Bitcoin is not Anonymous

[corpsejunior]

Yes it's not.
Most products' success lays on an impertinent/approximative nice-to-hear idea.
Myself, the most good reason I heard at the beginning of my journey with Bitcoin is "Anonynimity".

There's always a half-truth that helps to attract people.

[Sweetbtc]

I thought one of bitcoins big selling points was anonymity. Yet I've read some articles about people who have either stolen or embezzled bitcoin and they were later tracked down and arrested. I'm glad they were caught don't get me wrong but how were they caught if bitcoin is supposed to be anonymous?

All someone has to do is attach a single part of that blockchain to your IP or your location and then they have everything forward from there and everything backwards there I can pretty much recreate your entire Financial history with in that single wallet or single set of addresses.

Their services like tumbling and mixing. However if the government specially or anyone wants to really sit down and analyze the inputs and outputs from that makes inside or service they can figure out which ones coming out are yours.

[2girls]

As far as deregulated, where the contact Point comes with governments, that is pretty much isolated to when Fiat enters into Bitcoin or leaves Bitcoin, and at that point you can't say that regulating Bitcoin in a technical coding sense because that's the end point or the entry point.

[deadsilent]

Bitcoin itself is anonymous. But due to interference of governments. The anonymity is turning into a centralised system. Example of this is the KYC (Know your customer)policy. We often experience this when we are going to trade on an exchange. You must provide the necessary document like government issued IDs or passport. So from anonymous, it's turning into regulated system.

Anyway, they are many ways to stay anonymous. There are still anonymous exchangers or tumbling service to stay anonymous. But seems they are getting fewer and fewer.

[salmanahmedone]

As far as deregulated, where the contact Point comes with governments, that is pretty much isolated to when Fiat enters into Bitcoin or leaves Bitcoin, and at that point you can't say that regulating Bitcoin in a technical coding sense because that's the end point or the entry point.

Decentralized, well if you're just isolated between a couple of people and small it's your pretty much decentralized. And every point where an actual site or service has to apply services to provide service outside of the core services then they're going to have to process information that will take some of the decentralisation away from it.

[salmanahmedone]

Also, I guess it's a matter of opinion, as far as the four key goes whether that's a centralized decision being imposed upon the blockchain or something else. You could say, that because it says you're being left up to the individual users that it's not being controlled but at the same time that's a forced choice. And that's some level of centralization.

[erep]

Actually the strong points of Bitcoin are Fast transaction to anywhere in the world in a very small fee compared to other services which are there right now. Anonymity was a bonus but the exchanger sites wont allow to buy or sell Bitcoins without identifying you as a person so there is no total anonymity.

[coin_miner21]

Bitcoin is not so Anonymous. Not like some altcoins, taking advantage of some mechanism, such as TOR, to hide your address and furthermore to protect your financial history. Hope in the future, some side chains on the bitcoin can have the anonymous feature.

[mvidetto]

If someone has any information about you like address they can find out about your personality using different techniques. All your activity can be identified.

[linenoise]

How do Bitcoin donations/sales comply with various money anti-laundering legislations? Is there a way to enforce only eponymous transactions?

The know your customer rules usually are applied when bitcoin is converted back to fiat currency. Services like coinbase know who you are before sending money to a bank account.

Some arrests have been made on people selling bitcoin is person for cash under the money transmitter laws.

As to anonymous, it's not by default. The US government even uses companies that specialize in tracking bitcoin.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/irs-now-has-a-tool-to-unmask-bitcoin-tax-cheats

[cryptworld]

If he is totally anonymous,governments won't approve him. They must have some clue of his owners. We want to pay food with BTC so he must be  approved. Some Alts are anonymous but they aren't in consummation like bitcoin.

[Dralarn]

it's not competely anonymous but you can easily hide your tracks if you choose to do so, which is pretty much the same. You can mix your coins and no one will ever know where they came from, isn't that similar to anonymity?

[RodeoX]

I thought one of bitcoins big selling points was anonymity. Yet I've read some articles about people who have either stolen or embezzled bitcoin and they were later tracked down and arrested. I'm glad they were caught don't get me wrong but how were they caught if bitcoin is supposed to be anonymous?

