Bitcoin Forum

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy

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When you tell someone you need your privacy, the next dark rhetorical question that arises to their shallow mind is, "Is he involved in shady things online?" The world in which we live has tricked our poor state of mind into believing that sharing data with anyone is no big concern, but one is potentially put in danger when they share and mismanage certain information with someone other than themselves.

Have you ever thought about why there have been exchange hacks even though there are external cold wallets that are designed to keep coins away from the internet? Have you ever considered what happens to your KYC when you register on exchanges and they take your info, and why do we always have a bridge of security despite millions of dollars invested in security? The answers to the questions are pointless because you should never entrust your data to anybody other than yourself to keep it safe.

Your personal data is one of your top priorities, and it's something you should keep safe and away from other people. You should only trust yourself with your information, you never know what other people might do to you at any given time.
Cryptocurrency is data, and it must not be slept on. If you make a single mistake, your data might wind up in the wrong hands. How do you plan to protect yourself from these flaws? Here are some ideas(do it yourself):

• Choice of Wallet

The choice of wallet should be optional because we all have various companies that we rely on when it comes to wallets, but whatever you choose, make sure it meets the following criteria:
- When it comes to choosing a wallet, I make sure to choose one that offers a wide range of options, including the need that it be open-source. It should be open-source so that anybody may create or modify a wallet version, as well as test the source code from the Github repository for bugs.
-  Not your keys/ not your fund to spend should be avoided. Your Wallet should have a seed phrase that you can backup so that you may be able to move your money from one wallet to another. If you can't back up the seed phrase, your private keys are as good as gone.
- If the wallet asks for data permission, you should deny it right away if you notice a pop-up asking for your location, contact, or calendar event. It is not a good idea to allow or use wallets that request such access.
- Please stay away from wallets that include "If conditions." While you are offered privacy terms and conditions, certain wallets duplicate your information, this is very crucial when reading their terms, don't tick that wallet with such a check box. For example, the Trust wallet is extensively used by many users, as seen by its presence in the Apple and Google Play stores, but when I read the developer's privacy and policy, I am alarmed by their terms. When you use the wallet, they no longer collect your personal information, but they do collect your public addresses when you interact with their software. This is risky since your UTXO retained the same wallet for keeping your change when you transfer payments to another user because the wallet does not generate a new address, especially for bitcoin. Your wallet is in danger; it's pointless if a company puts your wallet on a watch list because you utilized their program. They also record your IP address and the type of device you're using, as well as the operating system you're running.

https://i.imgur.com/OfA5ZMX.png

Source: https://trustwallet.com/privacy-and-policy

• Stop using a fancy keyboard

Keyloggers exist, and they can be found on your phone as well as your computer. Stick to a single and default keyboard since you never know when you can download a keyboard that will capture sensitive data you copy-paste. With advancement, new wallet futures now prevent seed phrase copying. They'd rather let you write down your private keys and phrases, learn about these customs, and avoid copying data back and forth.

https://i.imgur.com/VTkZYKI.png

• Dissociate yourself from the use of an analytical platform

We now have different firms that maintain track of a rich list of wallet addresses, they follow these addresses and place them on a watch list, and they perform daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly data analysis on this wallets, and they declare to the public when a wallet moves an amount from their wallet. Consider Elon Musk's wallet: if he decides to sell half of Tesla bitcoin, the entire world will know, it's preferable to keep your wallet off-grid and hidden from hackers and the rest of the world.

Other strategies to preserve your privacy include:
updating your wallet when a new version is issued on a regular basis. There might be a bug that has the potential to cause harm that you are unaware of, yet developers don't always publish them to prevent FUD.
Update your machine's operating system and anti-virus software, if you haven't already,
When engaging with a website that copy information about your browser, use a Tor browser or a VPN.
Don't use credit cards to acquire bitcoin on every crypto service, it may be one of the better options, but double-check before inserting your card details. ATMs are becoming more common and freely available, take advantage of them and transfer your bitcoins to personal wallets.

