Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Technical Support
Topic OP
How much BTC to have mixed in an address for expenses? And best method?
by
takuma sato
on 11/09/2024, 20:32:01 UTC
After thinking about what is the best way to spend BTC in a way where you could expect reasonably privacy, it seems clear that you would want to do this:

1) Use a wallet that lets you control your utxos properly (I use Bitcoin Core as a wallet too, never felt safe with any other software)
2) Think about how much money you would like to have ready to spend in products or services (to make the analogy, how much you would carry on your physical wallet)
3) After you decide an amount (let's say, $1000) then you have to mix this amount, so it simulates cash (cash is not traceable when you give it to someone, so you want to separate what is in your wallet from the rest of your networth). In order to mix, you have to pick a method:
  -Coinjoin: I have never used this. I have heard about JoinMarket. Not sure how this works
  -Mixers: This is what im familiar with. But I want to learn how Coinjoin works since stupid authorities now think anyone that wants privacy is automatically suspect of doing something wrong. So I don't want to pay someone after having mixed the coins, then this someone goes into a KYC exchange, gets blacklisted for some reason, gets asked where the money came from, then says "X gave it to me" (in case you make a person to person payment where you are identifiable, this would be an immediate problem)
 -Non KYC exchange: Register in a non-KYC exchange with Tor, send coins, and send them back to another address. This should add a reasonable amount of privacy. Im not familiar with such exchanges.

So this is my idea to spend BTC in a way where you can add a reasonable amount of privacy. The question I have is, given these 3 methods, is anyone familiar with this, and what is the best one? Coinjoin sounds good. I talked to a lawyer, and said that in theory, it presents less problems legally than a mixer, but I would like if someone that is familiar with this and ideally uses Bitcoin Core, can explain the step by step process in case in missing something.