Bitcoin Forum

There’s a big misconception that bitcoin is entirely anonymous. Bitcoin is pseudoanonymous, in the sense that your name is not linked to your bitcoin address, but you still have a bitcoin address that’s static and so it could technically be linked to you.
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Is this a True ?

Bitcoin is not Anonymous, But its transaction is Anonymous.

Of course it is True, if you some how show your name connected to any adress guys from fbi, anb and etc Will know it)

Of course you can use New adress generated from your public key every time to stay much more Private or some tx mixer services

I don't support your claim. The anonymous description is about the transaction aspect of bitcoin. You do transfer bitcoin to wallet that you sure knows not the owner of the wallet. I think that is how the anonymous nature is applicable in this sense. I think it is completely anonymous.

It is not anonymous, but when you buy or trade or sell, you are anonymous. How do I seem to make a difference if you own bitkoyn and know about it, but you are an anonymous in terms of buying / selling.

I'm quite unsure for your claim because as far as I know it's completely anonymous nor pseudonymous and it won't change even it will innovate.


It could be linked to you if you do a kyc to trading sites or on a third party wallet ( if you're using one ) but I still doubt it as they can't disclose this kind of information.

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Yes its possible especially if transact with your bitcoin address that is consist of your name in application. But I still thing that bitcoin is still anonymous as long as your address is comes from the hardwallet or even in an decentralized  exchange wallet. They can only see your transactions but its hard to know who owns that wallet.

yes it's true, the transaction can still be checked through our wallet address. actually it also helps if you want to track whether there is money laundering action.

You can only become anonymous if you don't connect your address into your personal details. Well, soon this market will no longer anonymous since KYC are being done everywhere and people have no choice but to provide their personal details. Most of the exchanges already done this thing.

Pretty much. The bitcoin blockchain is public, hence you can track every single transaction using block explorers. Though this might change in the near future as people have been proposing privacy features such as Mimble Wimble[1] that can definitely increase privacy and scale bitcoin at the same time.

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[1] https://www.mycryptopedia.com/mimblewimble-explained/

The OP is misleading.
As long as you don't give away your IRL credentials and you don't allow them to be linked with your Bitcoin addresses and transactions, you are fully anonymous.

The moment some of your stuff gets linked to you, you still have some plausible deniability.

When you allow yourself to be KYC'd that's when you turn in your privacy (often for nothing in return). To whoever is KYCing you and to whoever is accessing their data (either when compelled by the authorities to give them up or the profit motive to sell your data and treat the customer as the product)

Yes, if you re-use a Bitcoin address at several different online retailers and they link your account details with that Bitcoin address, then Bitcoin is not anonymous at all. This is why most people refrain from re-using the same Bitcoin address for several different payments.

This is also why people use Mixer services <like in my signature> to protect their financial privacy. You do not want to use one Bitcoin address and when you pay for something, people can simply drop that Bitcoin address into a Block explorer and see how much money you have.  ::)

Yes, you are right, but you can change the address of your wallet after each transaction and does it make bitcoin anonymous?

Bitcoin is traceable and transparent on a public ledger. That is the beauty of the blockchain. If you want privacy you need to convert it to a privacy coin, monero uses ring signatures, or deeponion uses tor for anonymity.

"Bitcoin is often described as an anonymous currency because it is possible to send and receive bitcoins without giving any personally identifying information. However, achieving reasonable anonymity with Bitcoin can be quite complicated and perfect anonymity may be impossible.

Bitcoin is pseudonymous. Sending and receiving bitcoins is like writing under a pseudonym. If an author’s pseudonym is ever linked to their identity, everything they ever wrote under that pseudonym will now be linked to them. In Bitcoin, your pseudonym is the address to which you receive Bitcoin. Every transaction involving that address is stored forever in the blockchain. If your address is ever linked to your identity, every transaction will be linked to you.

In the original Satoshi whitepaper, it was recommended that Bitcoin users use a new address for each transaction to avoid the transactions being linked to a common owner. This would be the equivalent of writing many books under different pseudonyms. Although this remains a best practice, it is not enough to guarantee full anonymity due to multi-input transactions."
Source: https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/anonymity/

Confusing topic

This topic is really debatable  ::). In an original transaction or first instance transaction, that transaction is anonymous as far as that "virgin wallet" is concerned but subsequent transactions to that wallet with that first address, it will not be anonymous because the whole transactions can be tracked to that wallet. In that circumstances, it will not be anonymous.

Also, if there is KFC on a platform/account where coins are eventually sent to, the coins are traced to the identity of that account and naturally, it will be obvious that whatever transaction that registers in from that account despite the different address is coming from the same wallet.