Some recommended and verified wallets for your bitcoin are as follows:


Both Electrum and Mycelium wallets are open source, although there have been complaints regarding Mycelium's inaccurate balance display and lack of synchronization due to a lack of frequent updates.

Privacy is protected by two sides: service provider and user. A good service can not provide good privacy for user if user does not follow user manual and requirement to maintain privacy.

It is applied for Bitcoin transactions, wallets, how we use the Internet and more.

Good topics on security and privacy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5239098.msg54186093#msg54186093)
Introduction about Privacy-o-meter (https://blockchair.com/api/docs#link_M6). It is to check estimated score for privacy of your transactions. It helps you to check your past transaction score and improve your transaction in future.

I use trust wallet which I heard it's open source, I think it should be in your list as one of the safest mobile wallet for newbies, I also think that the greatest privacy every newbies should take serious is not replying PM from strangers, no one is ready to help you by PMing you first, it's always a luring trick, in crypto space it's always each man for himself and the best place to ask for help is this forum, watch out for PMs on telegram most especially no good comes out of it

Your post contains a lot of good advice, but most of it is improving user security, rather than privacy. Open source non custodial wallets, not installing unnecessary software/apps/extensions/add-ons, installing latest updates, and so on, are all great advice to increase your security, but don't do very much for your privacy. For exasmple, an open source non custodial wallet like Electrum, while good for your security, can be very bad for your privacy depending on how you use it. Better advice from a privacy point of view would be to run your own node.

Trust wallet is closed source and owned by Binance. Terrible for both your security and your privacy. It should be nowhere near any list of good wallets.

You can check this list of open source hardware wallets:

Open Source Hardware Wallets (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288971.0)

For privacy, Bitcoin Core (https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/) will be preferable, to run full node.

The best bitcoin online simplified payment verification (SPV) wallet which are the ones people are most commonly using is Electrum (https://electrum.org). Mycelium is not bad either.

That is true, there are many ways bitcoin users are not private but using noncustododial wallets which is not included at all in the OP.

What I have noticed is that if dealing with altcoins, it is best to go for hardware wallet which are open source because online wallets that support many altcoins are not open source, Trustwallet is also one of them that is also not open source.

What is the safest crypto wallet for android smartphone? Not everyone has laptops or hardware wallets all android crypto wallets can't be closed source or I'm wrong?

If you intend to store bitcoin on your wallet, download Bluewallet, it's an open source but for Altcoins, that's another entire thing.
You can always create independent wallet of your choice.

For bitcoin, you can use Electrum or Mycelium, Mycelium support some altcoins. Electrum is still my best, but on computer, you will enjoy it more as it has more futures like coin control, this is a feature not present on most crypto wallets, but you can still make use of address freeze on mobile Electrum which can help to some extent, also a feature that is not present on most crypto wallets.

For altcoins, I will advice you to get an open source hardware wallet (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288971.0). You can check the list above. Make sure you check the coins they are supporting before buying, I will recommend Trezor.

Privacy isn't a crime but most people thinks that they are doing something illegal that is why they don't let us know what they are doing but the entire world can be different if they asked the same questions to the richest people of this world in the past and now. I know lot of people even went to prison because they don't want to let the public to know their real identity and one thing is they are not doing anything illegal, they just want their private space fot themselves to enjoy their life with all the money they are making.

When it comes to internet atleast 90% of the users don't care about the privacy and that is why Google, facebook, instagram, whatsapp are the most downloaded apps worldwide but when it comes to money we should be very careful of what we are doing and what can be done to avoid any intruders from accessing our wallets and bank accounts.

Default keyboard on some smartphone actually keyboard provided by the company/OEM (Samsung, Huawei, etc.) which collect some data. While they usually doesn't use it for stealing money/credential, you better use open-source keyboard (which have little or no data collection) such as,
https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard (https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard)
https://github.com/rkkr/simple-keyboard (https://github.com/rkkr/simple-keyboard)


BlueWallet is good choice since it has good balance between security and ease of use. But if you have serious privacy concern and willing to learn, check Samourai Wallet.

