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Topic
Board Development & Technical Discussion
Topic OP
How to move coins with good privacy from Bitcoin Core in an airgap laptop setup?
by
takuma sato
on 13/12/2024, 04:47:25 UTC
Specifically, if your coins are sitting on a wallet.dat that hasn't been used for years and now you want to move some coins in a reasonable level of privacy, how would you do it?

This wallet is old from 2013 era, so im going to need to compile the latest Bitcoin Core, then update this wallet to whatever new format, hoping the current devs didn't screw anything up and everything is fine.

Then, using Coin Control, im going to need to select what coins I want to move, and then craft this transaction. Last time I checked you required entering data on the console, but now there are PSBT file thing. Does this mean that you can generate this file, copy it and open it on the other online laptop and then broadcast the transaction safely guaranteeing the private keys are not leaked in the online computer?

But im also going to need to understand how to use some sort of mixing service because otherwise you don't get any privacy doing this, as well as use Tor or a VPN or something to broadcast if you want additional privacy.

This is honestly a lot of work, so many steps that could go wrong, from downloading software, compiling it from the right source, guarantee you do it from the right sources, verifying the software, crafting the transaction, moving it to the online laptop, mixing the inputs so the outputs are not tied to the rest of your wallet or to an address that could be googled and attached to your profile (for instance, someone paid you in a public address that posted somewhere)... there's so many steps.

Could someone that is an expert please do an step by step guide in this context where one is using Bitcoin Core as a wallet with 2 laptops, and see how this could be done properly? Otherwise I feel like I will never move any Bitcoins. I would like to buy some services like an VPN, airBNB, cloud storage and more, that would be cool to pay with BTC, but spending it with any level of reasonable privacy and safety is a ton of work. I think once I do it more times I would be able to feel more confident spending but I really need to get every single step clear. Please let me know.