That is understandable. But I still encourage you to learn more about Monero, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general if using cryptocurrency is part of your setup. I think it will benefit you a lot.
Here’s the general idea of the technical stuff I mentioned in plain English: your Monero transactions are untraceable. What I suggest is that you give someone your Monero, and they give you another cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, for example) in return. As long as this transaction is KYC-free and you create a brand new self-custody address to receive Bitcoin, the Bitcoin you receive can’t be linked to your Monero. So that specific chunk of Bitcoin is anonymous.
What I suggested is just the reverse of Privacy Guides’ suggestion on how to acquire Monero here: Private Payments - Privacy Guides . The only difference is you cannot use a KYC exchange.
To be clear, in this comment, I’m not trying to convince you that I am right. You explained that you’re a total newbie, so I tried to explain things again in a more beginner-friendly way to share my perspective and knowledge.
Yes, I think they have the option to choose, unless Proton and SimpleLogin change their system in the future. I think the bigger issue here is that everything I have explained was figured out through trial and error. There is no guide explaining which button does what behind the scenes and how the choices you make at one point will affect your account later.
I think the most recent comment on this uservoice request does a good job of expressing one big problem with how Proton handles usernames. I can’t link to comments directly, so to be clear, I’m talking about the really long one made August 3, 2025.
Not everyone has the foresight to make their username junk, and the reasoning given for why it can’t be changed doesn’t really add up.
Yeah, that’s why when I have a doubt I ask questions. When I was forced to create a second Proton account because Proton doesn’t allow multiple subscriptions under one account, I had 2 important questions for them.
1. Is it possible to use Proton Pass without a Proton Mail address?
Yes.
2. If I use a Proton Mail address with Proton Pass, would I be able to unlink them later.
No.
Once, I got those answers, the choice was clear. I chose option 1 with the hope that one day, Proton will allow multiple subscriptions under one account, and I will be able to merge my Proton Mail and Proton Pass accounts.
Being able change usernames wouldn’t help with privacy if you intend to always have one or more that refers to your real name (most people do). They will always be linked to your random ones which compromises your privacy. Also, there’s the potential risk of losing a username forever.
I don’t know if Proton permanently retires usersnames that are deleted by users, but there a lot of people who would probably want to take them over. That’s another potential risk. Plus Proton will have a record of the usernames you deleted, so it’s a no go.
It may just be feature complete. The phone app is a pretty basic piece of software and I can’t think of anything it’s missing. The changes on their GitHub appear to be mainly backend stuff as well.
What do you make of apps that only have a few updates a year, sometimes less? Examples that come to mind are VLC. The worst example I have seen is doubleTwist, which is an audio player for Android. They let multiple years go by with no updates.
As far as VLC is concerned, I don’t think they are lazy.
But doubleTwist, I can’t help but wonder.
I don’t think the people behind SL are lazy. However, I see that the Android app hasn’t been updated since 2024 too.
It could mean that they will fully merge with Proton Pass, but Proton Support told me otherwise multiple times last year. At the same time, I have noticed that Proton support is not in the know about a lot of things. Even when you present information from their own website, they will deny that it’s true. I don’t know why.
It’s actually the complete opposite. As I understand it, SL makers are the ones who made Proton Pass and developed it so quickly and so good! It’s the only Proton product has been developed this fast.
Looks like Android TargetSDK = 34, that’s not great, it’s built for Android14, most of us are running 16 today
For what it’s worth, I use SL through a browser PWA - that has worked very well, they built a very usable web app. Even if they maintain their website just as slowly, your up-to-date browser should add some protection, + added benefit of reducing attack surface
It appears these services are actually not as separate as proton claims. This morning when i logged into proton pass, it prompted me to merge aliases with my simplelogin aliases. To my knowledge, i do not have a simplelogin account and have never created one. However, the aliases that are created with my custom alias domain appear to have been created under simplelogin and are now merged. Additionally, one time i tried to send from a new alias created in proton pass, and it was rejected, and the email about the rejection came from simplelogin. To be honest, this just feels messy and chaotic. I wish i knew who was handling my data.
The feature that allows you to create an alias, then add contract address to that alias in proton pass and send an email from it.
I know that proton owns simple login, my concern is that data is clearly bouncing back and forth between the products and back ends of these two entities without it being clear how and when this is happening.
From all that I gather, Proton Pass functions as a frontend UI for SimpleLogin. Even though you don’t have an explicit SimpleLogin account, it seems that you will still have some implicit “ghost” account with them, because they are the infrastructure which houses the aliasing feature.
It’s annoying and confusing because some functionalities seem to be absent in Pass even though they are present in SimpleLogin. I cannot, for example, seem to find the transfer functionality nor the random alias generation functionality in Pass. Can anyone confirm that these functionalities are absent in Pass?
If so, does this mean we cannot transfer aliases generated inside Proton Pass if it is not linked to a SimpleLogin account?
I’m probably better off asking SimpleLogin or Proton support, but I’m hoping someone here can answer me.
I made a SimpleLogin account back when 15 aliases were free. Since then, it has changed to 10 free aliases. If I connect it to Proton Pass, will that somehow remove the 5 extra aliases I have?
Edit:
The answer to this is that your extra 5 aliases will not be deleted upon syncing. Pass’s UI will show that you have 15/10 aliases. Deleting an alias in Pass will put it into Pass’s trash bin, but not SimpleLogin’s trash bin. Because of this, it will therefore still count towards the 15/10 aliases. Only when you empty the trash bin in Pass will SimpleLogin put it in their trash bin, which will then auto-delete in 30 days and shoe 14/10 in Pass.
Another question: Are SimpleLogin users grandfathered into 15 free aliases? If I have 15 free aliases and delete one, am I no longer able to create another 15th one, or restore the deleted one?
Edit:
The answer to this is yes, you are in fact grandfathered into 15 free aliases. But even if you are grandafthered into it, Pass will still think the max you are allowed is 10, so it will show 15/10 aliases in their UI. When you delete an alias in Pass, it will show 14/10 and will not allow you to create a 15th alias, even when the trash bin is cleared in Pass. This is not the case in SimpleLogin. If you are grandfathered into 15 free aliases, you can only create those extra 5 aliases in SimpleLogin’s UI. It will still sync up to Pass. Very confusing.
Yes. It’s a mess. There are ways in which they are linked and ways in which they are separate. My point is, they are not 100% merged, which to me is frustrating, but potentially has its benefits.
But Proton’s official position is that they are separate, and that reflects in your billing. The way I see it, it’s kind of like a small cellphone network that depends on a larger cellphone network, but is still a separate service.