Bitcoin anonymity

[iCEBREAKER]

...

For me, all I care about is anonymity at the level of casual hackers (etc.), those who would try to steal "EASY BTC", unprotected.  Like burglars who choose easy targets...

I have no evidence, but my *guess* is that TPTB (IRS, perhaps other .govs) could crack mixers.  But, one would have to be a target.  Don't want to be a target?  Don't do illegal things.  Smaller, but more, transactions might help too.

The countermeasures we have right now are enough to get "Pretty Good Privacy" in that sense, anonymity vs. casual thieves.  Mixing BTC seems to be "good enough".  bitmixer.io and blockchain.info's SharedCoin service are enough for me.

*   *   *

justusranvier's link above is excellent for those ready for this level of technical understanding, as is iCEBREAKER's, thank you both for the links.

https://github.com/justusranvier/wallet-ratings/blob/2015-2/2015-2/threat%20model.wiki

http://crypsys.mmci.uni-saarland.de/projects/CoinShuffle/coinshuffle.pdf

Glad you like the links.  Now you are ready for the red orange pill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEVm1dMn5Ks

Excuse my Godwin, but "Don't want to be a target?  Don't do illegal things." didn't work out so well for Anne Frank and several hundred million other victims of government sponsored/facilitated/catalyzed murder over the last century.

[roadbits]

If i use a different bitcoin address for every transaction, it is still possible to correlate my addresses?

If i leave one address here in my signature (for tip, lets say) and this address only serves this purpose, i will never use it in any other transaction; it is possible to correlate it with other of my addresses?

I am reading that bitcoin is not so anonymous like people think it is, BUT what are the possible falws here? I know that every transaction is public, but if "they" cant correlate transactions/addresses with each other, they have nothing, right?

Explain like i am five please 

Thank you

Darkwallet will probably do what you are looking for but it's still in beta.
but I think most people are happy with the pseudo anonymity offered by coinjoin

[jt byte]

Well the only way to be more anonymous when dealing is using a mixer like bitmix and bitcoinfoggy as far as i know,
when an exchange was hacked the stolen bitcoin went to this bitcoinfoggy.
And the coins can't be tracked anymore

[OROBTC]

...

For me, all I care about is anonymity at the level of casual hackers (etc.), those who would try to steal "EASY BTC", unprotected.  Like burglars who choose easy targets...

I have no evidence, but my *guess* is that TPTB (IRS, perhaps other .govs) could crack mixers.  But, one would have to be a target.  Don't want to be a target?  Don't do illegal things.  Smaller, but more, transactions might help too.

The countermeasures we have right now are enough to get "Pretty Good Privacy" in that sense, anonymity vs. casual thieves.  Mixing BTC seems to be "good enough".  bitmixer.io and blockchain.info's SharedCoin service are enough for me.

*   *   *

justusranvier's link above is excellent for those ready for this level of technical understanding, as is iCEBREAKER's, thank you both for the links.

https://github.com/justusranvier/wallet-ratings/blob/2015-2/2015-2/threat%20model.wiki

http://crypsys.mmci.uni-saarland.de/projects/CoinShuffle/coinshuffle.pdf

Glad you like the links.  Now you are ready for the red orange pill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEVm1dMn5Ks

Excuse my Godwin, but "Don't want to be a target?  Don't do illegal things." didn't work out so well for Anne Frank and several hundred million other victims of government sponsored/facilitated/catalyzed murder over the last century.

My comment above was limited to relative Bitcoin anonymity.  Car thieves will typically go after cars that are not locked (well, yes, Ferraris too).

Different kinds of threats and threat levels require different responses.  We all know what happened to Anne Frank.

GUNS and such have their role too.

[iCEBREAKER]

My comment above was limited to relative Bitcoin anonymity.  Car thieves will typically go after cars that are not locked (well, yes, Ferraris too).

Different kinds of threats and threat levels require different responses.  We all know what happened to Anne Frank.

GUNS and such have their role too.

Yes, and that's why crypto is, as far as export controls are concerned, classified as a munition.

