Bitcoin Forum

I was having an argument with a friend. He says that you can't be anonymous to the bitcoin's network. Both nodes and wallets use, leads to an ip address where information can be found.

I had read in this forum that you can hide it with hardware? How exactly?

Short answer: You cannot.

The main characteristic of Bitcoin is it's transparency and it wouldn't allow anonymity to go hand in hand with it. At best, you can be pseudonymous. Anyone is able to trace the movement of Bitcoin on the network as it is easily accessible. Even in the case of mixer, they do help you to improve anonymity but it is still not guaranteed. A huge part of it lies with the user's practices.

Nodes knows the IP addresses of each other and it is possible for a node to predict the IP address for which a transaction has originated from but it is nowhere near accurate. For someone to be able to track this accurately, one has to connect to all the nodes within the network and that is impossible.

Why? Does anyone forbids you?

Nope. It's a technical limitation.

Connecting to all the nodes requires a huge amount of resources in the first place. Node discovery will not allow you to connect to all the nodes at once. Some nodes would not accept new connections due to the connection limits or just outright don't allow certain IPs to connect.

Sybil attack is a term whereby an attacker would utilise all his nodes to connect to a huge amount of network nodes. You can connect to most of the nodes like bitnodes but there are still thousands of nodes which doesn't accept incoming connections. The fact that you can't connect to all of the nodes means that you'll never be able to tell which IP relayed the transaction first.

No, it is the I.P address that will going to obtain and not your identity. Identity could be obtain when you do KYC and entrusted it to an exchange keeping it as what they promise. However there are.exchanges that has been hijack and some of the users holdings crypto was stolen and being transfer.

Don't get bother with your friend's argument. Just let him think that way for you had known already that being anonymous is one feature that bitcoin platform has from the start and up to this present time.

Not to argue but at some point, the argument given by your friend is somehow true since bitcoin transactions are publicly available to be viewed by masses hence it is called blockchain as a public ledger though -- to maintain transparency. Here is a quote from satoshi regarding transactions.

It is obvious that the transaction volume are much bigger right now but it is not enough to be considered as a factor for anonymity if we are still dependent on using exchange and custodial wallet which requires KYC in which we cannot taken back and will probably be tied permanently to our own identity.

bitcoin transaction are not anonymous but rather pseudonymous by default and I think no one can achieve a hundred percentage of anonymity, your choice are only to increase you privacy efficiency by using tools that can obscure internet activities.

If that's possible for anyone, we could findout who is Satoshi Nakamoto and thus all the doubts about the creator/creators of Bitcoin might be revealed. As you say that one has to connect to all the nodes which is really impossible. But china produces the most of the hashrates of bitcoin networks, so it might be little possible to them to check/watch our transections, IMO. Also , it's just an hypothesis from myside.  :D

Well I do think we should be aware of the fact that all the transactions are hosted on a Transparent network where people can very easily go and check where the money is going .

BUT

If you do use services like ones provided by sites like blender.io and stuff , you can very easily shuffle that address , which would mean that it would be very hard for you to track the receiver , then again you have to pay the fee there but it's not much if you are trying to protect your privacy.

At the same time you can use hardware wallets , paper wallets , or the wallets which do not require KYC. Even the government have now made the KYC a requirement for the people for major wallet companies , one can only imagine , how much they are tracking about us.

A quote from Bitcoin.org

IP addresses at a give time are your location so if you are using your own IP address than you are exposing your identity. But you can easily change your IP address to a random one using tor or a VPN. There would be not much they could track with a transaction but to stay safe, you should not leave any trail and links to the transaction and hence use a different wallet for sending and receiving coins each time.

technically you can. why? 2 words: Satoshi Nakamoto.

so technically it is possible to stay 100% anonymous if you wanted to but it will be a very hard task (as you already explained) due to bitcoin's transparent design. but keep in mind that being able to trace transaction doesn't necessarily translate into de-anonymization not to mention that chain analysis has never been fully reliable either.

It's arguable that the things that Satoshi has never actually implicated his real life identity. His likely use of a VPN/Tor has probably made it much more difficult for people to trace him. His involvement in Bitcoin was primarily on the development and his use of obfuscation techniques probably helped his anonymity tremendously.

I doubt that would be the use case of an average joe when they use Bitcoin.

that's true, that is why i said it is a very hard task. but at the same time Satoshi did everything. he wasn't just the developer who wrote the code, he was also a miner who found many bitcoin blocks and also he made on-chain transactions. communicated with people over the internet and through email all the while staying anonymous.
so the possibility of being anonymous is there.

I'm not sure that in case of Satoshi it's just a technixal component or also something else.
Anyway, Bitcoin can't give you full anonimity but many users still think that they can hide theit identity behind it. Although at the begininig Bitcoin was much more anonimous now a great deal is traceable ftom transactions to IP addresses so there is no need for illusion that you can stay fully anonimous.

You can stay anonymous to an extent if you follow the right protocols on your end. Avoid KYC, use mixers etc in order to help improve your anonymity. However, there are better options available in comparison.

Privacy specific coins like Dash, Monero, Priv etc can help you in a better way if privacy is your main concern op. These coins use better tech when compared to BTC in order to help you stay anonymous.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/cryptobriefing.com/best-privacy-coins-crypto-briefings-top-10/%3famp

With monero maybe... But actually there are no 100% anonimity in the internet. In IRL too, i guess

Bitcoin gives you all the anonymity you want / need until you are revealing your personal information to third parties. At this moment your identity is revealed, but it is not Bitcoin's fault: it's your fault, as you exposed yourself by offering your personal information to others. If you use Bitcoin as it was meant by design you are protected. Unfortunately, very few users use Bitcoin according to its design thus more and more are exposed. But remember: they are exposing theirselves! How is that? By using services offered by centralized exchanges, where KYC is a must. You can read / learn more here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5202758).

