I believe in the anonymity of the 'Net. Privacy doesn't get surrendered just because you are online. The best way to hide your address, partially at least, is to chat on a network that hashes your hostname/IP for you. Alternatively you can use a proxy or BNC however there's problems with this at times.
1. BNC, while reasonably common for users on networks not providing hostname masking, takes some setting up and usually costs money because you are in most cases using someone elses server to 'bounce' off.
2. Proxies slow down your connection. Most are insecure and will get you banned from most networks as IRCd's scan for this type of connection as you attempt to join it. Also, and not many realise this, unless you have at a minimum "implied permission" to log through a proxy server then you are in most cases breaking the law. The third thing about proxies is the trustworthyness of the owner/admin of that proxy.
3. Always remember that IP spoofing doesn't necessarily hide your bona fides. I can usually tell who a user is by the way they chat, how they spell words, their grammar usage, etc. And I am probably not the only one.
