Address reuse

In plain words

Every payment to an address is public forever. Use one twice and everything sent there is linked: income totaled, senders connected, spending traced. Wallets solved this long ago — a fresh address for every payment, all owned by the same seed. The rule is simple: hand out a new address each time. Post one permanently only if you mean it as a public tip jar.

Why it matters

• The cheapest privacy win in Bitcoin — your wallet already does it.
• Reuse betrays your payers too, not only you.
• Chain analysis begins exactly here.

Not to be confused with

• "New address = new wallet" — fresh addresses all belong to the same seed; there's nothing new to back up.

Go deeper

• Chain analysis
• Address types
• Keys & addresses