Dusting attack
A dusting attack sends tiny amounts of cryptocurrency to addresses so later transaction activity may reveal links between addresses or wallet ownership.
✦ Key Insight
Dusting can weaken transaction privacy and may be combined with scam links or social engineering.
✕ Common Misconceptions
Receiving dust does not give the sender control of your wallet. Avoid suspicious links and use coin control where appropriate to avoid unnecessarily combining unwanted UTXOs.
Detailed Explanation
In Practice
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Address
An address is a public identifier used to specify a destination or account on a blockchain network.
Dust
Dust is a crypto amount so small that spending it may be uneconomical because transaction fees can approach or exceed its value.
Coin control
Coin control is a Bitcoin wallet feature that lets users choose which specific UTXOs will be spent in a transaction.
UTXO
A UTXO is an unspent transaction output that represents a discrete amount of cryptocurrency available to be used as an input in a future transaction.