# What is an anonymity set?

An anonymity set is the group of people a given action could have come from. The larger it is, the harder it is to tell who did it.

Also called the crowd.

## Why size and timing matter

Strong cryptography does not help if the crowd is small. If one person deposited in the last hour and a withdrawal follows right after, the withdrawal points to them. Waiting, and moving amounts that differ from what went in, keeps an action inside a larger set.

## How it grows

Every new user, every deposit and every hour that passes widens the set for everyone in it. That is why privacy systems get stronger the more they are used.

## In Redacted

Your crowd is everyone who holds the same coin in the Reserve. The number of different people in that coin matters more than how much they hold, and because the note tree never deletes, every earlier deposit stays a possible source. With the node network, new money also waits about two hours.

More: [How privacy works](https://redacted.gg/docs/using-redacted/privacy.md)

## Related terms

- [Shielded pool](https://redacted.gg/glossary/shielded-pool.md): A shielded pool holds funds as private notes inside a smart contract. Deposits and withdrawals are public, but what happens inside is proved with zero-knowledge proofs and does not reveal who owns what.
- [The wait](https://redacted.gg/glossary/deposit-wait.md): With Redacted’s node network, new money waits about two hours before it can be used privately, so a deposit can’t be matched to what you do with it a few minutes later.
- [Ozone](https://redacted.gg/glossary/ozone.md): Ozone is the reference screener for THORChain and Rujira, built by Redacted’s core contributors. It answers whether an address is tied to known hacks or sanctions lists, works only from public data and decides nothing itself.
- [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.
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Page: https://redacted.gg/glossary/anonymity-set/