Regarding your IP, again, is not a flaw of Bitcoin: this is how Internet is designed: to use the Internet Protocol (IP). But you can hide your IP with Tor, or even better, with Tor over VPN.

As a conclusion, you can stay anonymous if you use Bitcoin, as long as you want to stay anonymous.

If you won't be using coinbase, banks or any remittance services to cash out your BTC, you might be able to hide your identity.  But this is if you also have bought your BTC without revealing anything.  Today its hard to go into the exchanges without sending them your KYC. Its hard to be anonymous but scammers are willing to try because after all no one will sure them for an amount of just $100.

Depends on how you use bitcoin it's possible to increase your identify security. For example, you can always use tor and a vpn, try to install and use Tails OS it's basically designed to protect your identity, mix your bitcoins, never do kyc/aml. In the other hand, you will need to use darkweb more than clearnet in order to protect your real identity(read instructions carefully before using it). Also, you can increase your security using monero. But, always remember there is noway to guarantee that your 100% anonymous, there is always a chance to track your transactions even a little bit.

VPNs do not provide anonymity. Your VPN provider can see all your traffic and link it to your real IP address. This is even worse if you pay for your VPN with fiat, in which case they can link all your traffic to your real name and address. If you are looking for anonymity, then you need to use Tor.

There's also a lot more to staying anonymous than simply using Tor and thinking "that's that". Tor isn't foolproof for starters. Many people use Tor in de-anonymizing ways, such as logging in to accounts which have been set up or accessed via non-Tor methods, linking them back to their real identity. Even having the same browsing habits and constantly visiting the same sites as you do outside of Tor can be enough to de-anonymize you. You definitely can't use a mainstream operating system which will be phoning home constantly and filled with other software which will access the internet outside of Tor. You'll need to use something like Qubes or Whonix. You'll definitely need to run your own full node. You'll need to buy bitcoin with non-traceable methods, and you'll need to use mixers or CoinJoin if you don't want your transactions to be tracked. The list goes on and on. You can certainly make it very difficult to be de-anonymized or to have your transactions tracked, but if you ever think you are completely anonymous, you aren't.

Yes, you can if you want to. You can completely hide your identity that didn't directly link to anyone's personal identity. But if when it comes transaction there is a possibility that can be traceable or can be tracked. I heard there are services offered who can track Bitcoin transaction in illegal use or any cybercrimes related cases. Chainalysis (https://www.chainalysis.com/) can investigate and provide blockchain data that possible transactions can be tracked.

So, if you want to protect your personal identity and privacy in Bitcoin transactions you need to do the hard task, and these what you need.

• Use Bitcoin mixing service
• Use TOR to stay anonymous
• Buy/Sell Bitcoin in cash, not on the exchange that required KYC
• Use VPN to protect your IP address
• Use New Bitcoin address for every transaction

These might improve your anonymity.

There are multiple big business offering blockchain analysis and transaction tracing/de-anonymizing services. Chainalysis, Elliptic, IdentityMind, CipherTrace, Crystal, Elementus, to name just a few. The majority of the work these companies do is not in illegal or cybercrime cases, though. The majority is for exchanges which like to spy on their customers and freeze your account if you are deemed to be doing something they don't like despite being perfectly legal, such as using a bitcoin casino or sportsbook. Some exchanges like Coinbase even have their own in-house blockchain analysis department in the form of Coinbase Analytics (rebranded from Neutrino).

Although KYC is obviously a massive no-go, if you are interested in privacy then you should not be touching centralized exchanges at all.

Yes you can and it's very easy. You just have to use a physical bitcoin exchange. This is a normal exchange, like the ones you find at every airport where you are able to get currencies with cash. This is completely anonymous up to a certain amount (depending on the country). There are also ATMs that allow you to buy and sell anonymously.
You can also use exchanges with no KYC, connect via VPN and register using fake names.

I think that if there were a way to trace every identity, all those cases where hackers transferred BTC to some addresses and everyone knew the addresses would be solved very fast by agencies like the FBI. Since that is not the case, I suppose one can act carefully enough not to get caught. However, doing this might be harder than people tend to think, as Bitcoin is not made to be anonymous, it's made to offer both some privacy and transparency. Proper use of TOR and mixer might let a person stay out of trouble, I think, but that's if this person does not do anything stupid like downloading a file from TOR or using an email address without precautions to register on an exchange, a wallet or some other service related to those bitcoins.

In the issue of identity when talking about bitcoin is something that is complicated, off course bitcoin is anonymous but doesn't mean that, you can't be trace on the network for dubious reasons. Bitcoin is transparent and identity are also included on this, the only means to make yourself anonymous with bitcoin in terms of transactions is with the help of mixers around the industry.

The hardest for anyone to do is for them connecting to all the possible nodes, most of these nodes doesn't allow or accept strange or new connections or from unknown source. Even at that, anyone who intend to connect to all nodes is likely to spend almost trillions of dollars or there about to make it possible.

All bitcoin transaction stored on the network are public and transparent except that the identity of the person behind the transaction is private. Hiding bitcoin ownership is very difficult if someone buy bitcoin on an exchange that requires traders to complete the KYC procedure. But in my opinion everyone can still remain anonymous with bitcoin if buying directly through transaction between user, for example on the forum bitcointalk.org.

Buying and selling bitcoin in cash at a Bitcoin ATM is also not completely anonymous if the area has a surveillance camera (cctv), and finally I would say that being completely anonymous is a difficult task to do and being anonymous does not guarantee that users will be forever safe with bitcoin.

That is not true at all since you can use a VPN to re-direct your IP address to anywhere else in the world you want. VPNs can thus be used to keep your IP address anonymous from anybody.



As long as you release your funds on decentralised exchanges where no KYC is required, technically your identity remains anonymous to the public. This can be done using a series of other tricks like the VPN mentioned above and unrelated/fake names and email.

Overall, this is not encouraged but it is one of the beauties of crypto where anybody can be anybody - just don't take it too far!