Every single thing, every transaction, every balance is known and tracked on the blockchain. Bitcoin is not anonymous, but people may be. The idea of bitcoin is to sever the link between identity and value. This may make it very hard or impossible for someone to  know your identity. But it is not going to allow you to evade your taxes so easily. And if you want to trade bitcoin for fiat then you are out of luck. US Dollars, for example, are owned by the Federal reserve and ALL rules apply when you want dollars.  Whoever told you bitcoins are anonymous was wrong.

[BTCGOLD]

it's not competely anonymous but you can easily hide your tracks if you choose to do so, which is pretty much the same. You can mix your coins and no one will ever know where they came from, isn't that similar to anonymity?

I heard about an application that gives you the ability to be anonymous. Unfortunately I can not remember the name. Does anyone use? Can you recommend it?

[retprogramisto]

Bitcoin is not anonymous, if you buy via bank transfer, credit card or any method that requires verification or ID. Your transactions can be traced to their origin via blockchain analysis and exchange logs, even if you use a bitcoin mixer.

Bitcoin is more private, if you buy with cash or gift card, but your location can possibly be traced.

In both cases, your IP address will be logged. Use Tor to change your IP address. Create a throwaway email address without personal information when you buy or sell bitcoin or signup for a web wallet.

If you need privacy and anonymity use monero (XMR) via Tor.

How to mix your bitcoin through monero:
1) Create two monero (XMR) addresses, more info here getmonero.org
2) Convert your BTC to XMR with shapeshift.io, send to monero address 1
3) Send funds from monero address 1 to monero address 2 with at least 5 ring size (4 mixin) – you can churn for better untraceability
4) Convert XMR to BTC with xmr.to, send to a new bitcoin address from a new wallet

Shapeshift and xmr.to keep logs, but if you send your BTC to monero address 1, churn and transfer to monero address 2, then send your monero to xmr.to, this should offer more privacy. Due to ring signatures and a non-transparent blockchain, it should be difficult to prove that monero address 1 sent x XMR to monero address 2.

In the future there will be an option to use monero with the i2p network (kovri).

Edit: Dash and Zcash are not anonymous. Use monero. Source: https://moneroforcash.com/monero-vs-dash-vs-zcash-vs-bitcoinmixers.php

[bitofc]

BTC transaction is not anonymous, but it has privacy.  As long as you do not let anyone know your BTC address then you are fine.  But it is almost impossible, there are times people will know one of your BTC addresses, and it can trace down to other BTC address that you own.

For anonymous coins, do check out
Zcoin (XZC)
Zcash (ZEC)
Monero (XMR)
DASH

[rfeiner]

Bitcoin is called pseudo-anonymous because:
1. You can generate an account using nothing but pure mathematics. This part is certainly 100% anonymous.
2. Unfortunately, in order to interact with other people who own bitcoin (buying and selling), you'll have to reveal some amount of information to them (your address at a minimum). It's the paper trail that's created by these interactions which allows people, organizations, and governments to track transactions.

[Yurkov]

I thought one of bitcoins big selling points was anonymity. Yet I've read some articles about people who have either stolen or embezzled bitcoin and they were later tracked down and arrested. I'm glad they were caught don't get me wrong but how were they caught if bitcoin is supposed to be anonymous?

Bitcoin may not be 100% anonymous, but there are a lot of coins that just set them up as the main goal and they're good for them!

[Youghoor]

It is only anonymous if you use several wallet addreses and multiple ways to send payments, like using mixers for receiving and sending money to someone, but if you are using a single addy for all your payments, then it is obviously that you are not fully anonymous, because anyone can track you by your blockchain history.
Anyway, just like other user said, there are altcoins that were created for 100% anonymity, like monero.

[baradfo]

Reading a lot of good information here.

Curious as to what the founders had in mind for bitcoin long term. If not anonymity, then what? Ease of access? Cheap? Convenient?

If you get into the history of bitcoin the creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, created bitcoin to be a peer-to-peer digital cash. You should be able to find the whitepaper pretty easily and it's explained there. The cypherpunk group was experimenting on a new type of currency not controlled by the government and Satoshi posted the whitepaper and started the first blocks with Hal Finney. From there bitcoin started to gain traction in the darkweb with DPR and Silk Road. After several US government inquiries the bitcoin foundation testified before congress to not ban the technology and/or coin due to bad actors using it, after all bitcoin is just a tool to be used. From there investors started to use it, and it is now what we see today.