Exercise your 2nd Amendment RKBA by owning and using both guns and Monero.

In the coming digital warfare, Monero is the equivalent of a Barrett rifle for purposes of reaching out and touching someone from a safe distance.   

[OROBTC]

My comment above was limited to relative Bitcoin anonymity.  Car thieves will typically go after cars that are not locked (well, yes, Ferraris too).

Different kinds of threats and threat levels require different responses.  We all know what happened to Anne Frank.

GUNS and such have their role too.

Yes, and that's why crypto is, as far as export controls are concerned, classified as a munition.

Exercise your 2nd Amendment RKBA by owning and using both guns and Monero.

In the coming digital warfare, Monero is the equivalent of a Barrett rifle for purposes of reaching out and touching someone from a safe distance.  

Well, yes, but, Survivalism 101 teaches us that you do not have to be able to outrun the bear in most situations.  You only have to be able to outrun some of your fellows.  So unless you are a Big Fish (lots of BTC) or leave your BTC easy to steal (or the info: who you buy from, BTC balance, etc.), mixing BTC is a "good enough solution", especially for the C-students among us (like me).

A .50?  Yow, even a .338 Lapua with muzzle brake would probably tear my arm off at my scrawny shoulder:

http://onlylongrange.com/bad-news-338-lapua-magnum/

A .338 is what Chris Kyle wound up shooting near the end of his career.  He liked the .338 because it shoots flatter.  I believe the Brit who has the world record took out the Taliban from 8100' used a .338.

[prodigy8]

If we make 10 different addresses and split the bitcoin to them and moving to an exchanger is this anonymity?
A good idea to me

[BillyBobZorton]

If we make 10 different addresses and split the bitcoin to them and moving to an exchanger is this anonymity?
A good idea to me

It's not true 1:1 anonimity, it's just increased anonymity, to the point it's (as far as I know) imposible to know who the owner of the coins if after you withdraw them from the exchange, but if goverment or something asks the exchange for logs, they should know after that, but general public will not be able to know. For this to work 100% tho, when you withdraw the output address has to be shared with other transactions from other people, im not sure if this happens all the time. Someone should do a tutorial in how to get this right.

[prodigy8]

If we make 10 different addresses and split the bitcoin to them and moving to an exchanger is this anonymity?
A good idea to me

It's not true 1:1 anonimity, it's just increased anonymity, to the point it's (as far as I know) imposible to know who the owner of the coins if after you withdraw them from the exchange, but if goverment or something asks the exchange for logs, they should know after that, but general public will not be able to know. For this to work 100% tho, when you withdraw the output address has to be shared with other transactions from other people, im not sure if this happens all the time. Someone should do a tutorial in how to get this right.

I see many transaction that on the left (input i think) has a lots of addressses and on the right lots of them.
Does this affect the anonymity ?

[Gumara]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

[owlcatz]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

Absolutely spot-on, check walletexplorer.com out if you have doubts.

[harrymmmm]

To clear up some terminology:
nickname, nom-de-plume, pen-name are all pseudonyms. People have abbreviated pseudonym as 'nym' for a long time too.

In bitcoin, your addresses are kinda like books you've published under a pen-name because they can all probably be linked together with some sophisticated blockchain analysis.
Once any one of those is tied to a real id (you buy from a site and give a postal address for example), then the nym is (potentially) outed.
So bitcoin is described as pseudonymous.

[Amph]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

in the latter you're not anon only because your bank account is linked with your account on bitfinex, not because of bitcoin itself, can be easily avoided by using localbitcoin or bitcointalk to purchase bitcoin

[BoscoMurray]

There's a couple of problems with the fact that Bitcoin isn't anonymous. First is the lack of privacy. Blockchain analysis can be done by anyone, and means there is no privacy. Glenn Greenwald does an excellent talk on Why Privacy Matters: http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters.

