flip side though, XMR is accepted at a much smaller number of stores compared to BTC. This is mainly because the centralized payment processors deliberately do not support XMR payments. But where it is accepted it's good.

About DASH, there is a funny history about their team denial to be a Privacy coin. For years, they claimed to be a Privacy coin but when there were attempts to break down Privacy coins, delist these coins on Centralized Exchanges, DASH team turned around and said their coin is not a Privacy coin.

This funny action from DASH team happened four years ago.
Dash should not be considered a privacy coin, Dash team says

Bitcoin is pseudonymous not anonymous which means all bitcoin transactions are visible on the blockchain network. Monero on the other hand is a privacy coin and its transaction are not public. If you’re trying to hide your transactions or paranoid about privacy, coins like Monero and Dash are the coins for you.

Your friend could have helped you by explaining widely to your comprehension about what he means by tracking which actually isn't tracking but the bitcoin blockchain an open ledger through which bitcoin address transactions can be viewed by anyone, but still on, the identity of the address owner remains anonymous.

Talk safest coin to use talk BTC to which monero is just a hype. But if you wish to try XMR you're free, probably when you test both you'll know which is better, which can't be any order than  bitcoin.

Everything that's on the blockchain can be tracked but it cannot be easily identified. Your friend isn't wrong if it's about privacy and the usage of monero.

You can also do that but if you have no problem dealing with and using Bitcoin for your transactions, there's nothing wrong with doing it as well.

At least for now, you've got some options for increasing your privacy and if you want more anonymity, you have a go-to crypto. But still, Bitcoin does both of it, and based on you, you have no issues with it. In layman's term, "if it's not broken, why fix?"

Your friend is blowing things outta proportion about Bitcoin being unsafe. Yes, bitcoin has a public ledger in the form of a blockchain, but that's about it. There's nothing unsafe about that. If you're concerned about privacy, XMR is a good option. However, it's important to note that XMR is not necessarily more "safe" than Bitcoin, just more private.

Ultimately, the decision is yours. If you're happy with bitcoin's level of privacy, stick with it. But you can take steps to improve it.  Use your own non-custodial wallet and generate new addresses.  Be wise with associations.  There are ways to use bitcoin privately if you need to.  And its transparency brings security benefits too.  Your friend's worries come from lack of understanding, not issues with the tech itself.

What do you really need from this community because from the look of things what you are talking about are two different thing's if you talk about security, you can have 100% security with Bitcoin it all depends on how you treat your Bitcoin, and even MRX have it own vulnerabilities it all depends on how you treat your coins.

Your friend could have been traced and tracked through many means apart from bitcoin as a matter of fact, having bitcoin is not the reason or means that your friend is tracked, it courbet from his details or devices so let it not sound as if Bitcoin security is not guaranteed.

Take note that your funds is only as safe as the device you store it in, so if you use an unsafe device, your funds can be stolen, as for the BTC network, it is safe in itself. The BTC blockchain is transparent and every tx is recorded there and open to everyone, but there are ways you can achieve privacy with BTC, i.e. BTC mixers or CoinJoin tx's, you should also stay off kyc services and don't reuse addresses.

Bitcoin has both security and privacy, though the use of mixers are for privacy but banned already form this forum, however, bitcoin itself provides with enough ways whereby you could achieve your privacy once you know how to do that, some make use of secured software client like bitcoincore for some related purpose, while we could as well make use of the layer two network protocols for this or running a full node if we don't mind.

Privacy and security ain't quite same
Monero is privacy oriented than Bitcoin.
And been tracked depends on what you using the funds for
If it's not something you want public you may Try monero or a Bitcoin mixer
Or avoid using a CEX.

To me he's exaggerating, though Bitcoin can be tracked
It can only be linked to you if you made your details public somewhere especially an exchange.

OP can combine the options presented to him or use something of his own after analyzing everything - and I hope he will be able to be sure of his future and privacy in the space.

Your friend is exaggerating. There is nothing unsafe about bitcoin. It is a coin with a public ledger but that doesn't make it unsafe. You have the choice about how much you reveal to other when you use bitcoin. If all your coins are associated to addresses on CEXs where you have performed KYC, you reuse addresses, and store your bitcoin on SPV wallets connected to servers provided by third-parties, then, yes, you do reveal some information about yourself.

There is a better way to do it. Run your own node. Buy bitcoin P2P or from no-KYC and/or decentralized exchanges. Don't reuse addresses and create multiple wallets for different purposes. You can also mix your coins and do coinjons.

Several people have suggested options to protect your bitcoin assets and now it is your own responsibility to put in the required effort. Security is something that is quite important in bitcoin investment especially because it involves a large capital that we put in and will be quite detrimental when security is not considered properly. As far as I know Monero cannot be traced easily but transactions are recorded on the blockchain and you need to know that so that you can run it properly and not make mistakes.

If you intend to maintain privacy then you need to find a match according to your needs because security and privacy are two different things. I think there are many previous suggestions that you can learn so that it will provide much better security to use.

Agreed.
If you don't have something to hide from the world that would hurt you and others in perspective - then BTC as it is, with augmentations (sorta) in the form of cold storage and so on, would be totally enough to stay on the bright sight.