Those are examples of how it might not be anonymous but if it is a single transaction at a time, then it will be anonymous because you can't be sure of the sender identity.

All transactions in the cryptocurrency are recorded in the blockchain and all information is transparent!
The various analysis techniques of the modern social data era are very easy to track the true identity behind each bitcoin wallet address. BTC can only be said to be semi-anonymous!

the word 'Anonymous' in revelant to bitcoin is define within the context of blockchain. the fact that bitcoin is said to be anonymous doesnt mean you identity cannot be revealed but bitcoin is designed to be used anonymously but with the emergence of so many third party cryptocurrency related business have make it possible for anonymity to be pseudoanonymous. many crypto exchange today do require kyc verification (most time not compulsory to limited withdrawal is attached) which means transaction history can be used to trace a user.

If what is only known of you is your Bitcoin address and not your personal identification, then you are already anonymous. You are doing transactions that are confirmed, approved, and successful without exposing any single personal information. That is anonymity already. And, in addition, you can always transfer your Bitcoins to different wallets so that your address will get to change also. You can also make use of mixing sites or trade your Bitcoin to other coins and vice versa.

The bitcoin transactions were anonymous until you reveal your bitcoin address or wallet ID to someone but it is definitely more secured and private than the fiat transaction because banks were doing transaction for us so they have all our details and can use it without our permission too so in that case bitcoin is pretty good invention and also you can increase the anonymity of bitcoin transactions by using coin mixers.

Yes Bitcoin can still be traced and it is not 100% anonymous. That is why there are other privacy coins out there implementing different technologies aiming to achieve that.

Or bitcoin users used mixing their coins to avoid detection. Its also good to take note of this one:

https://news.bitcoin.com/illegal-activity-use-bitcoin-dea-agent/

Even criminals are well aware that bitcoin is not anonymous. So if you really wanted to remain anonymous then bitcoin is not for you and privacy coins like Monero is your choice.

im aggre with you but in my opinion btc is not anonymous anymore, but your transaction is anonymous you not know you doing transaction with who or where someone use that.

I am bit confused about the topic but for what i understands that bitcoin users are anonymous because we used only addresses and private keys to identify the owners, no names given or whatsoever. So basically, bitcoin is still stated as anonymous because addresses and transactions are traceable but cannot really identify the actual owners physically that's why some people used it for mischief.

No one can trace our name or location through bitcoin addresses but lot of crypto related services need KYC for now so they might collecting the information about who is owning that address so in that case it can be found if you used your bitcoin address somewhere publicaly.

Indeed. You can mix how much you want your transaction but they will truck you down if are quite smart to do it - and feds unfortunally for you are good in this. So you can be safe only when your privacy is secure and with BTC actually you are not. Try to think outside the box and choose wisely before doing anything. It's the internet payment era but because we still are in early stage you have to study like never before.

Anonymity is decided by user, you can stay anonymous forever like Satoshi or surrender yourself to many exchange who force you to verify yourself. So I think bitcoin still meets the criteria as anonymous system.

You are anonymous if you do not tie the fiat accounts and every time you use different key pairs for transactions.

Well as long as you are the only one who has access on your own account then the transaction will still be anonymous. Actually we can't really say bitcoin is anonymous especially when some of your friends knows that you own some of it. Technically it is anonymous but we can't justify that it is really is.

It gets less anonymous when you transfer your coins between exchanges and your private wallet. Then it's pretty easy to track you and have all your data because of the KYC procedure on exchanges.

Technically bitcoin will remain anonymous as long as the transaction is hidden and unknown. Well actually it is not really anonymous since you have some partners to do. We can't really say that it is anonymous since the transaction we made are known. There's no secret in bitcoin andis I think it is what make bitcoin good.

Every transaction can be tracked between bitcoin address that are connected on your information. It is anonymous in term that the you used an alias for the account. Bitcoin address is trackable but cannot tracked who is the true owner of it when you are not using a kyc verification.

It doesn't need to be anonymous, that's not its intended purpose. Obviously with enough analytics you can start linking wallet addresses to identities, especially when the exchanges have a habit of selling transaction and usage data. If you want something anonymous you better go for Zcash, Bitcoin private or ideally Monero, as these are much more difficult to track.

I agree that Bitcoins purpose was not to be entirely anonymous, but rather fair distribution and decentralization. Many coins offer privacy if you are into the deep covering of your tracks. Still, it is a small chance that someone will take the time to track your transactions unless you are making some mischief. :D

If you don't write anywhere about the address being yours, the anonymity is still be there. We must protect the anonymity of Bitcoin ourselves. So if you look at Bitcoin as an investment, you are wiping out its properties. When we look as an investment rather than the money, we have to use the centralized exchanges and certainly ID verification is needed for use. Then there is no such thing as anonymity.

