Crypto is often called anonymous, but the reality is more nuanced. This article separates what any stranger can look up from what a shop, or the app you use, can see.
Published September 30, 2026 · 3 min read
A blockchain is a public ledger, and an address is an entry in it. Anyone who has the address can see its balance and its transaction history. You do not need an account, permission or special access to look. In practice:
Because transfers are irreversible, this record cannot be edited or taken back once it is written.
Not automatically. An address is not labelled with your name, and the ledger itself contains no passport data. But public does not mean anonymous: patterns in the history can sometimes be linked to a person. If someone learns that an address is yours, they can read everything that address has ever done. So it is safer to think of an address as pseudonymous rather than hidden.
| What | Who can see it | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Address balance | Anyone who has the address | Public on the blockchain |
| Address transaction history | Anyone who has the address | Public, including the addresses on the other side |
| Your name next to an address | Not shown by default | Patterns can sometimes be linked to a person |
| Card payment in a shop | The merchant, as a card transaction | Your on-chain history is not shown to the merchant |
| Data the wallet app collects | Set out in the app's privacy policy | A separate matter from the blockchain |
A card payment runs over the card network, not over the blockchain. The merchant therefore sees a card transaction, the same kind it would see from any Visa card, and not your on-chain history. Nexus Pay works this way: the virtual or physical card is a Visa card, and the card only spends the balance available on it. Moving funds from the wallet to the card is a separate step from paying in a shop, and the shop is not part of it.
This is a different layer from the blockchain, and it is not answered by the ledger being public. What a wallet app collects about you is set out in its privacy policy, and that document is the place to check. With Nexus Pay, issuing a card requires identity verification with a document and a photo under anti-money-laundering law, and the card is issued by a licensed partner organisation. Read the privacy policy to see how that data is handled. This is general information, not legal advice.
Start with the fact that sharing an address shares its balance and history with whoever receives it. Each deposit address belongs to one network, so check the network before you send: a transfer through the wrong network will not arrive and cannot be reversed. Before any transfer, check the address and the amount, because nobody can bring back a transfer sent to the wrong address. Decide deliberately which addresses you use for what, and remember that card spending is visible to a merchant only as a card transaction.
No. Privacy is about who can see your activity; security is about who can act on your funds. A public address does not mean the funds are exposed, and a private one is not automatically safe. In the Nexus Pay app, security tools include an optional four-digit access code, and the main share of crypto funds is kept in wallets without a permanent network connection. The card can also be frozen and unfrozen in one tap.
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