Is bitcoin anonymous?

A Complete Beginner’s Guide Bitcoin is not anonymous, but, rather, pseudo-anonymous. By now, most Bitcoin veterans know this. It’s less obvious to many, however, why Bitcoin is not really anonymous by default, and what can be done to de-anonymize Bitcoin users – and what Bitcoin users can do to reclaim their privacy.

Is bitcoin a pseudo-anonymous network?

Bitcoin could be interpreted as a 'pseudo-anonymous' network. It is anonymous in the sense that you can hold a Bitcoin address without revealing anything about your identity in that address. One person could hold multiple addresses, and in theory, there would be nothing to link those addresses together, or to indicate that the person owned them.

Is Bitcoin private?

Bitcoin, by contrast, is anonymous but not private: identities are nowhere recorded in the bitcoin protocol itself, but every transaction performed with bitcoin is visible on the distributed electronic public ledger known as the blockchain. The anonymity provided by bitcoin is at once a point of attraction and a challenge for financial regulation.

Is bitcoin a bank account?

Bitcoin for these users is effectively no more anonymous than a bank account, although this loss of anonymity takes place at the point of entry into the currency and is not a feature of the bitcoin protocol itself.