Bitcoin Forum

As the title implies, I'm working on a paper about Bitcoin security, basically how it provides privacy to its users.

Technically, I don't really have to perform a test to prove so, but a theoretical assessment method could really be of help.

As I am kinda new to this Bitcoin thing, I'd like to ask for your support and guidance in this inquiry. Related literature and other insights would be nice as well.


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Perhaps move this to Technical Discussion section.

Since you're not doing any tests, then your starting point, like on any topic, should be to read up. Start with the most obvious: the whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.

There've been lots of papers discussing Bitcoin privacy, particularly related to so-called blockchain forensics, used by enforcement agencies to track down (with great success) illicit activity using Bitcoin via address/tx association and following the blockchain trail. Here's a very recent study: https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3883533/downloads/Bitcoin%20Laundering.pdf

Here's another from last year co-authored by Maxwell: https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/1066.pdf looks at improving Bitcoin privacy. There was another by same co-author, can't recall where though.

Lighter stuff: you might want to read about several techniques used to enhance Bitcoin privacy, including mixing/tumbling, certain basic behaviours.

Thanks, I'll be reading these articles in a while. In the (unlikely) event that I perform a test, are there any widely-recognized softwares that can be used to simulate/attempt to crack Bitcoin cryptography?

That's a whole different direction to privacy, isn't it? I'm not anywhere near the sort of technical expert that is qualified to comment but as I'm aware of, plenty of people have attempted to do this, but as far as I know, this decade-old tech has yet withstood all attempts. In theory, it's possible, but in practicality, not. MIT believes quantum computing could eventually do the trick, but I think they're wrong - at least for another decade, by which time Bitcoin would be even more sophisticated.

There is something of a distributed effort to try this (let's just say brute force cracking) called the Large Bitcoin Collider which purports realistic success, but has been unable to prove it and been debunked many times over. But hey, kudos to them for trying, right? Maybe you could start there: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1555043.0

Sorry for the late response. Thanks to everyone who shared their ideas.

The research paper was a huge success.