How much BTC should I mix for spending? What's the best way?

Been thinking about how to spend BTC while keeping some privacy, and here’s what I came up with: First off, you need a wallet that lets you manage your UTXOs easily. I personally use Bitcoin Core and don’t trust other wallets. Next, figure out how much you want to have available for spending on stuff, kinda like how much cash you'd carry in your physical wallet. Let’s say you decide on $1000. Now, you need to mix that amount to make it feel more like cash. Cash isn’t traceable when you hand it over, so you want to keep that amount separate from your overall net worth. For mixing, you’ve got a few options: - Coinjoin: Never tried it myself, but I’ve heard of JoinMarket. Not really sure how it works. - Mixers: I’m used to this method, but I wanna learn about Coinjoin too, especially since authorities seem to think that if you want privacy, you’re up to no good. I don’t wanna pay someone after mixing my coins, only for them to go to a KYC exchange, get flagged, and then have to explain where the money came from, especially if it’s a person-to-person deal where I can be identified. - Non-KYC exchange: Sign up for a non-KYC exchange using Tor, send your coins there, and then back to another address. That should give you a decent level of privacy. Not too familiar with those exchanges though. So yeah, that’s my take on spending BTC while trying to keep some privacy.

You could also think about using a privacy coin like Monero.  Monero is designed specifically to provide enhanced privacy.  There are options to swap Bitcoin for Monero and back to Bitcoin without providing a bunch personal information or KYC.  Just be careful in picking a trustworthy exchange that wont rip you off or compromise your data.  The key is finding the right balance between anonymity and safety when moving digital currencies.

Why didn't you continue these questions in How to have reasonable privacy safely when paying?? Why? You're saying this as if it's a given, but it totally depends on who you're trying to hide from, and how your current funds are "distributed" (just one UTXO, or many). That depends on your country: I like my privacy, but I don't like paying 2-5% mixing fee. My satoshis are too valuable to waste them like that. They may not know who you are, but you should assume they keep all transaction data for many years. As always, the level of privacy gained depends on who you're trying to hide from.

CoinJoin refers to the technique, where JoinMarket is one of many CoinJoin implementation. Some mixer these days claim you'd receive "clean" coin which doesn't trigger their software, although i don't know how true is it. Besides, some exchange also treat coin from CoinJoin the same way with coin from mixer.

Since "clean" and "dirty" is defined by whoever makes it up, it's impossible to make such a claim. Here is my list of all clean Bitcoin addresses and here's my list of all dirty Bitcoin addresses. See what I did there?

If it comes to time when "dirty bitcoins" will no longer be allowed to use for storage or transactions, active freefloat circulating bitcoins will be very smaller than 21 millions of bitcoins. If this drop does not relate to regulations to seize bitcoins, censor transactions, Bitcoin price will soar to the Moon. Sorry for using Moonish word here. Unfortunately, a scenario in which these things happen will be with massive severe centralized, censored, regulated world against Bitcoin, Bitcoin price will not soar, but will fall a lot. Because definitions on "dirty bitcoins" are from governments, they will gradually seize and take all "dirty" bitcoins from their citizens.

That can only happen if people fall for it. I consider "taint" an attack on Bitcoin. Governments can't stop it any other way, but "they" can make (some) people believe Bitcoin is dirty. I haven't seen any definition coming from a government. I've only seen companies trying to sell the notion of taint. They won't tell you what they base it on, and it's all arbitrary and different for each of them, but they need you to believe you need to pay them to tell you whether your Bitcoins are good or bad.

Coinjoining works well when used properly. It is also trustless so I prefer it over mixers. I would avoid using KYC exchanges though. They don’t really see a difference between mixers and using coinjoin. If they see one as suspicious, they will also have a problem with the other. It is still possible to be de-anonymized when using non-KYC exchanges to swap BTC for another coin and back to BTC by analyzing the timing of transactions and the amount transferred. It’s better than nothing but might be one of the weaker privacy options depending on user behavior.