Remaining anonymous is the dream of many crypto investors. The basic concept of crypto revolves around ensuring a financial pseudonym. Investors want to trade, purchase, invest and exchange with their identities remaining anonymous.
You can think of famous forces in crypto like Satoshi Nakamoto. To this date, no one has been able to uncover the identity of the brain behind Bitcoin. While several analysts have tried, non came with conclusive evidence showing the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Some may ask, why does Satoshi choose to remain anonymous? His influence would be bigger if people knew his real identity. Yet, most investors and individuals choose anonymity as a way to protect themselves. Releasing their identity could be risky. That’s where the concept of anon and doxxed in crypto come in.
Anon
Anon is where individual aims to maintain the anonymity of their identity. Despite having some influence in business, anons keep utter pseudonyms of their identity.
Anons use complex names, numbers, and symbols as part of their usernames. They will not always use their email addresses or photos as part of maintaining privacy.
Of course, maintaining anonymity is something that every crypto investor is interested in for every crypto enthusiast. Everyone wants their financial privacy kept at the topmost best. However, using anons in crypto is not always easy. Crypto faces lots of adversaries and problems every day.
Risks to Crypto Anon(Doxxing)
Cryptocurrency is based on the internet. Hence, it’s prey to most if not all internet security issues. Hackers have been quite prevalent in the crypto world recently. Hence, it’s easy for some criminal reporters to access personal account details.
In some cases, others may pay reporters to release private account information. Mostly, competitors can pay to access a project’s business secrets. In other cases, the reporters can leak your information, and scammers use it as leverage against you.
The entire process of leaking or releasing the identity is doxing. A person who suffered a doxing attack is doxxed.
The reporter may leak your phone numbers, credit card information, social security numbers, Personal photos, Bank account, Private correspondence, Criminal history, Embarrassing personal and workplace details. Realize that doxing happens without the permission of the victim. Hackers are the masterminds behind most doxing attacks. They do so by;
- Tracking your usernames
- Phishing
- Stalking you on social networks
- Tracing IP addresses
- Use data brokers
How to Prevent Doxing and Remain Anon
As mentioned earlier, going anon in crypto is not an easy task. Many people are interested in getting information about other people. So, how can you make sure it’s impossible to crack your anon?
Name and Passwords
The best way to ensure you are anonymous is by using strong passwords and usernames. Using your original name as an anon is never a good idea. You will make the work of criminals very easy.
When creating names, use numbers, symbols, and letters to hide your identity. On top of setting a good user name, please ensure you use strong passwords. Make them long and highly complex.
One point to note, it’s never a good idea to use the same username and passwords in all your wallets.
Invest in Good Cyber Security
Hacking and doxing are cyber attacks. You must invest in top cyber security systems to steer clear of attacks. The systems may include hardware, backups, and software like VPN to hide your IP address.
Multifactor Authentication
The idea of multiple-factor authentication has been gaining adoption in the crypto space. When logging into your account, you must pass multiple verification steps like passwords. Using multifactor in crypto can help protect your wallets and other details from getting to the wrong hands.
Protection From Doxxing For Developers and Anon
A crypto developer or founder may use real-life hacking and testing to ensure their anon is safe. For instance, the founder of DefiLlama, Oxngmi, carried out a bug bounty to see if anyone could reveal his identity. Many hackers participated, and none revealed their true identity. Inviting hackers for the bounty program helped Oxngmi ensure his identity was completely safe.
Smart contract auditors will scan your contract to ensure it does not reveal your identity. They will look into the contract to see if there are any vulnerabilities. They may employ live tests on your identity to see if it’s possible to hack and dox it.
There are several auditing platforms currently available in the cryptocurrency industry. A good example is German-based Solidproof, whose auditors use an auto tool and manual scanning to check if your anon can be exposed. They can do actual manual tests to see the exposure to your identity.
The Risk of Anon
Of course, anon protects your identity and could help keep criminals away. One problem, however, is that by using anonymous identities, you lose people’s trust.
Oxngmi noted;
“People will trust you less since the cost of doing something bad is lower for anons, and we might be hiding something (eg: ex-convicts or ex-scammers).”
According to Defi enthusiasts, you could lose people’s trust if you go anon. In some cases, you could lose very reliable and loyal customers. An anonymous person can have a lot to hide and less to lose.
Final Word
This guide has been exploring the idea of anon and doxxed. Anon originates from the word anonymous and refers to maintaining identity pseudonym. Doxxed occurs when criminals expose your identity.
Criminals may dox by tracing your usernames, phishing, tracking IP addresses, and stalking you on media. Use good passwords, cyber security, multi-factor authentication, and smart contract auditors to avoid doxing.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
