Oddbean

Pretty good indeed. I suppose my issue with CEXs is that sooner or later, they all get targetted for regulation and they keep information from their customers so the fiat link is easy to make. Example, if you pay with a bank, they have that info. From the get-go I got myself used to using DEXs so no KYC coins. Just hope it doesn't come back to bite people in the ass :) Be sure to whirlpool those coins at least, then you can say you lost it in a boating accident ;)

The idea is that you never trade with the same person/entity twice, and you do so via means that obfuscate as much of your information as possible. Example, you may hate paypal, or revolut, etc but the only thing the person at the other end gets is a username. Meanwhile paypal or revolut have no clue what the TX was about. So you decentralise risk. With CEXs, they know your details (they see it coming from whichever bank details you give them), and they know exactly for what purpose. To That's the difference. It may never be used against you, but we know the direction things are headed, and if it comes to pass, CEXs are like a honeypot of information and have no choice but to comply (WoS literally left the US market recently because of this. Good on them, but it can only do this so many times, and few companies would be willing to leave a market as big as the US).

Hardest way but fully clean is to sell BTC and re-buy with no KYC. That being said, depending on the amount that may very well not be option. Coinjoining is pretty easy. I personally use Samourai's Whirlpool service, running via my own node (Dojo) and whirlpool instance, but they offer their public instance. Their Whirlpool service is available on Android with Samourai Wallet and on Desktop with Sparrow Wallet (also Bitcoin Keeper wallet I believe). If you use Samourai Wallet's on mobile, they also have a Desktop app you can pair. Essentially the way it works is they have a set of pools (0.001, 0.01, 0.05 and 0.5), based on the amount you want to coinjoin and the pool you choose it splits your UTXOs into multiple UTXOs with amounts limited based on that pool. It then mixes it with other participants. Because they all have the same amounts, this also helps with stopping traceability as it looks more uniform (something not all implementations do). Entry into a pool has an initial fee. The anonymity set you gain however, is very much worth it if you value privacy. Contrary to many other coinjoin services, once your BTC is in a pool, it remixes after the first are free, so you can effectively remix forever. Samourai have some technical articles that go more in-depth if you're interested but not required to fully understand to use the service. Any questions, happy to help. https://i.nostrimg.com/7444fdca4b70b400e3090a7ff7df9b9d08ca1fbbf041c4fb5b992728c369ca4f/file.png

Regarding risk, there's no risk with the exception that some bigger exchanges, using cryptoanalysis, have tried blocking certain mixed UTXOs. In one implementation this has been successful (not saying which to avoid conflict) due to implementation flaws as well as the fact that they don't use uniform sets/pools, which makes it easier to trace. Samourai haven't had an issue in multiple years of operating. Having gone through their documentation their implementation of coinjoining is the soundest I've found so far.