# What is address reuse?

Address reuse means receiving more than one payment to the same address. Every payment to it is then linked to all the others, and to everyone who sent them.

## Why it hurts privacy

Anyone who paid you once can see every other payment to that address, what it holds and where the money went next. Reused addresses also make it easier for chain analysis to tie separate payments to one person.

## How to avoid it

Most Bitcoin wallets hand out a new receive address for every payment, which avoids reuse by default. Account-based chains such as Ethereum use one address for everything, so there every action shows up under the same address.

## In Redacted

The wallet check on redacted.gg counts how often a Bitcoin address was paid and whether it sends change back to itself.

More: [Check an address](https://redacted.gg/wallet-check/)

## Related terms

- [Linked addresses](https://redacted.gg/glossary/linked-addresses.md): Linked addresses are addresses that chain analysis attributes to the same owner, most often because they were spent together in one Bitcoin transaction. Once one of them is tied to a name, all of them are.
- [Stealth address](https://redacted.gg/glossary/stealth-address.md): A stealth address is a one-time address created for a single payment, so payments to the same person cannot be linked on-chain, while the sender only needs the receiver’s public address.
- [Chain analysis](https://redacted.gg/glossary/chain-analysis.md): Chain analysis traces funds on public blockchains and groups addresses into likely owners, using the public record together with outside data such as exchange records, address labels and leaks.

Sources: [Address reuse, Bitcoin Wiki](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address_reuse)
---

Page: https://redacted.gg/glossary/address-reuse/