Both BlueWallet and Samourai have failed to be reproduced from their published code:
https://walletscrutiny.com/android/io.bluewallet.bluewallet/
https://walletscrutiny.com/android/com.samourai.wallet/

I would also suggest Electrum, but be aware that mobile wallets are one of the least secure types of wallet. Hardware wallets really aren't that expensive and are far more secure than mobile wallets. In terms of privacy, you will be very limited with mobile wallets unless you also run your own server to point your mobile wallet to.

Open source wallets are very important but they don't always increase or improve privacy.
I know few examples of wallet applications that are open source but they are sending analytics of everything you are doing, so it's best to disable that option in settings, or use some better alternative wallet that respects privacy and uses Tor protocol.

I don't see how fancy mechanical keyboards for computers can be a problem, and it's totally different story for phones and software keyboards.
If you ask me I would ditch smartphones totally if you care about privacy at all, or at least use it as little as possible... old mobile phones work perfectly for calls and messages.

How about removing windows operating spyware and installing open source Linux operating system like Debian for examplem or Tails OS with USB drive.
That is probably one of the best things you can do in your life to improve your privacy.


Coldcard wallet is not more complicated to use, it is more safe than others but it's not open source anymore, not they have CC+MIT license.
I would suggest everyone to stay away ledger wallets (not open source), and especially ledger NoNo X that is full of bugs, errors and problems.
People report them daily, like I wrote in this topic:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5358741.0

Thanks for this information, privacy is very important in things we do in life,in choosing wallet its important to choose the one with a lot of option so that we can make right choice,its also good to use new version of wallet because it has a lot of features than old ones.

OP, security and privacy are two different things in my opinion. Security is how you secure your bitcoin minimizing the risk of hacking and that includes how you choose the right wallet. While privacy is how you keep it confidential including how you use the crypto you practice in your every transaction. One example of privacy protection is when you don't use a centralized exchange and keep using a different address for each of your transaction.

I agree with @o_e_l_e_o's opinion, your thread emphasizes on how users get better security to store their bitcoin. But I think this thread is also good, but it would be even better if the title could be changed slightly to suit the content of the topic.

This is all about security, not privacy. Most of the thread content is how to secure your funds. But I like it, most newbies are unaware of how to secure their wallets or funds. The most important thing does not trust anyone with your funds. That means don't store your funds to a third party. Everything should be controlled by you, so definitely non-custodial wallet stands here. Just by avoiding using unnecessary tools in the device and don't be greedy, we can prevent a lot of incidents. This is also quite important in the cryptocurrency world.

That's why I suggested the OP to change the thread title to match the content being discussed. That will make it easier for people to find the right topics regarding security. I think Ratimov needs to add this topic to the list in one of his threads. This is great for getting attention.

Privacy protection is a mandatory thing to practice if we are interested in owning any amount of crypto assets. It's fine when we don't have much, but it will become a habit to do when we manage to accumulation for more.

As a general rule, if you are using a smartphone, you will need to sacrifice privacy in exchange for the lower cost of using your wallet. This is especially true if you do not have a laptop available.

To answer your question, if you are using an android, and don't have access to a laptop (to run a full node), I would suggest using electrum. The electrum server you connect to will know your transaction history and will know about your addresses.

Exactly, if using full client.

But most of the desktop wallet users are not still running their own (full) nodes.

Some even use IP address of Internet service provider which makes them not to have privacy while using bitcoin wallet or any other crypto wallets.

Privacy can still be possible on SPV wallets like Electrum, but it will require having different wallets in a way central servers will not be able to link each wallets together. This can be done by accessing Electrum with the use of Tor and by not accessing it with IP address of Internet service provider. If using different Tor circutes for each wallet you open so central servers will not be able to link one wallet to the other.

But, running full node is the best towards privacy as you do not depend on any central server.

Privacy doesn't guarantee any security there's still a possibility that you can still be hack especially if you carelessly doing your transactions online.

Recently, my friend got hacked because of some good offer online and those hackers are targeting the content creator offering for them to become partner in exchange of something but if you open the file, that's the start for them to hack your computer.