For the nth+1 time, VPNs do not make you anonymous. Your VPN provider can see your real IP address, your real name and address if you have paid using fiat, and all your internet traffic.

Simply using a decentralized exchange isn't enough. If you pay using a bank transfer or PayPal, for example, then the other party can link your bitcoin to your real identity.

What? Why would privacy not be encouraged?

In my opinion, identity can be largely hidden but not completely hidden, there is always the technique and counter technology, for example bitcoin mixers work to hide tracking the impact of bitcoin dramatically, but recently a technology has emerged to detect mixes where platforms have become able to know the addresses that come from mixers and thus reject Bitcoin From mixers, this also costs a lot of money, meaning you need money to hide the effect of bitcoin and you also need money to reveal that.
The main problem is that you always need third-party services to deal with bitcoin and here is the problem where the third party is able to know your IP address or may request KYC and thus will be able to reveal your identity.
In order to maintain your privacy you must use the Tor or proxy software and avoid third-party services that require KYC.
In the end, I can say that privacy can be largely maintained, but not 100%.

I think somehow you can hide your identity by I guess it's not possible to hide you identify 100%.

Every transaction is recorded in the blockchain, third party websites, the wallet you are using also records every transaction.

Talking about VPN? somehow the VPN you are using could also see your IP address. If you own a BTC wallet, VPN network, etc. it would not still become 100% hidden.

We're talking about VPNs and blablabla. What if you make a transaction, using cafeteria's free Wi-Fi? I think you would be covered...

Simply we can't hide anything with this. That is why I'd never used free-wifi when accessing my wallet and for security reasons.

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We can hide identity in crypto but not the numbers of Bitcoin we are holding in a certain wallet. Once we have a record in the blockchain technology, everything is traceable even we use a VPN or whatever it is to bypass IP. But does it give the interest of everybody? Not at all, Maybe if we are holding a lot and that will get attention especially for the hackers/scammers. But for those ordinary Bitcoin holders, I don't think so.

Bitcoin is pseudonymous every transaction made, is transparent in Blockchain network that can be seen by anyone just by searching the address from there you can see where funds was sent. And yes, nodes can reveal IP addresses but not accurately.
One thing your friend forgotten is mixer that mix your every transaction to other user and sending to multiple different address, it might be a solution but not 100% guaranteed

According to previous interventions;
Identity may have the option of being hidden for those who try to discover it without having advanced knowledge, for other types of users with an advanced level, there are alternatives mentioned, some questioned, but with the consensus that despite their weaknesses, somehow In its proper use they "can" offer to keep you anonymous.

Perhaps what is most named in the possible weakness of losing your anonymity, is the IP, by the way it is very easy to access this information for a large majority of people, but those who know how to give it "good use" for their benefit in the prejudice of another. Really very few. Consequently, it seems obvious, but what can keep you anonymous the most is the amount of bitcoin assets you own.

Can you hide your identity with bitcoin?⁽¹⁾

I think an immediate question arises, to whom? Then the second question, what amount are we talking about?

Actually, the second question defines all this, how much can be a significant amount in BTC to invest * in that your identity remains hidden.


The reality is that 0.5 BTC can mean a lot of money or it can mean a tip, that brings us to the first question (1).

Alternatives, suggestions from me to answer the question, to whom ?:
A family member, friend, partner: A key on the PC, basic online and offline security rules are sufficient, but the most important, never comment with anyone who has assets in cryptocurrencies, with that I guarantee anonymity with any of my public keys , at least from my basic environment.

We always want to protect ourselves from the online world, but sometimes we lose our hidden identity, precisely from offline bad practices.

So add to the above, basic good security practices such as those mentioned, but if I read it correctly, it is good to know that they are not infallible and always leave a trace.

Someone already told us something important about security in 2 words, and in fact it is the greatest asset that bitcoin has, S N.

In the theoretical reality, the anonymity of the person who makes the transactions is a right of the bitcoin network, but not of its transactions.

In practice the same good sense of making an open book all the transactions of the blockchain, results in a prejudice in the world in which we live, because either because there is always the misfortune of those who want to take advantage of the information they end up taking advantage of the weaknesses of users in the management of their assets and in general of the basic principles of security. We may ask, is it the fault of the bitcoin network?

A public key on the bitcoin network should only let third parties know what movements it makes. If they discover your identity, I assure you that as long as SN remains anonymous, it is their fault.

You can use VPN after you connect to the free WiFi, so at least, you can hide your identity, and the cafeteria's WiFi doesn't know which one of their customer who use their free WiFi. But I think we can not hide the number of bitcoin that we send or receive because the transaction will appear to the blockchain transaction. The other people will only know the amount without knowing who is the sender and the recipient.

I think that bitcoin is anonymous as long as the other party does not know how to do an IP trace, the degree of protection that bitcoin offers in my opinion is enough to prevent low lifes from using it as a front for illegal activities and on the other hand, the privacy of the user is guaranteed as long as there is no questionable actions done in that address.

You cannot say NO and then say it is NO only for the average Joe.  :P  The answer should be ...YES, but you have to apply strict measures to be 100% anonymous. You are also looking at this from the angle of someone hosting a node and not the average Joe that learnt how to make a secure Paper wallet.  ;)

Throw Paper wallets and Mixers together and you have a better chance to stay anonymous... until you use those bitcoins at a regulated exchange or a third party service where your real identity is linked to your payment or delivery of goods.  ;)

It definitely isn't absolutely impossible but it is in a sense still fairly hard to ensure 100% anonymity. Bitcoin in the first place is not designed around the concept of anonymity but rather to enhance anonymity.

Sure, moving coins around mixers would help your cause but it doesn't mean chain analysis isn't totally out of the picture, the mixer won't go rogue and reveal your origin and destination addresses. There are just too many points of failure as compared to the cryptos that were specifically designed to focus on privacy. Unfortunately, no matter how much one values its privacy, Bitcoin is probably not the best crypto for the job.

