Crash course in Bitcoin privacy (incl reading material)

Nobody in bitcoin is interested in securing your own privacy, except you yourself. Below is an incomplete list of things that an average user can do to increase their privacy on the bitcoin network.

DO:

• run your own full node and connect your wallet to it: this avoids leaking your transactions/your IP to third parties (f.ex your Ledger/Trezor gives your addresses to their servers every time you receive coins)

• try to avoid KYC services, if possible: instead use Bisq, HodlHodl, establish a network for in-person buying/selling, go to meetups, start earning bitcoin etc

• use Wasabi to mix your coins (or upcoming coinjoin features of Samourai for Android, or the Joinmarket project)

• practice coin control after mixing

• use TOR browser when dealing with bitcoin services (blockexplorers especially)

• consider using the Lightning network for more privacy

DON'T:

• reuse addresses

• reveal your public keys to any software (watch-only wallets, f.ex), as it’s possible to derive all possible future receiving addresses from the pubkey

• look up your own bitcoin transactions on blockexplorers, or at least use the Tor browser

• don’t post your receiving addresses in public unnecessarily

• don’t consolidate UTXOs without need: consider the trade-off between decreasing future fees and potential decrease in privacy

Reading material:

very extensive privacy wiki (see “Methods for improving privacy” especially), by u/belcher_: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Privacy

privacy FAQ by u/6102bitcoin: https://github.com/6102bitcoin/FAQ/blob/master/hodl-privacy.md

“Beginner’s Guide to Lightning on a Raspberry Pi” (includes connecting your hardware wallet to the Raspberry node, setting up TOR etc.. feel free to skip the Lightning part and jump to bonus section if only interested in privacy), by u/stadicus: https://stadicus.github.io/RaspiBolt/

very basic introduction to some of the privacy pitfalls in bitcoin: https://bitcoin.org/en/protect-your-privacy

Bitcoin Anonymity Guide 2019: How to use BTC like a straight up G: https://www.coincache.net/2019/01/02/bitcoin-anonymity-guide-2019-how-to-use-btc-like-a-straight-up-g/