How to seed safely?

Hey everyone,

I am new to the community and have some questions regarding safely seeding torrents.

When using a seedbox, should I be using a VPN (to access the control panel) on my end at all times? I am worried that the seedbox IP will be discovered by copyright groups and they will figure out who I am by contacting the seedbox provider.
Is it safe to be paying in Bitcoin? I know Monero is the safer option, but I haven’t found much support for that and I’m not even sure if the copyright groups will have the means to track Bitcoin anyway.
What can possibly happen assuming I am found to be seeding copyrighted material through a seedbox. Would I just receive a DMCA notice or C&D, or would it be more severe?
Should I lean more towards being paranoid, I am not planning on becoming a big seeder and I’m sure there’s bigger fish for these groups to worry about, but you never know what the future holds. Are these groups known to have a lot of resources to track seeders down?

Thanks for any help, and if there’s something important that I’m missing, please let me know!