Coin control

In plain words

Your wallet balance is really a collection of separate coins (UTXOs), each with its own history. By default, wallets pick which to spend automatically — and combining coins in one payment publicly welds their histories together. Coin control is doing the picking yourself: spend the coins from that exchange here, keep the anonymous ones apart, never merge the two. It is the difference between owning a balance and knowing your money.

Why it matters

• Merging coins is the main way wallets leak your history without asking.
• Labeling and separating coins is most of practical privacy.
• Fee control too: which coins you spend sets a payment's size and cost.

Go deeper

• UTXO
• Chain analysis
• Dust attacks