Technical Definition

Dust attack

A dust attack sends very small amounts of cryptocurrency to addresses, often in an attempt to observe future wallet activity or attract user interaction.

By Crypto University Editorial
Address poisoningPseudonymityPublic ledger vs privacy

✦ Key Insight

Dusting can create privacy concerns, and unfamiliar tokens may also contain scam links or prompts designed to make users interact.

✕ Common Misconceptions

Do not connect your wallet to an unknown website merely to "remove" an unsolicited token.

Detailed Explanation

"Dust" means a tiny asset amount. Attackers may distribute dust broadly and analyze how recipients later spend or combine funds, particularly on transparent blockchains.

In Practice

“An address receives a token it never requested and later sees a suspicious website in the token's description.”

Dig Deeper

Address poisoning

Address poisoning is a scam that places a lookalike address in a victim's transaction history in the hope they later copy it by mistake.

Public ledger vs privacy

A public blockchain can expose transaction activity to anyone while still representing users through addresses rather than automatically revealing their real-world identities.

Pseudonymity

Pseudonymity means activity is represented by an identifier such as a blockchain address rather than directly by a person's real-world identity.