|
picobit (OP)
|
 |
February 22, 2013, 09:43:24 PM |
|
When checking whether a transaction had confirmed, I was surprised to see my home town on a map on blockchain.info. My actual IP was listed with the transaction. A quick search on the IP gave me many of my old transactions as well.
I am using the Satoshi client (and Armory), so I am running a full node. As blockchain.info is very well connected, we are all likely to connect to one of their servers. Your client may do the same, and then blockchain.info gets your IP, stores it forever, and makes it publicly available. Not cool!
Of course if I truly had something to hide, I would use Tor. But I don't, I just don't like to see my IP publicly associated with my transactions. This info is not stored in the block chain, and although anyone could pick it up when you transmit the information, it is not normally available for later analysis. You could argue that this just shows the lack of anonymity of bitcoin, and that anyone could do the same thing as blockchain.info. And yes, they could, but it would require a significant effort. And they cannot analyze the past before they decided to spy on you - except that blockchain.info has done it for them.
Don't get me wrong, I normally think that blockchain.info is a great site. I just don't think this feature is a good thing, to say the least. It is also a bit inconsistent on one hand to offer a bitcoin washing/anonymizing service and promise not to keep any logs of its use - and then publish the IP of the originator of the incoming transaction.
Let this be a warning to all of you running full nodes - and a suggestion to blockchain.info to stop registering IPs of individual transaction, please!
|
|
|
|
|
|
picobit (OP)
|
 |
February 22, 2013, 09:51:00 PM |
|
I don't truly have anything to hide - I just find it surprising (and disappointing) that blockchain.info would really do this!
|
|
|
|
|
dree12
Legendary
 Offline
Activity: 1246
Merit: 1077
|
|
February 22, 2013, 09:52:24 PM |
|
I don't truly have anything to hide - I just find it surprising (and disappointing) that blockchain.info would really do this!
This is a good thing. Too many people have the misconception that Bitcoin is anonymous. In reality, it takes an expert to make Bitcoin anonymous. Blockchain.info is actually dispelling that misconception. |
|
|
|
|
|
picobit (OP)
|
|
February 22, 2013, 09:56:52 PM |
|
Blockchain.info is actually dispelling that misconception.
If they were just doing that, I would find it a good thing. I do for example not complain that they will label any tx to the address in my signature with my bitcointalk.org username. But blockchain.info are actually reducing the anonymity of bitcoin by registering and storing transient information that would not normally be available later. |
|
|
|
|
Gabi
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1008
If you want to walk on water, get out of the boat
|
|
February 22, 2013, 09:58:28 PM |
|
This thread is so much fail. and a suggestion to blockchain.info to stop registering IPs of individual transaction, please! Why? So the government does that BUT does not tell you? This is how bitcoin works, and blockchain.info exposes that. They are doing a service. |
|
|
|
Timo Y
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 938
Merit: 1001
bitcoin - the aerogel of money
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:03:20 PM |
|
Blockchain.info only shows which IP address relayed the transaction. This is not proof that the transaction originated from that IP address.
I suggest you hook up your full node to Tor. That way you will relay random transactions from the inside the Tor network, in addition to your own transactions. This will give you plausible deniability, because it will be impossible for an external observer to distinguish your transactions from random Tor users'.
|
|
|
|
|
picobit (OP)
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:05:00 PM |
|
The main point of this thread was not so much to ask blockchain not to do this (although I also did that) but to point out that they do it.
As some of you say: blockchain.info just exposes that this can be done (and make it easier for any amateur to get the info). But that exposure is only worth anything if we notice it! Pointing that out was my main purpose. I should obviously have noticed this earlier, but didn't. Perhaps other people also overlooked this.
Does posting this make me look a bit foolish? Perhaps. But if it keeps somebody out of trouble it is worth it.
