Although it is often said that Bitcoin is anonymous, the truth is that it is not true, it is private. It does not store user data, but all transactions can be traced as it is a public network and auditable by anyone. Precisely, to guarantee this privacy there is a minimum amount of bitcoins What can you send to avoid the “dust attacks”.
“Dusking Attack” is a very specific type of action that focuses on revealing the identity of the owner of the cryptocurrency wallet. They are launched with the aim of revealing the true identity of the wallet and, subsequently, defrauding or blackmailing the owner.
This type of attack can also end up generating congestion in the network. Network congestion is nothing more than the accumulation of unvalidated transactions not included in a block. For this reason, a minimum amount of bitcoins that we can send has been established within Bitcoin.
Prevent dust attacks on Bitcoin
An attacker (or set of them) makes massive transactions of very small amounts to a user. This action is called “dust.”
These transactions are of such small amounts that they may even go unnoticed by the owner of the wallet. By monitoring and analyzing transactions, the identity of the owner of the wallet can be known. The main objective of this type of attack is to steal from the end user.
The concept of “dust” refers to the minimum amount of cryptocurrencies that generally remains as residue after a transaction between two wallets. Each blockchain (come on, each cryptocurrency) sets its own minimum.
For the Bitcoin blockchain, the “dust” limit of this network is 547 satoshi (0.00000547 BTC). More or less, at the exchange rate, this is about 0.35 euros, so it is not a significant amount. If the price of Bitcoin rises a lot, it could be the case that you would not be able to pay for a coffee for this limit.
Returning to the problem, transactions with almost no value generate a kind of digital footprint. Now malicious attackers perform fetching tasks, extracting account information. Through these transactions, attackers obtain data from the wallet in question. Then, they cross-check the data with other techniques, such as web scraping, to try to find the user’s identity.
Avoiding these attacks may seem complex, as they are the combination of transaction advertising and residual information about them. But, you should know that there are a series of actions that prevent being victims of scam or extortion due to these attacks. These are:
- We can prevent them by avoiding associating our identity with that of a Bitcoin wallet. This is as simple as using a new Bitcoin address for each transaction. Keep in mind that you can generate Bitcoin addresses infinitely.
- Review the transactions in our wallet and if we detect transactions of very small amounts of unknown origin, it is an indication of a possible dust attack.
- Avoid associating personal data such as email, phone number, and other information with a public key.
- Use wallets that have protection against dust attacks. Two of the most popular with Wasabi and Samurai Wallet, although there are others-
