Accepted answer
Answering this needs to know what is actually being protected against, because the honest answer to a vague concern is usually "less than you think".
Keep your own record of every transaction regardless of method: date, amount, reference, and what was ordered. This is the documentation you will need if anything requires resolving.
Reported transit ranges with tracking
| Lane | Reported range | Median | Where the variance comes from |
|---|
| Coastal China → western Europe | 8–14 days | 11 days | Customs queue at the destination hub |
| Inland China → western Europe | 10–16 days | 13 days | Domestic leg to the international gateway |
| China → United Kingdom | 8–13 days | 10 days | Single clearance point, usually quick |
| China → United States, west | 8–16 days | 12 days | Onward domestic carrier |
| China → Australia | 10–20 days | 15 days | Fewer direct services; inspection rate |
| Regional warehouse → same region | 2–5 days | 3 days | No clearance step at all |
These are ranges members have reported, not quotes. Judge a lane on whether tracking scans continuously rather than on days elapsed.
Concretely, any method routed through a regulated exchange creates identity records at that exchange under standard customer-identification requirements, which is where most linkage actually happens.
Public blockchains are permanent and publicly readable by design; pseudonymity is not anonymity and the distinction is well documented in the chain-analysis literature.
A dedicated email address per merchant is free and genuinely useful.
4Any figure for how often a lane beats its quoted range? Mine has twice and I distrust it. – loss_on_drying 33 days ago add a comment