Hello all, I was looking at the new mullvad blog entry and I saw something interesting:
Lightning also offers a significantly different privacy model than regular on-chain Bitcoin payments since lightning payments are not stored on the blockchain. Instead lightning payments are routed through a network called the lightning network which allows payments to be anonymized through onion routing, similar to how Tor works.
Is the BTC Lightning Network anonymation level similar to XMR? Worse? Better? Different?
On my country I cannot get XMR directly, I usually have to convert LTC → XMR so I would appreciate if someone could answer that question. In that case, maybe I could have a better alternative (at least for Mullvad) from now on.
Another option is for you to use a non custodial wallet like Cake Wallet where you can have a different addresses for each transaction. So, BTC here can still provide very good privacy if BTC is all you have. This applies to any currency supported by Cake Wallet or other non custodial wallets.
I’ve looked into it briefly but I couldn’t find any wallets that support lightning that looked reputable, looks like most of the safest/reputable wallets only support the mainnet
I’m currently using Phoenix Wallet. Not sure if there are better options. At least it’s non-custodial and open-source.
If you frequently make online transactions using cryptos, BTC Lightning is much more convenient. Unfortunately, XMR is not as widely accepted. The biggest problem with XMR, however, is that it has become extremely difficult or expensive to obtain, at least in the EU, since all crypto exchanges have banned it. The only remaining option is to swap it. Currently, Mullvad and Silent Link are the last subscription-based services I (can) pay for via XMR.
There’s also Muun but I am not sure of its reputation. It says all the right things on the website. It does work well and have used in the past. It’s dead simple and easy to use.
This is exactly my problem, it is banned everywhere.
I will test and compare this on my next month subscription. I was already using CakeWallet because I thought it was the most reputable and recommended, but I did not know that by paying with different cryptos than XMR was an alternative (in CakeWallet).
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions of the wallets, I will take a look at them too!
I’m not an expert, but BTC transactions remain traceable even in non-custodial wallets - it’s just harder to track them. I wouldn’t consider BTC as an adequate alternative to XMR in terms of anonymity.
