Bitcoin transactions: What are the best strategies to void of being tracked?

[Sharpbit]

What are the best strategies to void of being tracked? Is there any service or behavior you should use?

[javadsalehi]

What are the best strategies to void of being tracked? Is there any service or behavior you should use?

As long as you have not filled a KYC from, you are anonymous. For some services your identity must be verified. You shouldn't use them.
If you only want the amount of coins be unknown, create new addresses. You can use several addresses.

[gentlemand]

The next question is who do you want to avoid tracking you?

If it's just the curious following your coins from address to address then run them through an exchange. That'll pool the coins and break the trail when you receive them back.

If you're worried about governments, tax men, aliens, I personally can't be bothered. You can slip up once and mangle your years of carefully cultivated anonymity. Most people who are concerned about it use mixers but the snooping types certainly aren't going to let slip what abilities they have so you could be toiling away for nothing.

[dothebeats]

Uhh, why would you want to be anonymous in the first place?

If you are not doing something nefarious about bitcoins and the reason you came here is not because of you hiding something then you shouldn't be too worried about your anonymity. You can employ the user of mixers to break the trail of coins every time you want to get a transaction masked, but that's a lot of effort and hard work plus fees on the side. Or you can send them to an exchange, withdraw it out on an address you desire to send the coins to and you're good to go.

[squatter]

What are the best strategies to void of being tracked? Is there any service or behavior you should use?

If you want to break a chain of transactions (separate inputs from outputs), you can use VPN+TOR and a reputable mixer, or a non-KYC exchange. Personally, I'm looking forward to a Dandelion-capable wallet that obfuscates propagation. TOR browser is ideal where possible, as browsers leak lots of PII to third party services.

Coin selection is really important if you want to avoid being linked to previous transactions. I avoid letting wallets send by default, and instead select inputs based on their history and destination. When I need to consolidate inputs, I might break the chain of transactions to obfuscate the original source.

Another thing to keep in mind is how lightweight wallets work. Electrum is awesome for its usability and fast syncing, but if you connect to servers at random, the way it queries transactions can theoretically allow snooping third parties to link your wallet addresses together. Ideally, you'd run a Core node as an Electrum server, then connect to that.

[dablatair]

Hello,

The simples things are to avoid give your identity like pass KYC and use anonymisor like VPN + TOR browser to eliminate link to your IP. If you also want to don't be tracked by your adress you could pass trought Exchange, without KYC again, and go out again, that will then be impossible to track in and out.

Finally no so difficult to stay anonymous with BTC

[timerland]

What are the best strategies to void of being tracked? Is there any service or behavior you should use?

The least you can do is probably not use hosted wallets. They are not actual bitcoin wallets where you control your own private keys, which means that the hosted wallet provider like coinbase is likely to be able to see all your transactions both in an out.

Also, don't reuse addresses in your wallet. Most wallets already do this automatically.

If you're really savvy about your privacy, then potentially using a mixer could obscure your tracks as well. Most of the times, though, it's going to be far more efficient to just use a normal, desktop wallet which you have full control over your privkeys with, that should be sufficient anonymity unless you suspect someone's monitoring you.

[Thirdspace]

What are the best strategies to void of being tracked? Is there any service or behavior you should use?

you can't completely avoid being tracked, blockchain is public ledger
but you can make it harder by using mixer or (no-KYC) exchanges to disconnect the coin links  
even if they can track you, they can't tell who you are unless you did KYC in one of the transactions
basically always transact pseudonymously and never reveal/provide any real personal info

The next question is who do you want to avoid tracking you?
~
If you're worried about governments, tax men, aliens, I personally can't be bothered. You can slip up once and mangle your years of carefully cultivated anonymity.

indeed that is the most important question as to why you want to avoid being tracked
if it's governments or tax related, just do your obligations... pay tax and live worry-free

[Sanmark]

Uhh, why would you want to be anonymous in the first place?

And why would you want to pay tax? I personally don't have that much, and Im fine with withdrawing fiat form cex, where I left my personal data, few hundred $ a month, mostly from mining. But if I get realy lucky with my invesment and need to withdraw bigger amounth of money, there is no way in hell that I would pay tax for my earnings! There is only trading personaly, phone to phone and maybe changing in zcash or monero before trade...

[flowers5]

What are the best strategies to void of being tracked? Is there any service or behavior you should use?

you can't completely avoid being tracked, blockchain is public ledger
but you can make it harder by using mixer or (no-KYC) exchanges to disconnect the coin links  
even if they can track you, they can't tell who you are unless you did KYC in one of the transactions
basically always transact pseudonymously and never reveal/provide any real personal info

The next question is who do you want to avoid tracking you?
~
If you're worried about governments, tax men, aliens, I personally can't be bothered. You can slip up once and mangle your years of carefully cultivated anonymity.

indeed that is the most important question as to why you want to avoid being tracked
if it's governments or tax related, just do your obligations... pay tax and live worry-free

Brother these taxes are being used to bomb Syria and threaten Iran and North Korea.  Letting the government take half you pay when they are freely printing money means your a slave.   I also did not sign any contract to pay taxes so I have no obligation.  We need more people like the original poster involved in crypto and less of these government bots.  Makes me wonder if we have government shills working the forum talking about paying your tax.  This also may be a cultural thing as well.  God only knows how each of us have been brainwashed in each of our respective cultures.  

