[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-83531-en":3,"doc-seo-83531-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},83531,962075006959,"Anda","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/e0002397efbe92a78e?_k=1776741047341049297",8,"Research & Report","No Country for Old Privacy: The Evolving Challenges of Anonymity in Bitcoin","Longitudinal measurement study of detectable second-generation Bitcoin anonymisation protocols, covering CoinJoin, CoinSwap, CoinShuffle, and Stealth Addresses. By implementing and refining heuristic filters, the study quantifies adoption—identifying millions of CoinJoin and CoinSwap transactions—and observes a close temporal alignment between CoinShuffle and the Wasabi wallet period. Adoption remains consistently low (under 1% of all network transactions) with sharp declines after major regulatory events. The results show no convergence on a standardized Stealth Address approach and suggest privacy-seeking migration to less observable methods.","arXiv :2607 .00772v 1 [ cs .CR] 1 Jul 2026  \nNo Country for Old Privacy: The Evolving Challenges of Anonymity in Bitcoin  \nBen Hawkins, Joshua Levett, and Siamak F. Shahandashti  \nDepartment of Computer Science, University of York, York, United Kingdom  \n[ben.hawkins.cs@gmail.com](ben.hawkins.cs@gmail.com) , { joshua.levett, [siamak.shahandashti } @york.ac.uk](siamak.shahandashti } @york.ac.uk)  \nAbstract. We present a longitudinal measurement study on the adoption of detectable, second-generation anonymisation protocols in the Bitcoin network, including CoinJoin, CoinSwap, CoinShuffle and Stealth Addresses. By implementing and refining a suite of heuristic filters, we identify over 5.94 million CoinJoin and 23.3 million CoinSwap transactions. Besides, the use of CoinShuffle was unexpectedly found to be closely aligned with the Wasabi wallet operation period. Our analysis reveals consistently low adoption rates, with these protocols constituting less than 1% of network transactions, and a sharp decline in detectable usage following key regulatory events. Furthermore, we find no evidence of standardised Stealth Address adoption, indicating a failure to converge on a common privacy standard. This study provides a comprehensive picture of a niche ecosystem whose on-chain visibility has been largely suppressed, strongly suggesting the migration of privacy-seeking users to less transparent and less detectable methods.  \nKeywords: Bitcoin · Privacy · Anonymity · Privacy-Preserving Protocols · CoinJoin · CoinSwap · CoinShuffle · Stealth Addresses  \n1 Introduction  \nBitcoin emerged in early 2009 after Nakamoto published a paper proposing a peer-to-peer electronic cash system built on a “blockchain” [22] . This decentralised ledger records transactions securely, transparently, and tamper-resistantly without a central authority. Many early adopters were attracted by the prospect of owning and transferring digital currency with a high degree of anonymity.  \nIn reality, the provided level of anonymity is quite limited. While users transact without revealing real identities, transactions involving the same addresses are trivially linkable. Furthermore, techniques such as transaction clustering, network analysis, and other heuristic methods [8, 16, 27, 28] can be used to link multiple addresses belonging to the same user with high confidence.  \nIn response to such de-anonymising techniques, a diverse range of privacypreserving protocols began to appear. With a growing set of options available, privacy-conscious users were faced with the question of which protocol to adopt. Understanding what drives users’ choices can inform the design of future protocols that not only better align with user preferences, but also encourage con-  \n2 B. Hawkins, J. Levett, and S.F. Shahandashti  \nvergence on a smaller number of widely-used techniques, a necessity for building larger anonymity sets leading to stronger privacy.  \nWhile most research only examines these techniques up to 2016, the Bitcoin ecosystem has since evolved significantly, shaped by new technologies, shifting user behaviour, and external pressures such as regulation.  \nOur Contributions. We conduct a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of the prevalence of decentralised privacy-preserving techniques in the Bitcoin network and examine how real-world social and political developments, including legislation, regulation, and societal shifts, shape their adoption and evolution. In particular, it marks the first longitudinal study of second-generation protocol adoption since 2016 [18], addressing an important knowledge gap in understanding the protocol ecosystem. This approach clarifies how these mechanisms operate in practice, their impact on user anonymity, and the external factors driving their development within the Bitcoin ecosystem between 2016 and 2025 .  \n2 Background  \nBitcoin is based on a blockchain: an immutable, append-only structure where each new block links to the previous one, f","cbCainPpI395Zf9w","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainPpI395Zf9w","pdf",694593,3,1,17,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Motivation and research questions\n# Background\n## Bitcoin transaction model and linkability\n# Longitudinal measurement approach\n## Heuristic filters and protocol detection\n# Results\n## Adoption rates and regulatory effects\n# Discussion\n## Lack of Stealth Address convergence and user migration","[{\"question\":\"Which Bitcoin privacy-preserving protocols does the study analyze and how?\",\"answer\":\"The study focuses on CoinJoin, CoinSwap, CoinShuffle, and Stealth Addresses. It implements and refines heuristic filters to detect and quantify real adoption on-chain.\"},{\"question\":\"What adoption levels are found for these protocols in the Bitcoin network?\",\"answer\":\"Adoption rates are consistently low: these protocols account for less than 1% of network transactions overall.\"},{\"question\":\"How do regulatory events and user behavior affect protocol adoption?\",\"answer\":\"The detectable usage declines sharply following key regulatory events, and the study suggests privacy-seeking users migrate toward methods that are less transparent and less detectable.\"}]",1784188657,43,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"no-country-for-old-privacy-the-evolving-challenges-of-anonymity-in-bitcoin","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/no-country-for-old-privacy-the-evolving-challenges-of-anonymity-in-bitcoin/83531/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-26","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"Which Bitcoin privacy-preserving protocols does the study analyze and how?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"The study focuses on CoinJoin, CoinSwap, CoinShuffle, and Stealth Addresses. It implements and refines heuristic filters to detect and quantify real adoption on-chain.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What adoption levels are found for these protocols in the Bitcoin network?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"Adoption rates are consistently low: these protocols account for less than 1% of network transactions overall.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"How do regulatory events and user behavior affect protocol adoption?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The detectable usage declines sharply following key regulatory events, and the study suggests privacy-seeking users migrate toward methods that are less transparent and less detectable.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]