[2016-10-15] Understanding Privacy: How Anonymous Can Bitcoin Payments Be?

[bitcoin21]

Understanding Privacy: How Anonymous Can Bitcoin Payments Be?
Since its inception, Bitcoin as a payment medium has a cemented an impression of being anonymous and privacy-centric. So much so that the currency has been glorified by the masterminds behind the doomed Silk Road, and advocated by recognized influencers such as German politician Franz Schäffler, celebrity Ashton Kutcher, famed author & economist David Friedman, and finance guru Kevin O’Leary to name a few.
http://bitcoinist.net/understanding-privacy-anonymous-bitcoin/

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[Dank14]

Obviously bitcoin is not as anonymous as we think or else there will not be the need for bitcoin mixing services.

[Kprawn]

Obviously bitcoin is not as anonymous as we think or else there will not be the need for bitcoin mixing services.

Bitcoin was not meant to be 100% anonymous. It was given pseudo anonymity to give it the same degree of anonymity that cash would

give you. The mixer services just adds value to the technology by giving it more anonymity. If these mixer services are compromised, a lot

of the anonymity would not count for much. 

[Carlton Banks]

Obviously bitcoin is not as anonymous as we think or else there will not be the need for bitcoin mixing services.

Only really an issue for those that buy coins from exchanges (and even then, that's assuming that the exchange is passing on your cashout addresses to the police). And Kprawn is totally right; if the tumblers themselves are being run by people who collect and pass on all the info they get from their users, it's irrelevant. Attempts have been made at designing decentralised tumbling software, but I don't think all the design problems were solved. Latest, anyone?

If you bought Bitcoin in a way where your identity isn't known, it's probably not at all necessary to use tumblers, you're as anonymous as is possible if you're 100% that nothing about the buy gave up your identity (Bitcoin should still be used over Tor so your transactions can't be attributed to your IP)