Bitcoin anonimity

[lucif]

From the FBI Bitcoin report (page 5):

All Bitcoin transactions are published online and Internet Protocol (IP) address are linked to the public Bitcoin transactions.

AFAIK Bitcoin messages and transactions format, there are no entries containing sender's IP address.

AFAIK, to determine sender's IP address, your client must be connected directly to sender's Bitcoin client.

What did FBI mean with this quote?

[Coincomm]

It means the FBI is incompetent and is working in our favor.

[lucif]

Maybe they just read Satoshi's PDF paper in region where Satoshi describes how coins could be sent just to IP address?  But this feature is obsolete AFAIK.

[RodeoX]

I think they mean "CAN be linked to IP addresses". By can I mean unless they covered their tracks.
Or perhaps the FBI is still trying to figure it all out, and not doing well.

[Stephen Gornick]

From the FBI Bitcoin report (page 5):

All Bitcoin transactions are published online and Internet Protocol (IP) address are linked to the public Bitcoin transactions.

AFAIK Bitcoin messages and transactions format, there are no entries containing sender's IP address.

AFAIK, to determine sender's IP address, your client must be connected directly to sender's Bitcoin client.

What did FBI mean with this quote?

They don't really care about the IP address.  They care about identifying who the party in the transaction is.  So, they were wrong on that technical detail.  But there is information that will help towards giving a clue as to who a party in the transaction might be, even if that doesn't come from the IP address (presuming the party didn't take privacy precautions):

Here's an example:



 - http://toolongdidntread.com/neo4j/i-really-wanted-to-release-this-weekend/

[aph382]

wow, that is a very cool visualization tool.  kudos to the coder.

[jimboboh]

Interesting stuff- is that why bitcoin transactions will sometimes "bounce" the coin transfers around?

[Stephen Gornick]

Interesting stuff- is that why bitcoin transactions will sometimes "bounce" the coin transfers around?

Bounce?


Are you referring to a mixing service?

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mixing_service