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Board Beginners & Help
Re: Wasabi Wallet Shows Public Key - Privacey Concerns
by
figmentofmyass
on 30/11/2019, 22:41:43 UTC
I've noticed that when you generate a new address in Wasabi, it shows the address' public key next to the QR code. This gives your counterparty an easy opportunity to take a picture of that public key.

"counterparty" implies the two of you are transacting. if a counterparty is sending you BTC then he already knows that public key. that's how bitcoin works, by leveraging public-key cryptography.

this actually isn't limited to wasabi wallet or the bitcoin protocol. even with privacy technology like monero stealth addresses, the sender and receiver of any transaction can still determine where a payment was sent. they will always know because they were party to the transaction.

bitcoin's transparent UTXO ledger does make for additional privacy concerns, particularly where counterparties know your identity. if you don't want your counterparties to be able to perform cluster analysis on your wallets, you need be wary of what you do with the outputs they send you. this is why the biggest customers of bitcoin mixers are exchange users trying to obfuscate where their coins went.