The second problem is the fact that, anyone can end up with tainted or blacklisted coins, even though they have never taken part in any illicit transaction. So we are expected to use a mixing service to try and get "good" coins? And the coins you receive after mixing, well some of them could be tainted too. So, try again? I'd imagine a large proportion of transactions with Bitcoin are illicit, so chances are you'll have some tainted coins yourself.

I'd rather use a crypto which provides the essential privacy we need at the protocol level. Monero does this. It's only a matter of time until people realise the importance of this.

[Somekindabitcoin]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

Absolutely spot-on, check walletexplorer.com out if you have doubts.

What is ths website about and how to use it? I don't understand what those numbers that are on the website means... can you please explain it to me?

[owlcatz]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

Absolutely spot-on, check walletexplorer.com out if you have doubts.

What is ths website about and how to use it? I don't understand what those numbers that are on the website means... can you please explain it to me?

It's exactly what it says - it correlates wallet addresses and transaction flows. For example, let's use DPR Seized Coins address, https://blockchain.info/address/1FfmbHfnpaZjKFvyi1okTjJJusN455paPH

https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/885d7317d7d3db17?from_address=1FfmbHfnpaZjKFvyi1okTjJJusN455paPH

At the top, (The latest tranasctions on that address), you can see dust inputs after the US Marshall Service moved the coins on 2014-06-12 - This site keeps track of wallets/sites who likely own them, so you can see some of the dust was sent from :

Bitfinex
BetVIP.com
(And others unknown to the site, obviously).

Try using one of your own BTC addresses, you may be surprised, especially if you gamble or use different exchanges.

I remember watching the Bitstamp hacked address using this, and you could clearly see the criminals emptying out the wallet and sending coins to everything from other exchanges, to DNM's, to other wallets etc etc... Pretty much proves bitcoin is not anonymous to me, at least without proper mixing anyhow.  

I also look at like this - If this public site above can do that much sleuthing on the blockchain, just imagine what governments or independent researchers can do?!  

Hope that helps.

[jt byte]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

Yes i think maybe everything is tracked, as long as nobody will keep a look at your transaction.
But some stolen bitcoin still has not been seen anywhere.

[Somekindabitcoin]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

Yes i think maybe everything is tracked, as long as nobody will keep a look at your transaction.
But some stolen bitcoin still has not been seen anywhere.

Maybe the thieves used some kind of Bitcoin Mixer / Tumbler for example bitmixer.io. It's pretty much amazing service because you can split the amount to unlimited addresses with 12%, 8%, 30%, 5%, 5%, 40% of the original amount or any other %...
Fee is just 0.0005 per address.

[jt byte]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

Yes i think maybe everything is tracked, as long as nobody will keep a look at your transaction.
But some stolen bitcoin still has not been seen anywhere.

Maybe the thieves used some kind of Bitcoin Mixer / Tumbler for example bitmixer.io. It's pretty much amazing service because you can split the amount to unlimited addresses with 12%, 8%, 30%, 5%, 5%, 40% of the original amount or any other %...
Fee is just 0.0005 per address.

Well the thief were to smart when they stole the money.
I remember the bter exchange when was hacked and around 7100 BTC were stolen
They used soemthing like this to disappear the money.
Btw the fee is nothing per address on bitmixer lol

[Somekindabitcoin]

Bitcoin is actually not anonymous, but it's pseudo-anonymous. If you send just random transactions then you are anonymous, but if you want to buy something from bitfinex then you are not.

Yes i think maybe everything is tracked, as long as nobody will keep a look at your transaction.
But some stolen bitcoin still has not been seen anywhere.

Maybe the thieves used some kind of Bitcoin Mixer / Tumbler for example bitmixer.io. It's pretty much amazing service because you can split the amount to unlimited addresses with 12%, 8%, 30%, 5%, 5%, 40% of the original amount or any other %...
Fee is just 0.0005 per address.

Well the thief were to smart when they stole the money.
I remember the bter exchange when was hacked and around 7100 BTC were stolen
They used soemthing like this to disappear the money.
Btw the fee is nothing per address on bitmixer lol

Yes, there's 0.0005 BTC fee for every forward address. Please, don't spam here if you don't know how it is.