Holding Ethereum without weakening your setup

Ethereum has the weakest wallet story for this purpose, and it is worth saying plainly rather than pretending the options are equivalent to the others.

The extension problem

Most Ethereum wallets are browser extensions. Installing extensions into Tor Browser makes your browser more distinguishable and adds code with access to what you are doing, which is the opposite of the configuration the rest of this site asks for. The answer is not to find a safer extension, it is to not put a wallet in that browser at all.

What to do instead

• Use a standalone desktop wallet application rather than a browser extension
• Keep it on a separate profile or machine from the browser you use to reach the market
• Move the coin to the wallet, then copy the deposit address across manually
• Do not lower any Tor Browser setting to accommodate a wallet

The account model changes handling

One address holds a balance and everything it ever does hangs off that identifier. There is no equivalent of a fresh output per payment, so an address that has touched an exchange withdrawal carries that association into every later transaction. Use an address dedicated to this and understand it is still a public record.

Honest summary

If you hold Ethereum and want to spend it, this is how to do it without wrecking the rest of your setup. If you are choosing a coin from scratch, the privacy comparison points elsewhere and this page is not trying to talk you out of that conclusion.

Verified addresses

Before you sign in. Open these in Tor Browser only, then compare the onion printed on the login screen against your browser address bar. If they do not match, close the tab.