Electrum and TOR

[Blisset]

Hi, I red these 2 articles telling that if someone run Electrum without TOR all bitcoin activity is PUBLIC and linked with home IP address.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Electrum/comments/3bwyzf/how_do_i_route_electrum_through_tor/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2yzzmw/if_you_are_not_using_tor_youre_bitcoin_activity/

This is true or false?
Have I to delete my first default wallet I created without TOR?
Thank you very much

[Coding Enthusiast]

when using electrum, you connect to a third party server (electrum server) that is being run by regular people like you and me who want to contribute to the project for free.

so when you send bitcoin their IP address (the IP of the server) is what can be seen not yours.

also keep in mind that when you are connecting to these servers "they" are seeing your IP and they can store your activity (IP address + all bitcoin addresses in your wallet) so that can link it back to you. although normally they don't keep any records but it is possible to do.

also read this part

[Cereberus]

Hi, I red these 2 articles telling that if someone run Electrum without TOR all bitcoin activity is PUBLIC and linked with home IP address.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Electrum/comments/3bwyzf/how_do_i_route_electrum_through_tor/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2yzzmw/if_you_are_not_using_tor_youre_bitcoin_activity/

This is true or false?
Have I to delete my first default wallet I created without TOR?
Thank you very much

Unless you have something to hide I would stay with my default wallet in Electrum. Even if its true that they can find your IP by checking the transactions done with Electrum it still safe to use it. Remember that if you use TOR a lot of unusual traffic hits your PC and nothing can save your coins from rogue nodes from the TOR network. They can intercept you before you go to the server and all of your coins would be gone although this has a very small probability to happen is better to be safe than sorry. If you are so much privacy concerned you can try an altcoin like Monero which is privacy oriented.

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

If you are concerned about Tor just use Electrum over a good VPN so your true IP is never logged by Electrum servers. Another option would be to connect to your VPN first then start Tor Browser and then configure Electrum to connect by Tor:

Go to network settings, and select:
Protocol: SSL
Proxy: SOCKS5 127.0.0.1 9150

There are also serveral Electrum servers with .onion addresses like electrum-server.ninja. Connecting by VPN first hides your use of Tor from your ISP if your provider is one of those who dislike Tor.