A couple of questions about privacy

[Poker Player]

I have been reading about transactions, privacy, coin control etc. The truth is that until now I haven't worried much, but a couple of doubts have arisen.

The first one: if you don't have much bitcoin and you haven't done many transactions, you should be very worried about it?

The second one: would it be a good idea for example that what I earn with the signature campaigns goes to the same address and I use that address to send bitcoin without mixing with other of my addresses?

In other cases I think it will be unavoidable to use different addresses for sending bitcoin if you have little money in the addresses and want to send more.

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[AdolfinWolf]

I have been reading about transactions, privacy, coin control etc. The truth is that until now I haven't worried much, but a couple of doubts have arisen.

The first one: if you don't have much bitcoin and you haven't done many transactions, you should be very worried about it?

The second one: would it be a good idea for example that what I earn with the signature campaigns goes to the same address and I use that address to send bitcoin without mixing with other of my addresses?

In other cases I think it will be unavoidable to use different addresses for sending bitcoin if you have little money in the addresses and want to send more.

You're totally incomprehensible.

What exactly are you worrying about? Whether or not you are identifiable if you make transactions from the address you received your sig campaign BTC on?

Well, yes. anyone can track that given they know your deposit address.

But this sounds more like a topic for Beginners & Help.

The first one: if you don't have much bitcoin and you haven't done many transactions, you should be very worried about it?

You should be. Once a link is made, it can never be undone. Let's say you make a transaction now that could identify you, for example from your address linked somewhere on the forum to an exchange such as Coinbase, and it'll forever annoy you, as it could potentially identify you in the future, when your standard for privacy, or care for it might be higher, if that makes sense.

The second one: would it be a good idea for example that what I earn with the signature campaigns goes to the same address and I use that address to send bitcoin without mixing with other of my addresses?

That's a good privacy precaution, that is, if I'm understanding you correctly, but it practically does nothing to hide the source of your funds.

[DireWolfM14]

I have been reading about transactions, privacy, coin control etc. The truth is that until now I haven't worried much, but a couple of doubts have arisen.

The first one: if you don't have much bitcoin and you haven't done many transactions, you should be very worried about it?

The second one: would it be a good idea for example that what I earn with the signature campaigns goes to the same address and I use that address to send bitcoin without mixing with other of my addresses?

In other cases I think it will be unavoidable to use different addresses for sending bitcoin if you have little money in the addresses and want to send more.

I could be mistaken, but I think you're concerned about your sig-campaign earnings being linked to your IRL identity?  Regardless, only can answer the question of how important it is to remain anonymous.

Personally, I try to keep any transactions I make as DireWolfM14 separate from, not linkable to "Dire Wolf" the biological entity.  I have made some transactions here on the forum with folks that I trust, and thus exposed my IRL identity, but I'm not too concerned about that.  Not that that's the right thing for you.  Like I said, only you can answer how important it is to you.

[sheenshane]

If you're concerned about privacy, just use the mixing service or a wallet that generates a new address after having a transaction.  Many of us here prefer to use Electrum since it is free and easy to use, this wallet has a feature of generating a new address for you after sending or receiving Bitcoin and the older deposit address will still work or any that has generated will reuse if you want.

My question is, why you worried about your Bitcoin transaction? 
It will not directly link to your real identity unless if you are using a custodial wallet which is there are alternatives that possibly will help you not connect with that wallet, mixing service is the best for you.

[BitMaxz]

I think you shouldn't worry about what you earn and receive to your Bitcoin address.
Because anytime soon I'm sure banks will ask if where you get that money if you withdraw them from well-known exchanges. So that you can use that transaction history as proof that you earn them.

And another thing is no one knows who you are if you earn them from the signature campaign, except exchanges if you are going to withdraw and verify your account.

If the address you use to receive rewards from the signature campaign and you already save the backup seed/private key to a safe place. You shouldn't be worry and you don't need to transfer it again to another wallet. Unless if you are hiding something?

[Poker Player]

You're totally incomprehensible.

LOL. Although I wouldn't say totally, as you and others have answered what I was asking.

What exactly are you worrying about? Whether or not you are identifiable if you make transactions from the address you received your sig campaign BTC on?

Whether I am identifiable if I make any transactions, not only from that address

But this sounds more like a topic for Beginners & Help.

I agree and I have moved the topic. Before opening it I was wondering whether to do it there.

You should be. Once a link is made, it can never be undone. Let's say you make a transaction now that could identify you, for example from your the address linked somewhere on the forum to an exchange such as Coinbase, and it'll forever annoy you.

Let's say that no transactions I have done are linked with my real identity, with my real name. I think they could still be traced via IP address right?

That's a good privacy precaution, that is, if I'm understanding you correctly, but it practically does nothing to hide the source of your funds.

You've understood correctly. No, I'm not worried about the source. Actually the sending address of those funds start like this "bitvestxxxxx..." so it's pretty clear where those funds come from.

