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How is a user protected from a transaction history subpoena?

BTC transactions are all public in the blockchain so they're not as anonymous as many think.

But as for preventing your identity from being linked to your BTC wallet? There's probably no way to prevent that if the service provider is under US jurisdiction.

You can certainly be fully anonymous with bitcoin but care must be taken... Mainly, you need to isolate your change to an identity wallet - a wallet used for specific purpose under a dedicated pseudonym. Identity of the pseudonym is protected by plausible deniability - "I bought those coins on MTGOX, but I sold some of them to some guy for cash on the street corner, that purchase wasn't me"

The more hops through a wallet (which can be created dozens of times), adds more plausible deniability and separation to any purchase.

Good point. And if you sign up to Coinbase anonymously and acquire BTC reasonably anonymously any data that gets subpoenaed is worthless.

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