is Bitcoin really anonymous?

[Noodles23]

Some people will say Bitcoin is anonymous, others will say it is traceable.

This part kidda confuses me in a way..
If transactions are public on the blockchain, how private is Bitcoin really is ?

[BitMaxz]

All transactions are recorded on the blockchain. Using Explorer, you can find all transactions, including old transactions.
It is traceable because all of the transaction details are on the blockchain, which you can find publicly on any explorer.

Meaning Bitcoin isn't anonymous.

About the privacy, it depends on how you get your BTC. If you buy them from a centralized exchange, then before you can have them, you need to verify KYC.
Governments have access to these; transfers of BTC externally are monitored; it is private to everyone else except the government.

If you want total privacy, then you will need to buy BTC from decentralized P2P exchanges. Without disclosing or verifying KYC, you are far from anyone, even the government, except to the guy you are dealing with from the P2P exchange.

[Chifather247]

Dear Bitcoin is not  truly anonymous, it's pseudonymous. That means,Every transaction is recorded on the public blockchain like a giant, uneditable ledger anyone can view. So, if you send BTC from wallet 1 to wallet 2, everyone can see the amount, the addresses involved, and even follow the trail of funds across multiple transactions.
But here's the key,Those wallet addresses aren't directly tied to your real-world identity like your name or ID. They're just strings of characters, like a username or alias. So, in theory, if no one knows wallet 1 is yours, your privacy holds up.
The catch is  It's not as private as cash in your pocket. Transactions are traceable, and here's why that matters,If you buy BTC on an exchange that requires KYC the Know Your Customer,  ID verification, your identity gets linked to your wallet address. From there, anyone with the right tools like chain analysis companies used by governments or investigators can track where those funds go. Also some search this question  in bitcoin discussion forum for clearer understanding  i dont know how to search and get links i would have. Done that

[dkbit98]

This part kidda confuses me in a way..
If transactions are public on the blockchain, how private is Bitcoin really is ?

Bitcoin is not private at all, everything is seen on public blockchain, starting from your address and history of all transactions you ever made.
If you by any chance connected that address with your real identity from centralized exchange KYC, than they know everything about you.
I guess you could use different strategy with coinjoin to confuse analytics tracking, but this is not ideal and it can create issues with centralized exchanges.

PS
Privacy is not the same thing as anonymity.

[rat03gopoh]

If transactions are public on the blockchain, how private is Bitcoin really is ?

It depends on how much exposure you have to centralized services or how cleverly you hide your ownership when interacting with public platforms. Too often, people foolishly reveal their crypto wealth as it grows. This is tantamount to destroying several layers of privacy that should be restricted to only a few, even yourself.

[Abu-Naim]

Some people will say Bitcoin is anonymous, others will say it is traceable.

This part kidda confuses me in a way..
If transactions are public on the blockchain, how private is Bitcoin really is ?

Bitcoin transaction is public, but the anonymity in Bitcoin that people always say is because the holders of the Bitcoin are private, no one can tell you that this wallet belongs to so so person unless if you publish it somewhere where everyone can see, if not the transaction will be public even if no one knows who owns the wallet that send and the wallet that even receives.

[As-Soon-As]

Some people will say Bitcoin is anonymous, others will say it is traceable.

This part kidda confuses me in a way..
If transactions are public on the blockchain, how private is Bitcoin really is ?

If you want to be experienced about Bitcoin, then of course you can read and learn a lot about Bitcoin by entering the link below. And you should read the posts of senior brothers in this forum more and more carefully, but many of them have helped you in many links. So you enter this link below,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1629118.msg16384190#msg16384190

[Hazink]

This part kidda confuses me in a way..
If transactions are public on the blockchain, how private is Bitcoin really is ?

It's private as long as you use it anonymously. Every address you create to use can be public, but until you attach your real identity to the address, it's not directly possible for it to be traced down to you, unless in cases like those mentioned above where you use centralized services where your information has been submitted it will be easily to link it or when you enter a deal and receive payment with it from someone who know your real identity they can always keep record of that.

[uchegod-21]

This part kidda confuses me in a way..
If transactions are public on the blockchain, how private is Bitcoin really is ?

Bitcoin is not private at all, everything is seen on public blockchain, starting from your address and history of all transactions you ever made.
if you by any chance connected that address with your real identity from centralized exchange KYC, than they know everything about you.
I guess you could use different strategy with coinjoin to confuse analytics tracking, but this is not ideal and it can create issues with centralized exchanges.

PS
Privacy is not the same thing as anonymity.

If one remains anonymous until he connects his address with his real identity, doesn't that mean bitcoin is truly anonymous and that it is only the action of the owner of the address that exposed his true identity? By design, bitcoin address is just a string of characters. It has no name, phone number or location one can use to trace it. The identity of the user behind the address is exposed only when he connects directly or indirectly to anything that exposes him. So, if he avoids anything that exposes him, he remains anonymous.