We don't have really any idea if Satoshi Nakamoto is a person or a group or just an alias to hide his identity. We are still not that good at looking for the real creator of this bitcoin, his anonymity is very effective and is hard to find out. Nodes can really track a person that do the transaction but that's not that easy, you also need to undergo other process to really find the exact person behind the transactions.

If that's the case? Is it still safe to make a lot of bitcoin transactions?

Once people are engaging in bitcoin and they read this thread, hoping that they improve their security and become aware about the safety of their account every time they engage in bitcoin transactions.

I'm not an expert here but I believe it would be hard to trace our IP though the blockchain is very transparent, we can still be anonymous as long as we don't use a centralized platform like an exchange where we need to comply with the KYC requirement.

one proof that IP cannot be trace is the fact that we can't trace who owns the biggest holders of bitcoins or what we called the whales.

IMO.. satoshi is an anonymous group, not a real person.  if he is a real person we can track him because even if he uses VPN or Tor network when he exchanges his Bitcoin for fiat money on the exchange, his identity will be found out because on average the exchange tracks the identity of the owner of Bitcoin who has a large amount..

you are wrong, the wifi network at the cafeteria is a favorite place for hackers because there are tens or even hundreds of internet activities going on.  always on guard, do not use a free wifi network in a cafe if you frequently make payment transactions through your laptop or smartphone.  the safest way to fatherly protect yourself is to use Modems, Modems really make a new IP..

Nope,I don't think that you can completely hide your identity online.Here are my tips:
1.Bitcoin mixers are a must for anonymity,but be careful,because some mixer might steal your coins and scam you.
2.Tor is overrated.Most of the Tor nodes are watched by FBI.Combine Tor with a paid VPN.
3.Use TAILS operating system.Combine with Tor/VPN/Socks5 proxy
4.It's OK to use exchanges with KYC,but the outgoing BTC transactions have to go to a BTC mixer first.
5.VPNs are OK,but use a paid one.Free trials and free VPNs usually suck.
6.New BTC address for every transaction is a must.
7.Use Duckduckgo as a search engine and Protonmail as an email address provider.Completely abandon Google,because the big G is tracking all your online activities.

I have an opinion that we cannot hide 100% identity with Bitcoin, because Monero coin alone is clearly a privacy coin can be tracked
even though it's difficult. And also many hackers who argue that no system is safe, which means we can't in the internet world
anonymous 100%. Although there are still some people who think it is possible that Bitcoin can hide 100% identity, therefore this issue
is still pros and cons.

You can always combine tor with a good vpn while on a public wifi network in a place without CCTV camera's, then while connected trough tor + vpn put your funds trough several "hops"...

A mixer =>

a no-KYC on the fly exchange to monero =>

some transactions between monero wallets =>

using a different no-KYC on the fly exchange back to btc =>

To the hotwallet of a no-KYC casino (gamble a bit) / withdraw afterwards =>

Coinjoin


If you want to be completely anonymous, use the funds from the previous steps, rent a VPS, setup p2pool, rent some hashrate on miningrigrentals (or an equivalent service) and mine several blocks using a brand-new, never-used, offline created address as a coinbase address.... All these steps have to be done over tor+vpn.

You can even go more paranoid than this (for example, by routing all your traffic over one or more bulletproof vps's that were purchased with mixed coins over tor/vpn)... But each step you add will cost you some extra funds... And a single screwup and it'll all have been in vain...

I'd like to see the 3 letter agency that can tie the coinbase reward back to the initial funds  :-*

Don't forget that P2P exchanges exist... Also, even if satoshi is an anonymous group how does that change the fact that measures have to be taken anyways to not leak the informations of that presumed "group" ?
I may add that even if it's a paid one, VPNs have to be choosen carefully because some of them (paid) are known to have logged AND given user's information when asked by authorities.

No. Today, unfortunately, there are many ways to find traces and get to your identity.

Actually in the very first days of bitcoin there weren't any strict AML/KYC laws applicable to the bitcoin exchanges, most of the exchanges used to happen by p2p method, so only a few people would have known about his identity. And he never sold much of his coins, most of the coins from the starting days of bitcoin blockchain remain dormant to this date as well.
 Also as @Ranochigo said use of Tor and proxy servers would have made Satoshi untraceable as he would definitely be using them surely because he was paranoid for privacy.

Everyone in the community except for the few members is doing that right now, hiding their own identity including our boss Theymos. The only thing they can find is the place where that IP address will lead them but if someone is using some proxy or any other browsers to hide identities, it will only lead you to some fake addresses. It's really easy to hide your identity at some point but if the one tracing you is master in this field, you might get tracked but I tell you it's not that easy though.

Thinking that satoshi cannot be found, makes me think that you can hide yourself 100%.

I know that there are a lot of Bitcoin mixers to hide your identity. But mixers do not quaranty that the bitcoin transactions will be clean and will have a good history.

I have heard that it will be difficult to trace if you are many..  you just note that it will be easier to reveal the identity of an "independent hacker" rather than a "hacker group" in this case Satoshi is a lot, it can be said "Satoshi is us"

a little information on why VPN and Tor don't really hide the identity 100%

There's some ways to trace people identity with bitcoin but theres absolutely some ways to hide one's identity with bitcoin through the use bitcoin tumbler site (which i can recommend only chipmix), the use of coinjoin wallet (samurai or wasabi wallet) and using Tor browser/VPN  which will make impossible for anyone to trace your identity if managed properly.

If you install a node in your personal computer, then make a transaction and after that search for the ip on that transaction, you will see that's not the same ip as your local ip, and this is because bitcoin use proxies to broadcast the transactions.

But you can be traced if someone find where do you get the coins from and where do you spend them to.

I guess it depends on how you use Bitcoin. There is the possibility to be fully anonymous if it's purely peer-to-peer transaction. You'd have to find a peer in real world to be able to this.


