SNBC - Intro to Bitcoin - Day 5

Transacting adversarially pt. 2

satoshi

Today's lesson centres around using bitcoin privately. As it was noted in the last lesson, bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous.

Read these posts carefully, as well those in the 'for further study' section.

One of the first holdups that users of bitcoin have is that the public ledger of transactions is -- well -- public. For obvious reasons, it can easily be surveilled by nefarious actors. If you feel this way, then your concern is warranted, as government authorities possess sophisticated surveillance systems. Fortunately, many tools and resources have been developed to help you to transact anonymously, in spite of the public nature of the Bitcoin ledger.

Today's lessons seek to highlight the importance of maintaining privacy while using bitcoin, and to point you in the right direction for how to acquire and transact using bitcoin anonymously.

Before going about today's readings, I recommend this read from Casa co-founder and security expert, Jameson Lopp.

Now that you understand the importance of security and anonymity while using bitcoin, let's get started.

Learning Objectives

🎯 To become aware of what a 'dust' utxo is and how it can be used against you

🎯 To connect the potential attack vectors with "know your customer" and AML regulations

🎯 To explore different avenues for transacting with bitcoin privately

🎯 To apply previously learned knowledge of the Lightning Network and to put your LN wallets to use.

🎯 To examine and evaluate the statement, "privacy is not secrecy"

🎯 To begin considering how to secure your bitcoin from attackers

Stacker News Readings

⚡️ Dust Attack Explained, by @bitcoin_devs

⚡️ How to Acquire No KYC Bitcoin, by @expatriotic

⚡️ Keep your bitcoin transactions private - using Robosats for P2P exchanges, by @Signal312

Reflection questions:

👉 Today's readings make several references to Tor, which had initially been conceived by naval researchers in 1995, who began concerning themselves with how the internet could be used privately. What other use-cases besides bitcoin do you think would benefit users while implementing TOR?

👉 How can 'dust' be used to break your anonymity?

👉 People often use the logic, 'nothing to hide, nothing to be afraid of.' What makes this poor reasoning? In what ways can your private information be used against you, even if you are not a criminal?

👉 In "A Cypherpunk Manifesto, 1993", Eric Hughes writes, "Privacy is not secrecy." Examine this statement and consider its implications.