Note that no significant harm is done, to me at least. I have not used my bitcoins for nefarious purposes (and would certainly have used Tor if I did!).
|
|
|
|
|
|
twolifeinexile
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:05:20 PM |
|
This thread is so much fail. and a suggestion to blockchain.info to stop registering IPs of individual transaction, please! Why? So the government does that BUT does not tell you? This is how bitcoin works, and blockchain.info exposes that. They are doing a service. What if goverment allow bitcoin but ask all bitcoin client register IP when they get a broadcast for certain period? |
|
|
|
|
adamstgBit
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1037
Trusted Bitcoiner
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:09:08 PM |
|
i have to agree with picobit.... publicly displaying the ip addresses is just not cool.
they could show a marker on the map fine, but printing out the IP... not cool under any circumstances.
|
|
|
|
gweedo
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1000
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:10:20 PM |
|
Yea blockchain is just taking the ip of the first node to to relay the transaction to them, so you must be connected to them. If you use -connect and connect to a clients you know isn't yours or is on a server that will not happen. None of my transactions actually point to my full node.
|
|
|
|
|
adamstgBit
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1037
Trusted Bitcoiner
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:10:38 PM |
|
This thread is so much fail. and a suggestion to blockchain.info to stop registering IPs of individual transaction, please! Why? So the government does that BUT does not tell you? This is how bitcoin works, and blockchain.info exposes that. They are doing a service. What if goverment allow bitcoin but ask all bitcoin client register IP when they get a broadcast for certain period? i know! i know! lets bend over preemptively |
|
|
|
|
twolifeinexile
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:17:43 PM |
|
This thread is so much fail. and a suggestion to blockchain.info to stop registering IPs of individual transaction, please! Why? So the government does that BUT does not tell you? This is how bitcoin works, and blockchain.info exposes that. They are doing a service. What if goverment allow bitcoin but ask all bitcoin client register IP when they get a broadcast for certain period? i know! i know! lets bend over preemptively What I am saying we should take caution and think about some solution! |
|
|
|
|
gweedo
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1000
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:19:14 PM |
|
This thread is so much fail. and a suggestion to blockchain.info to stop registering IPs of individual transaction, please! Why? So the government does that BUT does not tell you? This is how bitcoin works, and blockchain.info exposes that. They are doing a service. What if goverment allow bitcoin but ask all bitcoin client register IP when they get a broadcast for certain period? i know! i know! lets bend over preemptively What I am saying we should take caution and think about some solution! Use tor, there solved |
|
|
|
|
|
twolifeinexile
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:27:42 PM |
|
Tor is over complicated and correct me if I am wrong, Tor even do not have a non-GUI version?
|
|
|
|
|
adamstgBit
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1037
Trusted Bitcoiner
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:30:59 PM |
|
what if i started publicly displaying IP of visitors to my pron site would that be cool?
I vote take down IP...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
niko
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:38:30 PM |
|
Government agencies already can and do track network activities and tie them to IP addresses. Bitcoin, and blockchain.info in this case simply makes things fair by making certain - easily available - information public, instead of being exclusively available to chosen entities. That is a good thing. Collect the IPs. You might be surprised what you find in there. What you cannot find leads us to the next point - and is also what others cannot find. Again, very fair. As already pointed out, what is available are the transactions my node has relayed to the blockchain.info server. It is hard to prove that I was the one who created the transaction, and I can make this even harder by connecting to Tor, too. OP, does any of this make you feel any better? What if goverment allow bitcoin but ask all bitcoin client register IP when they get a broadcast for certain period?
Again, they don't need to "ask" you to this. This is readily available to them if they want to have it. Again, Bitcoin removes at least some of the unfair advantage of government over people by making the information available to everyone. |
They're there, in their room.
Your mining rig is on fire, yet you're very calm.
|
|
|
gweedo
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1000
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:41:55 PM |
|
Tor is over complicated and correct me if I am wrong, Tor even do not have a non-GUI version?
Tor is insanely easy and it doesn't have a non-gui version |
|
|
|
|
Gabi
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1008
If you want to walk on water, get out of the boat
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:43:06 PM |
|
what if i started publicly displaying IP of visitors to my pron site would that be cool?
I vote take down IP...
Nonsense, bitcoin relayed transaction display the IP. So you vote take down bitcoin? Good luck |
|
|
|
adamstgBit
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1037
Trusted Bitcoiner
|
|
February 22, 2013, 10:56:08 PM |
|
what if i started publicly displaying IP of visitors to my pron site would that be cool?
I vote take down IP...
Nonsense, bitcoin relayed transaction display the IP. So you vote take down bitcoin? Good luck i realize its not possible to do the tx without the IP, but it doesn't NEED to be displayed in a user friendly manner allowing everyone to see... |
|
|
|
|