If you're concerned about privacy, just use the mixing service or a wallet that generates a new address after having a transaction.  Many of us here prefer to use Electrum since it is free and easy to use, this wallet has a feature of generating a new address for you after sending or receiving Bitcoin and the older deposit address will still work or any that has generated will reuse if you want.

Yes but that's not infallible either, is it? First because the Electrum node(s) I connect to knows my IP and the addresses I own.

Also, if I have an address with 0.01 BTC that's linked to my real identity and I only want to make transactions of 0.02 BTC or higher, at some point I'll have to use that addres mixed with others to send funds so the others will be linked to me also.

My question is, why you worried about your Bitcoin transaction?  
It will not directly link to your real identity unless if you are using a custodial wallet which is there are alternatives that possibly will help you not connect with that wallet, mixing service is the best for you.

Not too worried really, as I said, I don't hold a lot of funds. It's just that I have been reading about it and I guess too many questions have arised while I was reading the info.

Thanks

[ranochigo]

Let's say that no transactions I have done are linked with my real identity, with my real name. I think they could still be traced via IP address right?

That depends on what kind of wallet you're using. Custodial wallets will no doubt do some logging that would compromise your privacy. SPV wallets like Electrum are generally terrible for privacy, even with bloom filters, the server can still deduce the list of addresses tied by the IP. In the case of full nodes, it's unlikely that someone can deduce the addresses linked to your IP with certainty. Searching up addresses on Blockexplorer as well. It all depends on your habit.

You've understood correctly. No, I'm not worried about the source. Actually the sending address of those funds start like this "bitvestxxxxx..." so it's pretty clear where those funds come from.

To obfuscate the origin, you want to look at the mixers available on the market, like ChipMixer and I've used it frequently. CoinJoin is also fairly popular but CoinJoin txes can get flagged by exchanges for stupid reasons.

Yes but that's not infallible either, is it? First because the Electrum node(s) I connect to knows my IP and the addresses I own.

Also, if I have an address with 0.01 BTC that's linked to my real identity and I only want to make transactions of 0.02 BTC or higher, at some point I'll have to use that addres mixed with others to send funds so the others will be linked to me also.

Yes. If you are really serious about privacy, either run your own Electrum Personal Server (which isn't hard and I've done it on my RPi) or use a full node or Wasabi Wallet (for CoinJoin). It really depends on how you manage your privacy, taking care to not link addresses with the same TXes together, not using services which could expose them etc.

[Husires]

If you are looking for full privacy, you need to manage a full node and use the Monero, but running a full node wallet with trusted VPN and mixing service will give you a good privacy.

 - Before sending any funds from signature campaigns to the exchange, use bitcoin mixer.
 - Before creating any new addresses, use a full node wallet with VPN.
 - use Tor to access Bitcointalk.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

- Before sending any funds from signature campaigns to the exchange, use bitcoin mixer.

It won't help if OP has only one payment from a signature campaign and want to mix. It is not economic so mixer is used for consolidation of signature campaign payments before real use to pay for other service bill or anything else.

- Before creating any new addresses, use a full node wallet with VPN.
 - use Tor to access Bitcointalk.

Do I miss something?

VPN or TOR only make sense if you are broadcasting your transaction. Create a new address can be done online or offline and you can create many address online with Electrum and no one knows the addreses if you don't use it for any transaction.

[ranochigo]

VPN or TOR only make sense if you are broadcasting your transaction. Create a new address can be done online or offline and you can create many address online with Electrum and no one knows the addreses if you don't use it for any transaction.

Electrum will send all the addresses within the gap limit to the server so that it can get any transactions that is relevant to the addresses in the wallet. It doesn't use bloom filters, not that it'll make a difference. But the server will know all your addresses, used or unused.

If you care about privacy, you wouldn't be using Electrum anyways. Behavior for Bitcoin Core is like what you describe. Though unless they can saturate all your connections with their nodes, they cannot determine with absolute certainty that you sent that transaction. On the other hand, when using Bitcoin Core/Electrum with VPN, the VPN operator will see which addresses belongs to you. Tor is better in that aspect.

** I think BIP151 was withdrawn so there's that.

[bob123]

VPN or TOR only make sense if you are broadcasting your transaction. Create a new address can be done online or offline and you can create many address online with Electrum and no one knows the addreses if you don't use it for any transaction.

Electrum leaks lots of information towards the server, including your addresses, transactions and IP. So the server definitely is able to link different addresses/transaction to the same entity.

Privacy-wise most SPV wallets are horrible. Two exceptions would be samourai for mobiles and wasabi for desktop systems.
Wasabi uses Tor and connects to a random node each time. Further it does not leak addresses by utilizing block filters.

You can imagine it like this:
Electrum: Connects to the servers, sends all addresses and asks for any changes
Wasabi: Connects to a node, asks for all affected addresses in a block, disconnects from the node -> If your address is affected: Connect to a new node, downloads block.