The yin and yang from both worlds - a good option indeed.
I do hear that Monero was gotten rid of on Kraken and so on - in some other places, too.
But I think on a scale of a person with not that big bags, an ordinary enthusiast, in fact - using cold storage, different wallets, and so on, would be enough.

monero is just for extra privacy but personally i find no use for it

bitcoin’s transaction can be tracked because it is seen on the blockchain but unless you are using a kyc platform to make that transaction no one is going to know who you are or why are you making that transaction so calm down

i get that it’s for extra privacy but you seem panicked over the thought of bitcoins being tracked… are you perhaps hiding something?  jk but it depends on you and what you need

If you do this, that sounds a good strategy, you will have to use no KYC exchanges to covert Monero to Bitcoin and Bitcoin to Monero, before you cash out. The cash out must be on no KYC Peer to Peer platforms too.

https://kycnot.me/?t=exchange&q=&xmr=on&btc=on&cash=on

If a centralized exchange does not list Bitcoin, it's a scam exchange, because Bitcoin with a highest trading volume in cryptocurrency market, must be the first coin to be listed, free listing too.

Centralized exchanges get income and profit from trading fee and withdrawal fee, and Bitcoin can provide these fees for them. In cryptocurrency market, if Bitcoin is banned, it's the end.

I would choose to use a combination of Bitcoin and Monero.

Use Monero to hide the source, use Bitcoin when you want to cash out.

My speculation is, when you use Monero to cash out, it would be more raise a suspicion because Monero has been delisted on many exchanges. While Bitcoin, I don't think there's a centralized exchange that banned Bitcoin.

As clearly said above XMR is a privacy coin but that doesn’t mean bitcoin which its transactions are publicly stored cannot be used as such too. Bitcoin is regarded as a pseudonymous coin which can be used just the way you like it. For privacy sake you can actually do the things stated above or simply do the following too.

1. Run your own node; running your own node actually gives you the ability to validate transactions yourself and also remaining anonymous by not exposing your IP to a public node you’re connected to if you don’t run your own node (but even with connecting to public nodes you can hide your IP by using TOR/VPN)

2. Using different addresses for different transactions, as we all know all the transactions are recorded publicly but the only way to link them to someone is if the addresses are link through transactions and are also linked to a KYC platform. But avoiding any of these makes you stay anonymous

Depends on what you mean by "tracked", and it probably also depends on how you use your btc...

A little bit of context that might even be more confusing than the original question:

all transactions use unspent outputs as an input, and each transaction creates new unspent outputs, these unspent outputs fund addresses of whoever you're paying and usually a transaction also creates an unspent output funding your own change address.
All transactions are stored on a public ledger, so if your friends defenition of being "tracked" means that everybody can see the transaction you created on the public ledger, he is right. If he means a seller actually knows which change address you own, and which unspent outputs you used, he is also right.

If he means that anybody knows your identity, your location,... based on the blockchain, he's *probably* wrong. Transactions are stored on the public ledger, but they're just that: transactions. If you don't post your addresses on public fora, only people that either funded your address, or got an address funded by you will know part of the addresses you own (and part of the unspent outputs you controll). With some data mining, they might discover some more addresses controlled by you, especially if you re-use addresses.

I used the word *probably* because a lot of people actually use exchanges or online wallets instead of using software wallet, hardware wallets or airgapped wallets. If you give complete controll to a thirth party, they'll know quite a bit about you (amongst other things, they probably know your ip, which addresses you generated, which unspent outputs you controll). If you completed a KYC procedure, they'll even know a lot more. If you use a software wallet, this is less of an issue... But even with software wallets, there's a difference... If you run a full node, you'll broadcast transactions trough your own node, and your own node will broadcast them further, but the peers of your own node will not know the transaction was created by you or if you merely rebroadcast a transaction you yourself received. An SPV wallet does require you to connect to an SPV server, and they might know a bit about you.

Personally, i would not advice somebody to start using XMR. There's enough scrutiny for bitcoin users as it is, XMR has a much lower market cap, way less hashrate, way less nodes, way less users, way less people accept XMR, and it has a much worse rep than bitcoin. Don't get me wrong: my advice is just a personal opinion, i have no problems with people using XMR!

If you're worried about your anonimity and/or safety, i'd probably advise you to look at your OPSEC. Don't use exchanges or online wallets, keep your own keys on your own devices. Make sure your keys are safe (use airgapped or hardware wallets), don't post personal details, stay away from KYC, use tor,... Also, don't re-use addresses, and make sure you're in controll of your unspent outputs.

Safety and privacy are different.

Monero can not easily be traced but bitcoin transactions are recorded on blockchain. You need extra knowledge to have privacy while using bitcoin.

But what is your goal? If it is safety, bitcoin blockchain is very safe. Also what that matters at your end is to protect your wallet. You can use cold wallet instead. Or get yourself a reputed hardware wallet.

There is no coin that is comparable with bitcoin. It is the most adopted coin.

I have been using bitcoin successfully, and NO issues...Recently a friend of mine that it is not safe because it can be tracked. My friend
said that I should use MXR instead.  Someone please provide some clarification. If I should convert to XMR or isthis guy exaggerating?!?