What do you expect, I heard rumors that blockchain was used when tracking the terrorist leader Osama Bin Ladden by the CIA to pinpoint his location, well I don't really know if it is true- since it was a rumor. We are totally hidden when we use the internet it is what I believed.

Thats the one downfall of bitcoin, its not anonymous and its easy to track with blcokchain analysis.  Most people on the dark web are only using privacy crypto coins now because its the only way they can stay safe and out of the government's reach.

i didnt know that blockchain exists that time before cryptos invented ? i also dont think that by using blockchain you can trace someone's location . as what ive experience , blockchain technology only records crypto currency related stuffs like crypto address , tx id's , etc ...


we arent also hidden when we start to use the internet because we can still be traced based on our ip address and based on gps trackers .  but in the case of cryptos , only several coins are not fully anonymous such as btc and eth as thier public address can be linked via block explorers ,

No one on the darkweb even uses bitcoin anymore.  All transactions are with privacy coins because its the only way you can stay safe from the government.  You can also mix your bitcoins but that is a lot of work.

Hello,

As soon as you dont' give or link your personnal information to your BTC wallet and use VPN to hide your IP yes it is anonymous.

As soon as you don't do this or use exchange with wire bank of course it is not more anonymous.

Depends of your care !

I think the defining point here is the "technically" which is a long process between non-anonymous and the pseudoanonymous as  you claimed. Being able to  know someone is behind an address does not mean knowing the person who owns it. Several times I have passed beside big buildings and wonder who owned it but do you know that without too much stress, I could get it just by visiting the lands office, the public authority in charge of approvals for buildings, and I have my answers.

But for bitcoin, that simple "technically" is not what a normal person can do and today your bitcoin address can be linked to usernames, mail addresses that can be discarded, IP that can be faked using VPNs etc. So, the pseudoanonymous is still a huge step forward from where we used to be.

Yes, is it true. One or two years ago I saw a Bitcoin Blockexplorer and my address was linked to my account here from Bitcointalk, but I didn't do that. They just took the data here from the forum for it. Unfortunately I can't find a link to it anymore. Just by such a thing, you can break the annonimity. For most private people it is hard to link a name to an address (almost impossible, actually), but there are already companies that are specialized in such an analysis of the Bitcoin network and these data are also used to find illegal transactions. So Bitcoin is really only semi-annonymous.  ;)

Even if you reveal your bitcoin address or wallet ID, you can hide the traces of your future transactions. There are mixers services, though I do not give a 100% guarantee, you need to go deeper into this. But at least this option sounds good to hide up your crypto wallet

Bitcoin transactions are linked to a specific address and, thus, an “identity.” However, that address does not necessarily have to be tied to a real-life identity. That is why Bitcoin is often described as “pseudonymous.” If a user’s Bitcoin address is tied to their real identity, then it is possible to trace activity back to them. If not, it is possible only to trace activity back to their Bitcoin pseudonym.

Of course. This is common knowledge.

Obviously bitcoin would be pseudoanonymous because of the fact that any transaction on the blockchain can be viewed, and every single address can be viewed and its balance clearly displayed to whoever wanting to see it. In a sense, bitcoin is much more transparent than any of the bank transfer systems.

While some privacy may be lost through this process, it's extremely hard next to impossible to track a bitcoin address alone down to a real life profile, especially if you take some normal privacy steps like not reusing addresses. This is because bitcoin is not centralized, and does not require any KYC, and allows you to have as many addresses as you want. Besides, mixers can be used on the network to obscure your tracks, so bitcoin is definitely still a pretty anonymous way to transact.

Yes, who said that bitcoin is anonymous ? Everyone can see your transaction, where your coin gone, and where it came from. Nothing anonymous at all.
Unless no one know your btc address, everyone can know how much btc you own.
If you want more anonymous, try other privacy coin such as monero.

Yes this is true. Anonymity is not an innate attribute of bitcoin transactions, rather, what we have is pseudonymity where you are not required to have your wallets linked to your real world identity.  In fact, our wallets and transactions are open for public viewing. One can checkout a wallet's balance and transactions it made. Not so anonymous isn't it?

But it was part of the design for the consensus to be effective. Yet, we are not required to declare personal identification to create a wallet. Thus, even Satoshi Nakamoto himself suggested to use as many wallet as you can to take advantage of this pseudonymity.

