Be careful with airdrops, it can heavily damage your privacy!

Recently I registered with a part of my bitcoin addresses to join the Bitcoin Rhodium airdrop. Everything went well, I didn't have to share anything except my public keys in the registration process. After signing with my Trezor I could create a signed message to later claim my Bitcoin Rhodium.

Today I was planning to claim my Bitcoin Rhodium and went to the official site. I checked out how to claim and I was surprised to see that you have to sign up with your e-mail to be able to claim:

I was extremely disappointed, because when I give my email, they can link my public key to my identity and this will cost me my privacy!

Why is this suspicious?

The most important selling point of Bitcoin Rhodium is the very limited supply, that would make it an excellent store of value. For something to function as a store of value security is the most important feature.

Privacy is a very important part of security, because an entity can only confiscate or steal your wealth when they know you own it. Protecting your privacy is an extremely important part of security!

In the registration proces you create a signed message that is unique and should be enough to prove ownership of the public key and claim your coins. It simply doesn't make sense for me that you have to sign up with your email (and give away your privacy) to claim a decentralized cryptocurrency that is focussed on the store of value feature!

There are multiple companies working on blockchain investigation tools for governments (agencies) to identify and track bitcoin owners / users. I am sure these companies will pay well to get information that enables them to connect identities to public keys.

Giving up privacy what decreases the value of the main selling point (privacy = security) while it is not necessary is a HUGE red flag for me!’

Why is it important to protect your privacy?

There are multiple reasons to protect your privacy. Firstly it is an important part of security as described above, but that is not all. Another reason to hide the ownership of bitcoins is the fact that there is no guarantee that your government will allow cryptocurrencies in the future. In the 30’s it was illegal to hold gold, so in case that a deep depression occurs it is very possible that your legal holding will be illegal on a later date.

Beside that it can even damage the entire cryptocurrency when almost all the addresses are identified and traced. Bitcoin is fungible, that means that every bitcoin has the same value. When every coin is traced and identified coins used for illegal practices can be worth less than other coins. This is really bad for the currency overall because fungibility is a very important feature to make it useful.

So never join an airdrop?

The intentions of most of the airdrops will be good and I don’t have any proof that your privacy will get compromised when you join the Bitcoin Rhodium airdrop, but at least it is important to consider the risk. Take care that you never have to give your personal details, because this is simply not needed to proof ownership in a decentralized system.

When you decide to join the airdrop it is advisable do it anonymous by using a VPN service and use an anonymous e-mail when e-mail is requested. Torguard is a crypto friendly VPN provider where you can create an anonymous e-mail adres too. You can pay with cryptocurrency (even main net Lightning!) what greatly improves your privacy.

Please don't waste the privacy of your bitcoins to get some free altcoins!!!