You could also safely print out couple of private keys in different denominations (maybe with special machine to immediately seal the keys with silver panels) and  use them like regular cash.   For this to work well like regular cash, the owners will have to know only part of the keys before transferring to the next person. No confirmation will be needed if done right. Not going to say much on this.

I think we are not completely anonymous to bitcoin, maybe somehow people will find us (via IP address or trading wallet).
In case people sell bitcoin and cash it out, I think the government will immediately recognize you.

I don’t know about this for sure. But from what I have seen and according to see articles, you can’t be hundred percent anonymous when you’re making use of Bitcoin. There are people who are able to do that, but it’s going to cause you some stress. Every transaction has their IP address that’s linked to them, and I have heard that people can be traced with that IP address, but I think it’s only the government that has the ability or power to do that, and not an ordinary individual (if there are, then I am not aware of it).

Some people make use of some software to mask their IP address so that they won’t be traced and they also make use of Coin mixers to create more anonymity for themselves. I don’t think you will like to stress yourself this much when you’re only using it for legit purposes.

^ Definitely right, because bitcoin was created not for hiding your personality as a payment. The intention of the creator is to become a worldwide digital currency that probably uses in any form of payment method online. It can be tracked your identity but I had a few questions bother in my mind.
Why those crypto exchanges hacked last year did not recover the bitcoin had been stolen, is their lack of information or just an inside job.
Nevertheless, I can say that probably 25% you can hide as a anonymously but the rest, it can be trackable.

There's a saying that does you can't be 100% anonymous when you are connected to the internet and it is certainly correct because when you perform transactions with bitcoin, the blockchain itself keeps the record of everything which means even your ip address and servers are included and even of you try using vpn and other anonymity softwares, the software developer can access your original ip and location

Your friend is absolutely right, we can't hide our identity with Bitcoin. Because decentralization owned by Bitcoin has transparency,
which means that all Bitcoin transactions that we do can be seen publicly. Even though we use software or VPN, there are always gaps.
The conclusion is that in the internet world nothing is 100% anonymous.

your IP address because it is not risky to your privacy, you can download any full node wallet and run Tor network to access the data anonymously.
Bitcoin is not anonymously system
hardware wallet add more to your security, but will not do anything to protect privacy, privacy is your data, hardware wallet will not protect it.

use a new address every time, do not use any old address, and do not link your personal files.

Most criminals aren't stupid enough to take stolen funds and transfer them directly to an exchange or some other online account registered under their own name. Once the attacker passes coins through a good mixer or coinjoin transaction then it can become very difficult to trace.

Although this data is visible to other nodes at the time that you make a transaction, neither your IP address nor the server you connect to is permanently stored on the blockchain.

Perhaps if we created the wallet at a public ip address, then deposited money in it and kept it in secret we could remain anonymous. However, as long as we make a transaction, we are likely to be exposed.

Quite true, you can't be anonymous in bitcoin's network. Blockchain alone is an open book for every transaction, absolutely every transaction is included in blockchain and you can search any of them. The whole magic lies in how successfully you are able to track target. In past, governments and people in overall weren't good at it but right now, see, a lot of people who use bitcoin for illegal purposes (got coins from exchange hacks and etc) are getting caught very soon.

If you want anonymity, there are better options that are created specifically for it, for example - monero.

If you want to track IP, then you need to own high percentage of nodes and your target's wallet directly connected to one of your nodes.

On another hand, you can achieve high anonymity in bitcoin's network, everything hugely depends on your actions too. For example, if your client connects on PC that's 100% clean and then connect VPN/Tor and mine bitcoins in a pool (depends on pool too) and use mixers that meet high standard of anonymity, then it will be very, very hard for anyone to detect.

We can hide our identity with Bitcoin but it is debatable if it is 100% or not since Bitcoin is known for pseudonymity, not anonymity but, as long as you don't connect your bank account or personal info on the address, you can easily hide your identity with Bitcoin simply by using TOR to mask your IP.  If you want to cash out via third exchange platform, you can also use TOR plus mixers, TOR to mask your IP and mixer to dilute and make it harder or impossible to trace the source of the Bitcoin address where the fund came.  

Bitcoin doesn't really maintain your privacy up to 100%. bitcoin transaction history will provide information about the activities that have been carried out, and it can be tracked to reveal behind the user's bitcoin address.
To overcome this you can use a mixing service,
In general, mixing is indeed an activity to obscure funds or as a removal of traces of the original transaction and replace it with new transactions obtained from the mixer platform. Mixer is a third party service, but the security of anonymity is still questionable. Third parties like mixers can still record IP addresses and bitcoin addresses that use mixer services. and in the end the user gives up control of funds and identity to their real bitcoin address.

The best way is indeed by mixing or using coinjoin, as many members say here. information about the original bitcoin address will be safe if a third party does not divulge the data.

Even without a specified hardware, you can hide your identity and IP using software. If I am not mistaken, you can use linux for you to easily hide your IP when you are transacting, Kali linux in particular, but it is made for hacking and penetration testing, though, it has some features to protect your identity especially when you are transacting.

Or if you don't like to completely change your operating system, you might store your bitcoin wallet and make transactions in a virtual machine and still using linux.

the network protocol isn't os-dependant. You don't need linux to use a VPN, i2p, freenet, a proxy or a VPN (or a VPS as jumpserver).
It's perfectly possible to use tor over VPN on a windows machine. Tor has a one-click tool that even novice users can use to setup and use a tor router, and many VPN providers have a more extensive walktrough for windows users than they have for linux users (most likely because most linux users are used to look at the help, manpages, readme's, wiki's,... while windows users require more guidance).

That being said, there are specific linux distro's (like Tails) that tried to make the process even safer and simpler than it would have been on windows.

Bottom line: linux =/= automatic anonimity

there is no way that you can hide your identity in this market because Bitcoin transaction is not that anonymous after all,our transaction is always public so it is given that we are not that totally private.
Not unless you will use Mixing company to Hide your Transaction or Use exchange first before sending to your wallet but these are expensive and will cost you some Bucks before completely succeed.
what?so hows that mate please let us all know what and how that effort works?