[bloodyvio]

if it's me then I'll make a new wallet
then your funds in the old wallet send to an exchange and withdraw to a new wallet
but make sure the exchange does not require users to KYC
or a simpler way is to use a mixer

[libert19]

What are the best strategies to void of being tracked? Is there any service or behavior you should use?

If you want to break a chain of transactions (separate inputs from outputs), you can use VPN+TOR and a reputable mixer, or a non-KYC exchange. Personally, I'm looking forward to a Dandelion-capable wallet that obfuscates propagation. TOR browser is ideal where possible, as browsers leak lots of PII to third party services.

Coin selection is really important if you want to avoid being linked to previous transactions. I avoid letting wallets send by default, and instead select inputs based on their history and destination. When I need to consolidate inputs, I might break the chain of transactions to obfuscate the original source.

Another thing to keep in mind is how lightweight wallets work. Electrum is awesome for its usability and fast syncing, but if you connect to servers at random, the way it queries transactions can theoretically allow snooping third parties to link your wallet addresses together. Ideally, you'd run a Core node as an Electrum server, then connect to that.

Add to that, send your crypto to changelly (or on other exchange where you can flip to monero, no kyc exchange) and receive monero then repeat the same process.

[pooya87]

as @gentlemand said above the important question is who are you trying to hide from? depending on that you can find the best strategy based on cost and efficiency. sometimes simple avoidance of address reuse would give you more than enough privacy.

one method that was not mentioned however is usage of another altcoin. for example you exchange your bitcoins to an anonymous coin such as Monero (preferably using a service like shapeshift) and then later one exchange that back to bitcoin effectively breaking the link.

[kaisa]

No matter how much you avoid being tracked by the government it is impossible, if you have been marked cheating or doing money laundering then no matter how smart you are caught, it will be seen how much crime is made. VPN, TOR, KYC are only temporary, cannot fully protect all your activities on the internet. there is no anonymous thing in this world except God.

[Thirdspace]

... I also did not sign any contract to pay taxes so I have no obligation.  

then you shouldn't use any roads paved by the government
and don't use any public facilities provided by your government that was built by using tax money
like it or not (most) governments have important roles in their citizens life and well being

[jseverson]

Uhh, why would you want to be anonymous in the first place?

If you are not doing something nefarious about bitcoins and the reason you came here is not because of you hiding something then you shouldn't be too worried about your anonymity.

That's kind of a slippery slope. No one should have to be questioned for protecting their privacy. Some people could simply not want everyone to know how much money they have (which is why most countries have bank secrecy laws in place), and even just that is a perfectly good reason for obscuring your identity.

No matter how much you avoid being tracked by the government it is impossible, if you have been marked cheating or doing money laundering then no matter how smart you are caught, it will be seen how much crime is made. VPN, TOR, KYC are only temporary, cannot fully protect all your activities on the internet.

This is only really true (or half the time anyway) if you somehow committed a crime big enough to have large government agencies not spare any resources in tracking you down. They typically won't go through the trouble otherwise, and certainly not when you're just trying to protect your privacy.

[gentlemand]

Add to that, send your crypto to changelly (or on other exchange where you can flip to monero, no kyc exchange) and receive monero then repeat the same process.

Do not use Changelly if you don't want to give up details - https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/9cqmm2/do_not_use_changelly_they_steal_monero/

Even if you do they may decide to help themselves to your riches.

The only time I'd consider alts for full anonymity is when there are proper atomic swaps or truly decentralised exchanges. We're not there yet.

[Sanmark]

then you shouldn't use any roads paved by the government
and don't use any public facilities provided by your government that was built by using tax money
like it or not (most) governments have important roles in their citizens life and well being

Not all governments are same! And it's so easy to change country in which you live in, so why should I pay tax in current country if I wont be here in 3 years? Are they going to refund money that I gave them 20 years? Let them take taxes from their weapon industrie, mobile telecomunications, bankig sector, insuranses and other thiefs! Why is satoshi still anonymus? Why does Vitalik have Russian and Canada citizenship and resides in Singapore?

[pavka]

If you do not use your personal data anywhere and figure only under a pseudonym, then it will be practically impossible to link any crypto-currency transaction with a specific person. However, to follow the operations of a certain purse it does not hurt. Even mixers will not give a full guarantee of anonymity.

[arienna23]

What are the best strategies to void of being tracked? Is there any service or behavior you should use?

Using Bitcoin can be anonymous but it is still traceable thru blockchain. The only question is why do you want to be untraceable because if you are not doing illegal there is no problem if you get trace as long as you remain anonymous.