Bitcoin Forum

Hey all. New to bitcoins (obviously, newbie forum, haha). One thing I've seen a few places and haven't quite got a grasp on yet is the whole thing about creating new addresses for every transaction. It seems to be about creating length between an attacker's known points. I.e. if they know address x came from mt.gox, they trace that through, maybe they know some other point, they find me in the middle.

But for creating new addresses for all receiving/etc... for that to protect me, doesn't that assume I make lots of transactions? At the moment (at least for me) there isn't a lot to do with bitcoins besides gambling. Sure, there are a few places now, hence me getting into it, I want to understand it before it's ubiquitous. But if I just throw some money in through a currency exchange and have it sitting, and eventually spend that, which came direct from the exchange, there isn't really any opportunity for extra addresses there... should I spam between my own addresses?

Wow that was quick. The (bitcoin) penny drops... It's basically what people do with money laundering, I guess! Haha. Feeling unclean now ;)

Sorta feels like there is a battle going on in our society at the moment between unrestricted freedom and all its associated risks, and control for the purposes of law enforcement. On one hand, we have stuff like easy money laundering in bitcoin being illegal and enforced with normal currency... but all the attendant benefits of true anonymity (harder identity fraud) are also available in bitcoin. Compromises. Or, rather, the battle has always been there and always will be and bitcoin is a new arena for it.