Of course we can do that. We can do a series of masking for our IP addresses starting with using Virtual Private Networks. It still possible to get our identifications be known but the process will be really hard to do. Every nodes and wallets used are always masked because that provides further security.

We can't hide our identity with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies because our transactions are broadcast in public, so there is no way that you could make transactions anonymously even you used other software or a VPN. Also, yet you use hardware wallets for safer security, your information can still be able to track it down with your public address and your IPs.

You can hide it if you are just holding it in your hardware wallet but when it comes to transacting with Bitcoin you can't really hide your identity with it since everything can be connected in with blockchain. Technically your friend is right when it comes to hiding your identity since right now with regulations and governments more being involved in the crypto industry with all of their AML procedures set in place your identity will be really really hard to hide, but as long as your aren't transacting and just holding your Bitcoin you are simply anonymous with other people.

Your friend is absolutely right. Bitcoin network is not an anonymous network. Bitcoin is not meant for privacy at all.
Bitcoin was meant to be used as a peer to peer payment system in a distributed peer to peer network.
At some point it is possible to get the identity of the particular peer.
There are other coins which are anonymous and providers more privacy . Monero is one of them.

I'm sorry, your friend is saying the truth. You can't hide your identity on cryptocurrency 100%. There are just little things that can expose you. Your address is there and every transaction you're making with your address leaves that can be used to trace you ,and your IP address as well. I don't know how you can hide your IP address.

Another thing you have to know is that bitcoin was created by some researchers and they all have where they are all working now, and possibly a lot of them might be working for the government. They know everything including how they can track down anyone they want to, you can't hide forever. I no longer use bitcoin as a means to stay anonymous, I just use it because it's an easy means for transaction and also an investment for me.

No. Unfortunately, this is not possible now. But I hope that something will change in the future.

Bitcoin may be featuring anonymity but there will be always limitations. Identity can be hidden once but can be also found one way or another. May it be through transactions or any digital footprints. All of the transactions that are being made are all transparent on a host network, where movements and IP addresses can be traced. Although, VPN can be used to hide one's IP address, it is not really allowed to some places and thus, does not guarantee full anonymity.

Question: Does Satoshi Nakamoto hide his identity with bitcoin 100%?

He did hide his identity 100%. But not only with bitcoin.

No if you are going to do kyc in some exchanges or wallet apps using your ip address,they can trace it. Actually there is no secret that can hide forever ,the same with bitcoin.Using a modern technology ,I believed someone will make a way on how to know the owner of every transaction in cryptocurrency that will lead for the anonymity being useless.

Probably not. You can hardly hide your identity with bitcoin. At least now it sounds unlikely.

If you have intention to withdraw bitcoins in your currency or fiat, you cannot secure your anonymity 100%.

Or just like what they said "Pseudoanonymous" which means, that people will know that you are using bitcoin but will not directly know which transactions you are making through mixers. The way you could do it is to change your IP temporarily along with your MAC address. The best way I think on how you could do it is to use kali linux operating system.

Satoshi has hidden his identity very successful so far and he has every right to protect his privacy. I think that most of us at his place would have done the same. However, I don't think that is only with help of Bitcoin. Bitcoin has lost a great deal of anonimity since it first appeared and now it's much easier to track the person behind it and follow the transactions. To my opinion Satoshi relies on something completely different to protect identity.

The basic thing you miss here is that Satoshi did not move his coins from the known wallets and even if he wanted to move the coins during the initial stages when exchanges started popping up, you could easily sell the coins without verifying your identity and that way you could be anonymous but now the situation has changed and if Satoshi wanted to move the coins he will be exposed as you cannot find any exchanges you can trade without exposing yourself.

In short, it can be said that you can't. You cannot hide yourself and your friend's dialogue is right that your ip address is your tracking to them. So it us easy for them to find out you in this world.

He's the creator and he knows things like this will happen any soon.

So I agree with that, aside from bitcoin he use something that will keep his identity

hidden to everyone, we see that until now we don't know or there's no clear information
about his identity.

Yes I am highly agree to you my friend. What did Satoshi is a great technique back then because he was the founder of bitcoin and yet nobody was able to track him down or find him co'z he was great at hiding but today if and only if he shows up, there will be a person who can track him down because of the KYC method and also nobody can say if he is still active here in crypto world because he can use random names.

Evwn though they can see the transactions in the blockchain, they will never know your true identity. Thry will never know anything about you, your address, your name or even email address. They do not know that is your bitcoin address unless it is someone you know or have a transaction with personally. That is why bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous.

Until you go to exchanges that will asks KYC. This is how you will not get away of the KYC.
Or encashing BTC going to bank account will then require him to submit data. There is no escape to this process already unless you just sell your coins to someone you will be meeting in public and he brings load of cash with him.

Right now I don't know if anyone just gave up all his coins in the exchange just so he won't submit KYC documents.

Unless doing kyc in the exchange our identity will be expose. There are other users who avoid in doing such kyc to protect identity. But I agree with others here in doing transactions  is we can use VPN connection to be safe. So we really have options to chose in every transactions we do.

Satoshi didn't move his coins from the well known wallets because people will track down his every move if he does then despite that KYC was not introduce by the SEC and if he had move those BTC his identity will be reveal by now. In other for him to keep his anonymity secure he have to sacrifice those coins.
With that been said, the pseudoanonymous in nature of bitcoin didnt mean people can not hide their identity 100%.

You never know, Satoshi will be lurking around this forum and you will never find out and my instincts say that he is having another account here and monitoring the entire market because he created something no one was able to figure out and he might be appreciating everything at a distance away from the normal crowd about how the market is growing as his invention is used by millions and having a billion dollar market  ;).

