From stablecoins to ETFs, crypto adoption is already happening. Everybody is catching on to the fact that onchain finance is the future. But not everyone understands a key issue of onchain finance. We’ve said it before and will keep saying it:
Onchain is not private.
Everything you do in web3 — every transaction, transfer, and interaction — is recorded on a blockchain that anyone in the world can inspect, analyze, and correlate. Most users think pseudonymous wallets offer enough protection. In reality, most wallet activity can be deanonymized. If not now, then later–the data stays there forever, so others have plenty of time to deanonymize transactions.
This is not the direction we should keep going in. We’re building a future where onchain finance is also private. Using Common is the first step because it’s the private interface for web3 and beyond.
But privacy has to start with the user. No single tool can keep you completely private if you don’t use it well. In fact, most of the hacks, exploits, and privacy leaks that happen online happen through social engineering. There are always steps that you can take to ensure that you stay private when you’re using the right tools.
Here are 4 surprisingly common habits that leak your identity and what you can do to stop them.
1. Reusing the Same Wallet Address Everywhere
The Leak: You use your MetaMask wallet to mint NFTs, stake on a DeFi farm, and participate in airdrops. Convenient? Sure. But now that address is a public record of all your behavior, balances, and affiliations. All it takes is one leak and your full onchain history is connected to your real identity. And your actions are part of your identity.
The Fix: Treat wallets like burner phones. Use fresh addresses for different activities — especially when moving funds across public and private zones. Common.fi’s shielding system makes this easier by letting you withdraw to a brand-new, unlinked address that severs your trail.
2. Using KYC’d account
The Leak: Using one account for most of your onchain actions is one thing, but it’s even more dangerous if it’s KYC’d. This means–if this is the account you’re using for CEX withdrawals, airdrops that required it, etc. With that, there’s a centralized entity that knows who you are and where do you live and can easily check how much you hold and your past behavioral patterns (transaction history). You now have to trust in their security processes and employee vetting.
The Fix: Withdraw/claim to a fresh account. Deposit that into Common’s shielder. Withdraw to a fresh address. Someone will still know how much you’ve withdrawn–but whether you still hold it or have sent it somewhere will now be a mystery.
3. Linking multiple wallets
The Leak: You split your holdings between a few wallets. This is a good practice for the security of your funds, but if you send your crypto between these accounts directly, it creates a graph that makes it easy to tie all these accounts as owned by one person or entity.
The Fix: Never send crypto between the accounts directly. Deposit from one account to Common’s shielder, withdraw to another one–there won’ be any link between them (especially if you maintain these privacy steps).
You can also keep the accounts unlinked by using a CEX–by sending from one account to the CEX and then withdrawing to another. However, you lose custody of your assets while on the CEX, and again–the CEX will know that the accounts are linked.
4. Receiving payments to your main account
The Leak: Newbies might not be well aware of this aspect, so let’s reiterate–if you post your wallet address anywhere, anyone can look into your holdings and full transaction history. Even sending it to your friend, so he or she can send you some crypto, is a bad idea.
The Fix: If you’re about to receive a crypto payment, always create a new address. If you want to keep one account as your stash, send the funds there after you receive them, but remember the previous point about linking wallets.
Privacy Is Simple Now
All of this may sound complicated, but Common is already taking the most important step for you by shielding your funds. Whether you’re a DAO contributor, DeFi user, or simply someone who doesn’t want your financial life broadcasted to the internet, onchain privacy should be table stakes.
Common is building a future where privacy is the default. With tools like shielding you can use stablecoins, DeFi, and crypto in general without giving up your privacy.The future of web3 won’t be public by default, it’ll be private by design.
Try Common and see how. Get privacy.
