[2017-08-23] Bitcoin Transactions Aren’t as Anonymous as Everyone Hoped

[White sugar]

An increasing number of online merchants now offer the ability to pay using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. One of the great promises of this technology is anonymity: the transactions are recorded and made public, but they are linked only with an electronic address. So whatever you buy with your bitcoins, the purchase cannot be traced specifically to you.

This is handy for some, but the anonymity is by no means perfect. Security experts call it pseudonymous privacy, like writing books under a nom de plume. You can preserve your privacy as long as the pseudonym is not linked to you. But as soon as somebody makes the link to one of your anonymous books, the ruse is revealed. Your entire writing history under your pseudonym becomes public. Similarly, as soon as your personal details are linked to your Bitcoin address, your purchase history is revealed too.

That raises an important question for people hoping to use Bitcoin to make anonymous purchases: how easy is it to link them with their Bitcoin transactions?

full: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608716/bitcoin-transactions-arent-as-anonymous-as-everyone-hoped/

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[valucash]

At some point Governments will come up with regulations etc and the excuse will be money laundering. At the base level, you still need fiat currency to purchase bitcoin, that is the weakest link.

[Iranus]

They treat this like it's some shocking new revelation which has just been discovered.

Anyone who actually knows what they're talking about and gets even the most basic details of sending BTC transactions understands that BTC was never 100% anonymous, nor will it ever be.

If you're clever you can get around blockchain analysis though.  I highly doubt that the authorities caught the most privacy-centric darknet users, even when they seized Alpha Bay and Hansa Market.  They can catch some, but the Alpha Bay guy that they caught was caught for using his personal email in the past - nothing to do with BTC at all.

[eckmar]

No shit. That is the reason Mixers exists (existed ? ). They are looking to completely deanonymize BTC by shutting coin mixers and requesting your ID when purchasing BTC anywhere.

[hatshepsut93]

Bitcoin wasn't designed to be anonymous at the first place, Bitcoin was created and is valuable now because of its decentralization. Installing anonymity protocols similar to Monero or Zcash would dramatically affect decentralization, since they need much more resources to process transactions, which would cause most of the nodes to quit. Lithning Network might positively affect privacy, since transactions are happening off-chain, but it won't be a complete solution, since large flows of money might still be traceable.

[BitFinnese]

I believe every bitcoin user that researched on the basic feature of bitcoin already know that Bitcoin is not totally anonymous.  There had been reports about some people running an illegal file sharing site caught using Bitcoin and processing it on Coinbase.  Address transactions can be tracked reason why FBI are confident that they can track users of Bitcoin even if they use mixers.  I do not know if they really can do it or just an overstatement.  But really, this article is no news.

[iram1011]

Don't forget about MIXERS. You can keep your Bitcoin anonymous through these coin mixers. Otherwise, obviously it is pseudonymous and can be traced easily and also with the help of exchanges who have all your details that are linked to your bank account. I doubt it is even anonymous at all.

[Rahar02]

No shit. That is the reason Mixers exists (existed ? ). They are looking to completely deanonymize BTC by shutting coin mixers and requesting your ID when purchasing BTC anywhere.

Indeed, for those who want more privacy could divide his bitcoin into several wallets and use mixer to remove traces.
By divide bitcoin and using mixer, we can avoid this; as soon as your personal details are linked to your Bitcoin address, your purchase history is revealed too.
But, if someone purchase something and it require Id in case of shipment, then it will always recorded in the merchant.
Well, honestly there's nothing to hide about what we've bought in the past as mostly just daily needs.

[CryptoBry]

At some point Governments will come up with regulations etc and the excuse will be money laundering. At the base level, you still need fiat currency to purchase bitcoin, that is the weakest link.

In other words, it is actually impossible to get away from any government involvement because Bitcoin could not live on its own and not be using other or external infrastructures. Just like you said, we still use the fiat money when we convert our Bitcoin. And there is a need to make some compromises with the government in return for allowing to do business with it as the power to allow business remains with the government. It is good to dream but we also have to be realistic about it.

[Baofeng]

I think it has already been discussed numerous time that bitcoin is not really anonymous, but psuedo-anonymous that it why we have mixing services to begin with.. You can try monero, which offers protection for those we want to remain hidden in the network. That is why this is one factors that lead to Bitmixer.io closing down its services few months ago or those government agency are really on their throats.

Although there are still tumbling services that offer more protection as they have claimed, but sooner or later the government will catch up on them.

[Granxis]

It was a promise to be used when making Bitcoin's ad, fast, free and anonymous Nowadays I say it is not fast, it is not free, and finally it is not anonymous, but unfortunately I like this fact as someone who loves Bitcoin. Do not believe that Bitcoin is anonymous, many companies have been established, only making good money because their purpose is identification of Bitcoin transactions.

[1Referee]

It was a promise to be used when making Bitcoin's ad, fast, free and anonymous Nowadays I say it is not fast, it is not free, and finally it is not anonymous, but unfortunately I like this fact as someone who loves Bitcoin.

I have bought my first coins in very early 2013, and never have I seen anyone praise Bitcoin's 'anonymous' nature as selling feature. The selling features were that Bitcoin was a decentralized currency that people can use without third party interference, which is still the case, and that Bitcoin was fast and cheap. In todays world Bitcoin is still fast in terms of transaction speed, but it isn't exactly the cheap currency tool anymore that people were excited about back in the days, that's a fact. I must however point out that Bitcoin by design would make the fees play a more and more important role as years go by. Other than that, Bitcoin is an open internet book that everyone in the world (even when you're not a Bitcoiner at all) can browse through. There is no such a thing as privacy anymore, and especially not when it comes to coins that people withdraw from exchanges. All coins are tainted in one way or another.