That is a valid point, as long as Satoshi wants to keep his identity secure he needs to sacrifice his coins, bitcoin is a money trail and you cannot expect complete anonymity but pseudo anonymous is perfect as i do not want anyone to see my wealth unless i want to reveal myself.

Bitcoin is not entirely anonymous. It is anonymous in the sense that the components of Bitcoin, such as addresses, private and public keys, and transactions, are all read in text strings, such as a public address, that in no way directly link to anyone's personal identity.Since users usually have to reveal their identity in order to receive services or goods, Bitcoin addresses cannot remain fully anonymous. For these reasons, Bitcoin addresses should only be used once and users must be careful not to disclose their addresses.

Although Santoshi has been able to keep his identity very successful so far, I personally think it is not possible to hide 100% of my personal identity with Bitcoin. Because in addition to the IP, at least the identity that Bitcoin itself goes through will be recorded there, so if you store Bitcoin on the hardware, it will eventually give an identity to any one of the exchanges.

Aren't the mixers sufficient enough to mix your coins and make you anonymous on the internet while using bitcoins, I know someone with a lot of resources and time can still search and find you but for that you can aslo shift towards other privacy oriented coins like monero, right??
Also what I do is never try to transfer my bitcoins straight from exchange address where I use to buy and sell my coins for bank transfers and never send straight from my wallet to that address as it is the kind of thing that should be kept private and can easily throw away your identity.

Well, that does not work like that. There is a big chance that you can hide and masking your identity but there is the chance you will unmask someday. Using tools on this is a great help just like bitcoin mixing and using TOR. It perhaps not directly be linked to you but at least your privacy has been protected by the possible negative side just like tracing and scam you personally.

Very simple, you can use various VPN programs that change your IP to another one. There is also software that makes your IP dynamic, i.e. it is constantly changing with each new visit to the Internet. Accordingly, the wallet will not be linked to a single address and you will be completely anonymous.

You can hide your identity, but if the police want to find out who used a particular wallet, then the proxy and VPN will not help you here, since any VPN service is required to provide data on which IP requested the proxy service at a certain time in a certain place. Then you will be found by geolocation.

It's very hard to keep your identity completely hidden. Probably impossible to have it exactly 100%.

There are cameras that could be used to facially recognize you. Your disposable phone, unless it has all antennas removed, will send and receive information from and to the service provider it's been registered to (and even without it, AFAIK, a phone with battery in it could still send and receive information - especially if it's a smartphone, and assuming you're using Bitcoin with it... it most likely is). Just think about it - even without a SIM card you can still call 911, right? Even if you turn your phone to Airplane Mode, do you have any guarantee that it has terminated any communication?

What is the source of your Bitcoins? What if your government or a third party has been doing blockchain analysis for a long time and your identity has been easily found? Mixers do not hide your identity 100%. While it hardens the analysis process and makes tracking your coins a pain in the arse, it does not mean it's impossible to find who the owner truly is. With enough resources and time, someone looking after your BTC address may link some crucial information to find your identity.

There's more to it. It's just that, while you do improve your privacy, you never push it to perfection. There's always going to be some leakage you may not even be thinking about, yet important enough for authorities or someone tracking you.

Edit: Tor does not hide your identity either, if you do not use it the right way. First of all, a lot of people use it with JavaScript enabled - which is just enough for your real device's information to be leaked. The thing is, you're mistaking anonymity for pseudonymity. It's not anonymous. It's not like I send you 0.001BTC and nobody knows who sent money to who, or how much. The ledger is entirely public, which means that once data is stored, it's going to be there forever. In other words, any little mistake is going to be recorded without the possibility of reverting it. It's just like our usernames on here: you have usernames, you're not sure who is who.. but with enough research, you may find out. We're just pseudonymous - not anonymous.

A complete anonymity is just a dream now a days especially if the authorities are targeting you. The speaker in your phone can be activated and if the authorities knows your IMEI number of your mobile they can activate your mobile speaker even if you turned your phone to airplane mode your communications can be captured.

When it comes to bitcoin it is impossible to stay fully anonymous if you are using exchanges because they force us to verify our identity, if you are making money online and if you are accepting it in bitcoin and not using the traditional exchanges it is possible to be anonymous.

Previously the official website of bitcoin contained the phrase anonymity, but they later removed them. It's not possible to anonymize conventionally, but there are many ways it can be used to remain anonymous. I listened to the TOR network and the mixer, those are the two best ways to combat IP tracing the best.

Though China has majority of these nodes but believe me, there are still thousands of nodes outside this jurisdiction which won't accept any connection from new IPs. In as much attack can't be feasible so is connection to all Bitcoin nodes.

Why are we so afraid of our identities? Identities are meant to be known and not hidden forever. Those with clean hands can't be afraid of this so called reveal identity, haven't our Banks knows our identity?. As for me nothing to be afraid of because am clean.

As bitcoin is a decentralized coin, basically it is not possible to trace the transaction. We are unable to find who is sending and who is receiving it. Both users are safe and hidden.

Bitcoin is not completely anonymous as all transaction are recorded on the network. In certain cases, you also cant hide the identity behind your bitcoin ownership even if you use a mixer. Meanwhile, the cooperation between the government and exchange requires trader to fill out a KYC form and know their asset ownership.

In legal cases, government may still be able to track bitcoin owner in their own way and as Binance did a while back, this is part of a government exchange partnership. They managed to uncover the scam that had occurred in the last few year.

Everything on the internet can be tracked, because for example when you plug in your mobile cypto wallet it your pc its connected to internet, and when you transfer your btc to wallet you do that via your ip adress. So I thing it can be tracked.
Like the last time when hackers attacked the famous people via twitter if you remember.

That is true but you at least need to have some super computer before tracking something over Blockchain UNLESS its recorded on the Blockchain. What we are seeing on the internet is not even on the Dark Web but only Deep Web and Surface Web which is reasonable since we got no reasons to be on the Dark Web. Cryptocurrencies were made in good reputation since nobody wants them to be used in a bad way. There is still a chance to hide your identity if you properly create a chain of fake accounts in which can lead to your true identity BUT only when you are converting it into your own money.