Due diligence is the key, and always be responsible if you are not familiar on anything better to research first. Online world is very risky, and a lot of hackers and scammers are waiting for some opportunity. Secure your details at all times, hard wallet is still not guarantee though.

With a computer/laptop, you at least have the (reasonable) option to use a full node. If you only have access to a mobile device, you likely are not going to have the ability to use run a full node.

It is tricky to use electrum on a mobile device in a way that guarantees your privacy. I don't think current implementations of electrum would make this very easy.

To guarantee your privacy, you would have to modify electrum to only access an electrum server via tor and to only query a single address at a time. Even if you were to do something like this, I don't think there are many people engaging in this practice, so a 'spying' electrum server may group these types of queries together.

Yes, that is true, but also the more than 400 gigabyte needed to download full blockchain makes most people not to use full client unless they extremely need privacy. While the pruned node have its own disadvantages. So most people have computers but yet using SPV wallets.

It depends on know the person knows how to use Electrum to still maintain privacy to some extent. The best is to run full node using Tor.

Like I explained above, you can still maintain privacy to some extent on Electrum, but it is not convenient. It will required two or more wallets and require rerouting Tor connection to each wallet. It depends on the way you are doing it, only different wallet addresses are not linked the way I explained it.

If you will have to use the same wallet, anonymity will be more possible, not privacy.

Privacy is a valuable thing. From the moment you start communicating, you lose a part of that value.

Just when you connect to the Internet, you lose some privacy and you have to learn that a small mistake may lead to revealing your identity.
It is impossible to anonymize if all the parties in the world want to track you and put sufficient financial resources for that, but the enjoyment of privacy earns you additional value.

Almost all free applications collect data about you and therefore you should know how to protect your privacy.

In Bitcoin, unless you are running a full node, connecting using Tor and VPN does not log your data, you are at the lowest level of privacy no matter what wallet you use.

Next comes disabling JavaScript data and accessing a lot of untrusted sites.

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In general, in terms of security and privacy, you mentioned a good point, which is the keyboard. In touch screens, these tools collect, record and analyze a lot of data, which happened to me in the morning, when I noticed the predictive text has become of high accuracy.

This is not so simple. You shouldn't use the same server for different addresses as they can get you traced. You have to select a different server for each address, but the problem is that you can't know if a spy node runs many Electrum servers.

At this point you also need to change your Tor circuit, so those servers that are supposedly one entity, cannot understand if the same addresses are owned by the same person. Note that this only brings confusion, not necessarily privacy guarantee. We can go one step further and say that you need to query the addresses at different time periods. For instance, if you query two different addresses, using different Tor circuits, selecting different servers, but querying them approximately at the same time, they can make their suspicion.

The privacy you get by running a node and its easiness is not comparable.

I like your own perception when comes to these thread; you see, privacy will only limit you from falling into the wrong hands or making transactions on wrong sites that might cost you the whole bucks you had but it doesn't mean someone can't still look above critics and hack your wallet for some carelessness...
 Security is when you set up the few customized options that can't be reset by someone else and also making sure that your priv key stays within you all time.

That's true, it would be better if it remained private because we do not know what the impact of it all, it could be detrimental to ourselves or our assets. Personally, I keep my participation in the crypto world a secret because I think it would be better and safer to keep it a secret, And I also think that not everyone in my environment can accept crypto well so it would be better to keep it a secret. Keep it a secret if you can to avoid unwanted things. but again it all depends on each principle to make it public or keep it a secret.

Tu is thread is full with good comments and tips about preserving your privacy.

On a more philosophical, aspect, I suggest you this reading by Giacomo Zucco:

A Treatise on Bitcoin and Privacy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5271127)

In the OP you can also find other interesting threads.

What do you have to say about Satoshi Nakamoto?
He successfully anonymised and pseudonimized in this present world of technology enhancement. I think many people in the world have made some decent efforts to track him but to no avail.
It is possible to anonymize only if you have it in mind from onset, by this you will be very careful about your identity.

You are correct, OP used them interchangeably in his article. It will be nice to create a clear distinction between security and privacy in OP or change the title to correspond with the body. This will make searching less tedious.