So, bitcoin is anonymous, but its anonymity depends on the user.

[MusaMohamed]

Meaning Bitcoin isn't anonymous.

About the privacy, it depends on how you get your BTC. If you buy them from a centralized exchange, then before you can have them, you need to verify KYC.
Governments have access to these; transfers of BTC externally are monitored; it is private to everyone else except the government.

If you want total privacy, then you will need to buy BTC from decentralized P2P exchanges. Without disclosing or verifying KYC, you are far from anyone, even the government, except to the guy you are dealing with from the P2P exchange.

Bitcoin blockchain has its public ledger and it is not a private blockchain for complete privacy and anonymity but through practice, people can achieve privacy and anonymity if they want and master on how to use Bitcoin blockchain and Bitcoin non custodial wallets.

Bitcoin privacy guide.
Bitcoin privacy resources.
Protect your privacy.
General guidelines for sending BTC transactions.

[Daniel91]

If you plan well, inform yourself and if you are careful, you will always find a way to be anonymous and hide your identity while buying or acquiring bitcoin in some other way, such as trading, mining, participating in signature campaigns on this forum, etc.
That is not really the biggest problem, although more and more crypto exchanges are introducing KYC due to pressure from the US government and EU rules and increasingly strict regulations around crypto.
What will become a much bigger challenge for you, sooner or later, of course, provided that you make some big crypto profits, is how to transfer your crypto assets to fiat and spend them normally in your country, or somewhere else, without attracting unwanted attention from tax and other authorities?
I am currently much more focused on that. The good thing in my country is that there is no capital gains tax if crypto has been traded for at least 2 years.
Of course, sometimes it is difficult to prove it, but that is a question for another topic

[Emjay24]

If you want total privacy, then you will need to buy BTC from decentralized P2P exchanges. Without disclosing or verifying KYC, you are far from anyone, even the government, except to the guy you are dealing with from the P2P exchange.

The guy you're dealing with at the decentralized P2P exchange might be a government agent unaware to you, as long as there's someone who knows about your transaction, it's not totally private because a third party was involved and knowing very well that the transaction is publicly recorded and there's chances the transaction is traced back to you on the long-run. This leaves privacy out of Bitcoin in my understanding and validated the fact that it's only Pseudonymous.

[ZAINmalik75]

Privacy is not the same thing as anonymity.

Yes, that is why we say Bitcoin provides pseudonymity not full privacy or anonymity. As the transactions are public, anyone can see what we have sent or to whom we have sent. Just like you said, if someone finds out that an address belongs to a real person, then no matter the next transaction or the current transaction they think will be unconnected, all the previous transactions that person made will also be linked to that single person because of the leak.

We need to improve our privacy and anonymity which is possible with Bitcoin. We can use CoinJoin but it is prohibited to advertise or suggest in this forum so avoid discussing it further. We can also avoid reusing the same address, run our own node, or use XMR or other privacy centric coins like ZEC.

[Cookdata]

If one remains anonymous until he connects his address with his real identity, doesn't that mean bitcoin is truly anonymous and that it is only the action of the owner of the address that exposed his true identity? By design, bitcoin address is just a string of characters. It has no name, phone number or location one can use to trace it. The identity of the user behind the address is exposed only when he connects directly or indirectly to anything that exposes him. So, if he avoids anything that exposes him, he remains anonymous.

So, bitcoin is anonymous, but its anonymity depends on the user.

If you are using Bitcoin, sent Bitcoin from one address to another through a third -party  node doesn't make you anonymous, you are been watch like you are sitting on public transport.

[dkbit98]

So, bitcoin is anonymous, but its anonymity depends on the user.

That is not anonymous since it is optional, but you can say that bitcoin is pseudonymous but that is not the same thing.
OP basically asked two questions, and like I said before, private and anonymous are two different things.
With more services asking for mandatory KYC and looking for AML ratings I think that answer is obvious.

[coupable]

Bitcoin transaction is public, but the anonymity in Bitcoin that people always say is because the holders of the Bitcoin are private, no one can tell you that this wallet belongs to so so person unless if you publish it somewhere where everyone can see, if not the transaction will be public even if no one knows who owns the wallet that send and the wallet that even receives.

For how long you can stay anonymous by not posting your address to public? It's a limited anonymity that can't last long. Therefore bitcoin is considered psydo-anonymous since the bitcoin address can be related to its owner after displayed somwhere in public.
There does exist other blockchains which are full anonymous without a public transaction exposure. With anonymous blockchains, only the sender can know the know the receiver address and explorers only shows encrypted data for each transaction just to verify the transaction is in the blockchain. Check privacy coins like monero and grin to see the difference.