How anonymous is Bitcoin?

[KingZee]

I can't help wonder sometimes, say I have 10 BTC in X address, if I send them to Y address, I have 10 BTC in the wallet with the Y address.

Say I create another address for the same wallet with Y addy, will anyone be able to know if I spend some of that 10 BTC?

If yes can you please explain how? It's still unundeerstandable for me, since the blockchain only deals with addresses, how can btc be linkable to wallets?

Other than that, if I send the 10 btc to Y address, will anyone be able to get all the addresses of the same wallet? Thanks!

[Wusolini]

I can't help wonder sometimes, say I have 10 BTC in X address, if I send them to Y address, I have 10 BTC in the wallet with the Y address.

Say I create another address for the same wallet with Y addy, will anyone be able to know if I spend some of that 10 BTC?

Yes, everybody will notice moving of those 10 BTC (its visible in blockchain), BUT nobody knows who moved them (unless you publish this addy with your name,  email ... )

If yes can you please explain how? It's still unundeerstandable for me, since the blockchain only deals with addresses, how can btc be linkable to wallets?

Because blockchain is public.

Other than that, if I send the 10 btc to Y address, will anyone be able to get all the addresses of the same wallet? Thanks!

NO. Only in case you send all bitcoins from all your addresses in single transaction. (then everybody knows all these addies are controlled by a single owner).

[Tstar]

bitcoin is anonymous , so no one will know who own these address
only they will able to track those bitcoins current address
but your identity is always hidden

[torusJKL]

You could say that bitcoin is pseudonymous.

Say you write multiple books under the same pseudonym.
As long as nobody can associate you with the pseudonym nobody will know who wrote those books.
As soon as one of the books reveals the true name of the author it can be linked back through the pseudonym to all books you wrote.


To translate into bitcoin.
As long as nobody can associate the bitcoin address to you then this address and all the linked ones (e.g. when you use multiple addresses as input for a single output/payment) then nobody will know to whom those 10BTC belong.
The address or any of it's linked addresses can be associated with you than all past and future transactions could be traced back to you.

You could use a mixer to break these links.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mixing_service

[LiberyOrDeath]

Not as anonymous as most of us though this time last year. You see all these knew coins Dark This , Black That, that's because theoretically your btc transactions can be traced. It is very hard and takes a lot of comp power and resources but it can be done.

[paullinator]

I can't help wonder sometimes, say I have 10 BTC in X address, if I send them to Y address, I have 10 BTC in the wallet with the Y address.

Say I create another address for the same wallet with Y addy, will anyone be able to know if I spend some of that 10 BTC?

If yes can you please explain how? It's still unundeerstandable for me, since the blockchain only deals with addresses, how can btc be linkable to wallets?

Other than that, if I send the 10 btc to Y address, will anyone be able to get all the addresses of the same wallet? Thanks!

You can constantly change your addresses manually to help stay "more" anonymous but it's never perfect. Best to use an HD wallet that changes addresses for you with each transaction. ie. Airbitz or Mycelium. This gives you basic privacy at no additional effort to you.

[Vocal]

They cant know who are you until you use some centralized exchange...

[jambola2]

I can't help wonder sometimes, say I have 10 BTC in X address, if I send them to Y address, I have 10 BTC in the wallet with the Y address.

Say I create another address for the same wallet with Y addy, will anyone be able to know if I spend some of that 10 BTC?

If yes can you please explain how? It's still unundeerstandable for me, since the blockchain only deals with addresses, how can btc be linkable to wallets?

Other than that, if I send the 10 btc to Y address, will anyone be able to get all the addresses of the same wallet? Thanks!

The blockchain only shows addresses, not wallets.

By seeing one address in a wallet, nobody can ever guess any other address.

Having multiple addresses is awesome, because you can isolate transactions from each other and by using a "mixer" you can send BTC from one address to another without anyone else even knowing you own both adddresses.

[odolvlobo]

The blockchain only shows addresses, not wallets.
By seeing one address in a wallet, nobody can ever guess any other address.
Having multiple addresses is awesome, because you can isolate transactions from each other and by using a "mixer" you can send BTC from one address to another without anyone else even knowing you own both adddresses.

Generally, a wallet will send from multiple addresses in the wallet when it needs to (e.g. one address doesn't have enough to fund the transaction). That transaction will tie the addresses together.

[LiteCoinGuy]

take a look at Zerocash:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.msg3878992#msg3878992

[silvestar]

The blockchain only shows addresses, not wallets.
By seeing one address in a wallet, nobody can ever guess any other address.
Having multiple addresses is awesome, because you can isolate transactions from each other and by using a "mixer" you can send BTC from one address to another without anyone else even knowing you own both adddresses.

Generally, a wallet will send from multiple addresses in the wallet when it needs to (e.g. one address doesn't have enough to fund the transaction). That transaction will tie the addresses together.

Or the person is using "CoinJoin" or "Shared Coin" on blockchain.info. In that case, those input addresses are unrelated to each other at all.