Bitcoin, Privacy, and the Conscious Choice of Your UTXOs
🎯 Purpose of this article:
To show how the choice of which funds to spend in Bitcoin affects your privacy, using a familiar analogy: posting personal photos.
To show how the choice of which funds to spend in Bitcoin affects your privacy, using a familiar analogy: posting personal photos.
👥 Target audience:
People who already use Bitcoin and want to enhance their privacy without diving into technical complexity. Also for those just starting out and seeking to make more informed decisions.
People who already use Bitcoin and want to enhance their privacy without diving into technical complexity. Also for those just starting out and seeking to make more informed decisions.
💬 Imagine this
You have three photos in your gallery:
- 🖼 One where you're clearly visible with your name at a conference.
- 🖼 One with a group of close friends who know you well.
- 🖼 One taken from behind, where your face isn’t visible, in a random public place.
You want to share an image to accompany an anonymous post.
Do you post the conference photo? The one with friends? Or the most neutral one?
Do you post the conference photo? The one with friends? Or the most neutral one?
🧠 In Bitcoin, it's quite similar
Each photo is like a UTXO: a piece of Bitcoin with its own "history."
When you make a transaction, you're choosing which photo to show to the world.
When you make a transaction, you're choosing which photo to show to the world.
- If you combine photos with different levels of exposure, it’s easy to deduce who you are.
- If you post a highly identifiable image, your anonymity is gone.
- Even the background alone could give you away.
🔐 How to protect your privacy?
- Only post what's necessary.
- Don't mix public and private images (or funds).
- Use filters like CoinJoin, Tor, or wallets with coin control.
- Label your files: know where each came from.
- Think before you post… or spend.
📌 Final Reflection
Spending Bitcoin isn't just transferring value.
It’s like uploading a photo to a global, immutable network.
Each choice reveals more than you might think.
It’s like uploading a photo to a global, immutable network.
Each choice reveals more than you might think.
📷 Sovereignty also means knowing what to show, and what to preserve.