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I am totally new to the Bitcoin thing and have installed Electrum yesterday after having read a lot of reviews on different local wallet options. I am not really planning to use it yet, but I want to learn the thechnology.

I am still a little confused regarding some things. The questions are below.

1) After having installed Electrum I go to the Recieving tab in the GUI. There I can see some different addresses. Can I publish them all to the public to get payments?

2) Are these addresses static? That is, will I have these addresses forever to receive payments and I guess multiple people can insert bitcoins multiple times to the same address?

3) Actually, from an anonymity perspective, what is the difference between having several receiving addresses in one wallet to get payments and multiple wallets with one address each?

4) If one would be totally anonymous when getting and making payments (let´s say person A will get payment from B and then A will pay C), is this a correct way to do it and still become anonymous:

   a) install a local wallet with `tor` support (Electrum for instance)
   b) connect to the `tor` network and give one of the receiving addresses to person B
      so he or she can make the payment
   c) Go to the Send tab and send to person C. 
   When the transactions are done, close the wallet and disconnect from tor
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  • Hi Rox, welcome to Bitcoin.SE. Please only ask one question per post: We link similar questions and categorize them by topics, which doesn't work when lots of different questions are asked in one post. For an introduction to how Stackexchange works, I recommend our short tour, and How to Ask.
    – Murch ♦
    Jan 7, 2015 at 12:20
  • Thank you! I will have that in mind when I ask questions in the future! I will now take the tour. :-)
    – Rox
    Jan 7, 2015 at 12:59

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1) After having installed Electrum I go to the Recieving tab in the GUI. There I can see some different addresses. Can I publish them all to the public to get payments?

Yes, these addresses are meant to be "published" to other parties who will send you payments

2) Are these addresses static? That is, will I have these addresses forever to receive payments and I guess multiple people can insert bitcoins multiple times to the same address?

Electrum is an HD wallet which means it generated its addresses in a deterministic way so as long as you keep your seed phrase in a safe place you will be the owner of these addresses. Reusing addresses without a good reason is generally discouraged.

3) Actually, from an anonymity perspective, what is the difference between having several receiving addresses in one wallet to get payments and multiple wallets with one address each?

Having multiple wallets with one address each is a huge overkill and improves nothing in terms of anonymity, it will only make it easier for you to get lost amongst your wallets, not being able to use the bitcoin network the way it is supposed to be used and eventually lose some funds.

4) If one would be totally anonymous when getting and making payments (let´s say person A will get payment from B and then A will pay C), is this a correct way to do it and still become anonymous: a) install a local wallet with tor support (Electrum for instance) b) connect to the tor network and give one of the receiving addresses to person B so he or she can make the payment c) Go to the Send tab and send to person C. When the transactions are done, close the wallet and disconnect from tor

I suggest you take a look at these wiki entries: Anonymity, Protect your privacy.

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  • Thanks. I will read more about anonymity. Regarding question 2 and address resuse - does that mean that I never should send money to the same address twice? This might be a stupid question, but there is nothing bad to receive money on the same address, right? :-)
    – Rox
    Jan 7, 2015 at 13:07
  • When I say money, I of course mean bitcoins. :)
    – Rox
    Jan 7, 2015 at 13:13
  • If you're sending money to one of your wallets/accounts then try to avoid reusing the same address(es). If you have a donations' address posted somewhere and you start receiving payments in there then everybody knows it's yours already so there is no point in trying to use another instead.
    – user11221
    Jan 7, 2015 at 13:16

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