Mostly you cannot. If you really wanted it, it would take a long while!

You can't be completely anonymous with bitcoin. Transactions can always be traced ( it is public ledger after all) and there are plenty of companies involved in analyzing transactions histories for exactly this reason.

That being said these chain analysis companies arent perfect and there are plenty of things you could do make tracing your transactions difficult such as the use of coin and transaction mixers(eg coinjoin), never using the same address twice, using tor or the use of dark wallets.

Again all these methods don't guarantee anonymity( most people get deanonymized largely because even they use mixers or tor they often make some mistake along the way) they just make it harder for someone to track you.

agree with this statement, whereas the anonymity level applied in the blockchain network cannot be 100%, it also has a dangerous impact on the transparent nature of the blockchain.

transparency of the blockchain must be balanced with anonymity, namely 50:50 so as not to be biased. How come?

If you want to be 100% transparent, then the result is that all network data must be published without being hidden, and that violates the rules of anonymity, there should be data that cannot be published regarding the privacy of each individual.

Actually you can be very anonymous in various ways.
What "official Bitcoin" site are you referring to? org or com? Doesn't matter though. Bitcoin principle of anonymity is a fact/truth.

Anyway, you don't need to use bitcoin on the internet to be completely anonymous. You could simply use it as physical currency and transfer to people who could just quickly verify on the Blockchain that it's genuine and hasn't been tampered. An application with extra features will clearly be needed to make this possible. And it won't be a difficult thing to build.

Although Bitcoin has privacy features, they aren't as discreet as say, Monero. Currencies like Monero are built with privacy in mind and using them almost guarantees a far higher degree of privacy than bitcoin. The problem is that certain governments aren't really down with them which may lead to problems when it comes to regulation and therefore adoption with these "privacy" coins.

No. Decentralization is not as good as it was at the start. Unfortunately.

Somewhere on the forum there was a thread that Satoshi Nakamoto in the bitcoin whitepaper wrote that bitcoin is not an anonymous cryptocurrency. It would be strange to assume that it is. There is always an IP address from which the request is sent and this address will be passed to the investigative authorities at the first request. In any case, I wouldn't expect you to go unnoticed.

Why are you arguing with someone about something you don't know? That's not very logical now, is it?
Noone can find out who you are with your IP address unless they can contact your ISP and get the info there but that can only happen under a Subpoena or a hacker gains access to the ISP database and even then it's hard to prove who has what IP because IP addresses are dynamically used and cycle often. An IP address is nowhere near enough evidence to prove anything. Otherwise if it were could you imagine the havoc a criminal can cause of they hack into your WIFI outside of your house and go on a crime spree. 


Did you not read properly? He is wrong and his friend is right.


Iv'e never heard so much shit in my life.

We can hidden our identity with our bitcoin assets but looks impossible when selling bitcoin by higher amount, how ever many exchange market needed to upgrade and pass KYC for available to withdraw above 2 bitcoin every day, if you not upgrade your exchange market you only can sell under 2 bitcoin. But you can sell if you have many exchange market with 100 market binance example you can sell more than 200 btc every day, but look risk with higher payment fee have to pay.

I am also unknown about it.. at least I know if we make the transactions and open the wallets our ip address is tracked or saved in the Bitcoin transactions. Is that correct? One of my question is if a particular and respective finance organization or country want to check the Bitcoin users and their transactions ? Could they track and verify the users and transactions easily? What are the privacy and policies of these stuffs?

if we view the btc transactions that we make they can give you different details and depending on the wallet or block explorers maybe some can show you extra details like ip address but i havent seen it so far or i only miss looked it   . they can track your real ip , name , address , etc . you could careless if you have use a fake details and a different ip on every transactions you make on your wallet but  if its required in your place or on your country then you should evade it   . to the policies , well that depends on them and you should read that or ask them about it   .

Most of this has already been covered in this thread...

Nope

That's a question you should ask those finance organisations or countrys...
This being said, on a technical level, no ip or username is stored on the blockchain. The blockchain basically stores witch unspent output is funding which address. When you create a new transaction you use one (or more) unspent outputs funding an address you controll as input for your transaction, removing it from the utxo db. When your transaction is broadcasted (and confirmed) the output of your transaction is now a new unspent output that's stored in the utxo db.

A company or governement can easily parse the blocks and re-create the current utxo db, and all historic transactions, but the only way they can add a name or ip to a transaction is if you were careless when broadcasting your transaction or careless when disclosing witch address(es) belong to your wallet.

Now, there are ways of adding ip's to transactions with a certain degree of certainty. If you run hundreds of SPV nodes and full nodes and have access to the logs of big blockchain explorers and web wallets, you could (theoretically) start data mining and start to find correlations between unspent outputs being spent in the same transaction, log ip's from nodes that broadcast a certain tx to your node, store lookups from spv clients, dig trough bitcoin explorer's webserver logs, dig trough webwallets webserver logs,... If you have terrabytes of logs of all these services, and you write a very powerfull data mining application, i'm relatively certain that you'll be able to attach ip's to a lot of newer wallets with a relatively high degree of certainty. But this is a completely different discussion.

You can hide your identity with bitcoins. Your transaction will be anonymous and no one can trace it. That's the reason why the government is against it. Most criminals use bitcoins to sell drugs, weapons, illegal things so police can't reach them.

 You can't hide your identity with bitcoin. A few weeks ago, a team of money launderers of the criminals caught using the collaboration of bitcoin exchanges and authority. But as long as you don't do anything wrong or illegal, no one cares about your identity except exchanges that require KYC.

I use wasabi as.my day to day wallet. Please explain how you'd find my ip address.
The claim you're making has been contradicted multiple times in this very thread. This claim is only true if you use "bad" wallets (like web wallets)