Bitcoin’s Return of Privacy

Contrary to many beliefs, Bitcoin is not an anonymous cryptocurrency. While this myth has been around for as long as Bitcoin, we know that Bitcoin alone does not provide the anonymity that some users might want.

On the contrary, Bitcoin is very much transparent. It is more transparent than any bank ledger or government ledger. On top of it, it can be verified by anyone. Yet, some tools and techniques can help any sovereign individual start using this global monetary network without anyone knowing their whereabouts. Who can benefit from such features, and how do they work?

Let’s start with Who and Why?

Bitcoin has attracted the attention of hundreds of millions of people in its short history. There are various reasons why anyone would be looking at Bitcoin. While some tend to mainly look at or invest in it for the possible gains it provides, others are looking for more fundamental value. The potential price rise is not that important for people struggling with the current financial system.

People live under oppressive governments, dictatorships, and corrupted leaders worldwide. For several reasons, these people can have a challenging time with inclusion in the financial world. For instance, some of them may lack a KYC or an ID document required for verification to open a bank account. These people are unable to function if they cannot transfer money.

Others, who openly disagree with the regime in their jurisdiction and try to change it or oppose it, might be under heavy control and surveillance of the government. The activists and freedom fighters can have a tough time fighting or defending what they believe is right if they cannot use the financial system. Thus, they would need a tool that gives them an option to transfer wealth without anyone being able to stop them freely.

There are people all across the globe whose job is hazardous. Investigative journalists, for example, can have a tough time on their travels regarding finances and money. Moving all the time and being often very close to people who do not want anyone to get close can lead to severe threats and dangers. These people must be cautious about how they spend their money or move it around.

Moreover, there are people all over the world who are very conscious about their privacy. This also means they are cautious with their financial privacy and the freedom to transact. Without this, it isn’t very easy to transfer any value whatsoever. These people tend to be very careful about their digital whereabouts and keep their identities to themselves, which can be immensely hard in the KYC banking system.

What do all of these and many others have in common? They show a need for a monetary network without the need for third parties — a system that works automatically but, most importantly, equally for everyone who needs to transfer value across time and space.

But there is one more important factor, and that is privacy. For most of the problems these people or groups can have, there needs to be a solution that keeps them anonymous and private, so they can continue doing what they need to do. Can Bitcoin help solve this problem for all these different and seemingly unconnected groups of people?

Bitcoin anonymity myth debunked

Bitcoin, as such, is not anonymous. How can it help all these people who need it? The biggest cryptocurrency can help thanks to its features and characteristics that make it unlike anything else we have ever seen in history.

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, which means that some details or data from every transaction are recorded. These are the transaction fee, the transaction size, and the addresses of the receiver and the sender.

And here is the main confusion point for most people who are not knowledgeable about Bitcoin. While the addresses of both the sender and the receiver look like long strings of numbers and letters, they represent a wallet. If this wallet is connected to a real identity, Bitcoin is not anonymous. It is basically like having a bank account linked to you. 

If you have ever done a KYC verification on any cryptocurrency exchange and bought bitcoins with this address, these are connected to your identity.

If you are interested in debunking this myth, feel free to follow this article.

CoinJoin as one of the privacy tools

However, some people want to have their financial freedom and financial privacy under control. Who they are and what their incentives are were already briefly explained in the beginning. What is important to acknowledge here is that everyone has a right to financial privacy, not only those particular groups of people mentioned above.

Bitcoin can become this tool, especially if other software or tools are used. One of these tools is CoinJoin. CoinJoin is an anonymous transaction that helps Bitcoin users enhance their privacy through multi-party transactions. The ambiguity of this process makes sure that no one knows who owns which output of the transaction.

What CoinJoin does is mix all the inputs and outputs, so it is not clear who is the end receiver of the transaction and who was the sender of that given transaction. This is done by pooling the bitcoins together and then redistributing them randomly to the receivers solely based on the amount they should receive. 

This ensures that surveillance analytics companies such as Chainalysis have it more difficult to track the on-chain transactions of people, giving the anonymity right to the hands of the people that need it the most.

Example of the transaction division, Source: whir.com

Bringing all of this together – Whir

Whir is a new, simple and fast way of how anyone can send their Bitcoin transactions without the fear of being traced back to them. Whir is entirely anonymous, as it does not ask for any KYC or ID proofs and provides a service with the discretion of its clients in mind.

Moreover, Whir does not need any accounts or logins, does not track IP addresses or uses and tracking script, and for those who want to go a bit further into security and privacy, Whir offers a Tor version.

The service works similarly to some CoinJoins but has a little twist. You do not need any special wallet to use Whir. You generate an address from the Whir website and use it to send the transaction to whoever you need, just like you would in any Bitcoin transaction, but now with complete anonymity. You can now use this service to send from 0.001 BTC to 1 BTC.

Whir charges 1% of the transaction flat, meaning you do not need to go deep into your pockets to improve the financial privacy of your Bitcoin stash.

Conclusion

Bringing all of this together leads to a straightforward solution. Bitcoin transactions over Whir are more private and secure for a reason. Whir as such solves issues for countless different groups, which can have various incentives when it comes to financial privacy. Thus, feel free to try it here.

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