As others have said, there are other crypto platforms that can offer you the much anonymity you are seeking for. Have a look at them, it might be a sound option for you

Anonymous means un indetified names and I don’t think that bitcoin is not anonymous as bitcoin is known to be one of the greatest and the well known investment of the present times and there are many characteristics of bitcoin that made bitcoin so successful and popular that now in present times there are millions of people who are investing into bitcoin and one of its major characteristic is that it provides user anonymity so I think fools are those who don’t find bitcoin anonymous.

As a Bitcoin user I think that this should be common knowledge for us now. BTC is not as anonymous as we think as our transactions are leaving a footprint online as well as our BTC addresses can be link to our names. Even the government authorities of US openly admited that BTC is not being use in criminal activities as often as before because they know how it could easily be tracked and the criminals are now using other cryptocurrencies known for its anonymity.

i know that it has traces and to convert it to Fiat, you have to do KYC so in a way, not so anonymous. right?  :P

Absolutely.  Just go to https://www.blockchain.com/explorer, enter the transaction number to view information about any bitcoin transaction (you can look up yours), scroll down to Visualize -> View Tree Chart and you will see visually all connections between each transaction by clicking every orange dot.
For example, open this link https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tree/372696599 and click the orange dot at the bottom and you will see what I mean. This is what anonymity really is in the blockchain. I hope you've enjoyed  ;)

It is true. Bitcoin is not anonymous. It is more like pseudoanonymous.
Anyone can be identified when selling crypto to fiat....
Mean you need some kind of bank account to recive fiat. And bank account is backed by real name.

If you use the same btc address for every transaction then yes it's pseudoanonymous but I think it depends on the wallet service you're using. Many popular wallets like ledger live will automatically generate a new btc address every time you send or receive btc.

Its true, in a way, that if you link your name to address its no longer private. Its big bitcoin flaw currently because i dont think many people want to other people know theirs all buying history. If they using one address for long it will always be privacy nightmare if linked of course to private data.
Bitcoin developers working on privacy features now.

Yes, I've noticed that, too: whenever I want to receive BTC, my Ledger generates a new address, BUT I believe it'll ultimately depend on whether or not your payer has a wallet generating a new address, in which case the transaction becomes hard to trace. Otherwise, all your transactions from a non-anonymous payer are potentially traceable ;)

You are right. Some people believe Bitcoin is 100% anonymous just because you don't have to enter your name, residence, etc into the system to register and therefore believe that BTC is one of the best currencies for illegal activities, which is doubtful because every transaction is permanently recorded in the Blockchain and can be easily traced. One can always see the origins of every single transaction. So, you're right it doesn't seem to be perfectly anonymous.

As long as your identity never gets linked to your funds, you can't get caught. You are anonymous. Your bitcoin transactions are public.

Cash has its downsides for crime too. For example carrying suitcases full of cash is really obviously sketchy and the police might get suspicious. carrying a laptop computer or a cellphone is not.


Bitcoin funds may be tainted but so can real world funds and cash. In fact almost all US paper currency has traces of cocaine on it. (through touching contaminated bills I'm guessing).


Also cash has serial numbers, people forget about that. If somebody is really after you, bitcoin might actually provide advantages. One of them being that someone has to crack your very mind to steal them from you (if your security is high enough) and since polygraphs are bullshit, as long as you're enough of a badass you can deny that you have any funds or lie about the amount of the funds you have (have half in one private key and half in the other)

Or maybe set up your funds in a way that it's impossible for you to give them up unless a co-conspirator gets caught as well. Then if they kill you, the co-conspirator doesn't get the funds so they are incentivized to bail you out.

Edit: misspelled "you're" as your

Not true, if you know recipient's address, you can track every transaction on explorer...

And it's an accepted standard that you're supposed to change  your address for every transaction. It's not convenient but that's a best practice.

A merchant is unlikely to be anonymous anyway, but as a consumer nothing stops you from doing that. It's just a click of a button.

Bitcoin's anonymity depends on a number of factors, but traceability of transactions raises certain doubts as to the level of anonymity. Maybe I'm paranoid and don't understand it, but when I saw transactions on the blockchain website leading from my wallet to other transactions that occurred before coins reached my wallet, I freaked out a little despite the fact that I didn't commit any crime....

I think yes!, using cash for purchases is more anonymous than using Bitcoin "For Now". But confiscable, centrally controlled, easily inflated are the characteristics of fiat money. think about it.

Bitcoin in itself is not a privacy coin i.e it's not anonymous.
It's better said as to be pseudo anonymous.