Bitcoin Forum

How can I mark/taint a bitcoin?

What tools are available(if any?) for analysis of the trail a tainted bitcoin leave in the blockchain?

I don't want to monitor a bitcoin address. I want to monitor a particular bitcoin.

Note that each time "a bitcoin" is sent there is an opportunity for it to be split into multiple pieces and/or merged together with other bitcoins.

It isn't like there is a single "coin" that you can watch move from address to address.

That being said, you could try this:

http://blockchain.info/tree/37342960

or this:

http://blockchain.info/taint/1Jif7rFn9X3HhKuxWVCtUGFqS2eznRim1x

Thanks that's what I thought. It's only possible to follow transactions from one address to another...

I think I will use bitcoinmonitor.net to automatically notify me when the "coins" will be leaving the address. Then blockchain.info to get a taint analysis later on.

I'm still not certain what you are trying to accomplish.  There are no "coins" to follow.  By scanning the blockchain you can know when the private key of an address is used to sign a transaction, and you can know which addresses the spent value is assigned to by the transaction.  Is there something more than this that you are trying to accomplish?

I said "coins" when I should have said transactions. I want to deliberately infect a virtual machine with a bitcoin stealer and follow the "trail".

Think about this. The person uses the coin to buy a different coin, you lose the trail completely and you are just watching a random 'coin'. There isn't any good way to do this and that's part of why bitcoin is a money.

Maybe he don't make a new address each time he transfer the stolen coins. I can deduct that he's controlling at least the first address the coins will reach. Then I can see how many coins have reached that particular address.

So you just want to watch one address? Then watch it at blockchain or blockexplorer.

What exactly makes you think he wants to watch one address?

This is what made me think that, but I won't pretend I understand what he wants at all.


Whatever he wants to do it's probably a lot harder than matching subjects to appropriate verbs.

A smart thief would send the stolen coins to a laundry address directly. Can't you just ask blockchain.info to give you a mixer address to receive on which mixes and dumps them into some other final address?

Actually, you can't deduce that at all.  We've had thieves in the past who've deliberately sent coins to known, "innocent" addresses. And if your hypothetical thief is only stealing a few coins he's as likely to spend them directly as he is to move them to another address he controls.