Tracking down stolen Bitcoins

[Erichallig]

bitcoin transactions are traceable,it is the main reason decentralization works , the world can watch and confirm that a transaction is legit. but recovering stolen coins would require finding the people who are holding the coins, but this is almost impossible because of the anonymity of wallet owners.

[jvper]

Exchanges can act as a shuffling mechanism, so it is important that they do know their customer (KYC procedures). But even so you need a judge to have access to such information from the exchange.

[Traderadex]

There is a way for you to track these missing bitcoins. Sadly, the change of ownership will still be anonymous. Thus, it may be impossible to retrieve.

This guy is right

[stantpro]

It would have been very helpful if any bitcoin theft case can be tracked.However, the developers may
try to fix a patch or another node of codes or something to enable this security feature of being able to track
down the identity of the culprit of theft issue.

[investerS]

There are a lot of stories of stolen bitcoins from hacked websites or fooled people.

I was wondering, since all transactions are in blockchain, is it technically possible to make blacklist of wallets where stolen funds where transferred (by claims of victims) to track transfers of those funds and report when the owner can be identified (for example when some goods where bought and delivery address is known)?

Or perhaps just block those blacklisted wallets and don't support them on the network (bitcoin) level?

How i wish this is possible cos i have got a lot of coins stolen from me in the past before i learnt to better secure my account.

[tententen]

There are a lot of stories of stolen bitcoins from hacked websites or fooled people.

I was wondering, since all transactions are in blockchain, is it technically possible to make blacklist of wallets where stolen funds where transferred (by claims of victims) to track transfers of those funds and report when the owner can be identified (for example when some goods where bought and delivery address is known)?

Or perhaps just block those blacklisted wallets and don't support them on the network (bitcoin) level?

I dont know if it's just me but I dont want this to be encouraged.  It greatly hurts the fungibility of coins in the project.  I understand that it sucks for people that got hacked/scammed, but not chasing/tracking those coins is for the good of the project, imho.

[cryptojohnstone]

You could technically track the bitcoin if the coins went through an exchange, however this is a problem with bitcoin, as it becomes older hackers may find a way into the system.

[CryptoBatman1]

Tracking is possible but not always. Once they are converted to alt, it increases difficulty.

[swogerino]

There are a lot of stories of stolen bitcoins from hacked websites or fooled people.

I was wondering, since all transactions are in blockchain, is it technically possible to make blacklist of wallets where stolen funds where transferred (by claims of victims) to track transfers of those funds and report when the owner can be identified (for example when some goods where bought and delivery address is known)?

Or perhaps just block those blacklisted wallets and don't support them on the network (bitcoin) level?

It is possible to follow the coins, but it is impossible to know if/when the owner has changed. You cannot know if a transfer is from one owners address to another address of his, or if the new address belongs to a new owner.

Even proving that the coins belonged to you could sometimes be difficult 

On the other hand. Now all? exchanges require identification for buying or selling large amounts of bitcoins. If the thief sells the stolen coins through an exchange then he can be identified.

Blacklisting coins from the blockchain is impossible. Who could do that? Bitcoin is a decentralized system after all...

The hacker/thieves nowadays have become just like their scams more sophisticated. We cannot do anything to trace who the hacker is as long as many legit and non legit casino sites do not care to check where the money comes from as long as they are making profit for themselves. In fact this is the most common way nowadays how bitcoin are mixed and tainted easily from anyone with the ability to do so.

Definitive solution is to warn people to not send bitcoin to anyone before being 101% sure that they are a legit company or a legit person.

[Agrabah]

Tracking is possible only on those coins where they have been moved to another address, but the scammer is using a mixer, then tracking is really impossible

[masterchief001]

I agree with this idea. There should be a way to track stolen bits. So bitcoin players will not fear losing their money for no apparent reason and do not find the culprit. Many IT specialists have stolen accounts and then taken the money from our bitcoin wallet. People who are not good at technology will not detect the culprit.

[Nikolya]

Tracking stolen Bitcoins is an important task in putting things in order in the market of crypto currency and can cause more confidence in investors that will affect the overall capitalization.

[fernandoaleixo]

Even if you manage to discover and proof those were stolen coins, what legal procedures can be done to force the thief to give it back? Can he be arrested?

[Philopolymath]

I would love to find the bastard that stole my coins from my wallet..State Security apparatus like FBI defiantly have the ability to track the IP of a transaction and track the coins through mixers to a new address and IP...TOR and VPN actually make it EASIER for them.
But they will never give a shit about small time thefts they only protect the uber-rich.

I would much prefer to deal with the thief most personally anyway...The 'Legal' system is designed to protect thieves and there is NO BIGGER THIEF than Governments.

[Shenzou]

There are a lot of stories of stolen bitcoins from hacked websites or fooled people.

I was wondering, since all transactions are in blockchain, is it technically possible to make blacklist of wallets where stolen funds where transferred (by claims of victims) to track transfers of those funds and report when the owner can be identified (for example when some goods where bought and delivery address is known)?

Or perhaps just block those blacklisted wallets and don't support them on the network (bitcoin) level?

Sure you can make a list of the addresses that have stolen your funds, but you have to know that bitcoin addresses are dynamite means they change after every transaction, so tracking the stolen funds is going to take a lot of work, plus what is the purpose of this list, it is not like you can do anything about it, the best thing you can do is ask why the funds got stolen in the first place and learn from that.

[MbakNarti]

To track the stolen bitcoin? of course we as bitcoin users ask how to track the stolen bitcoin? or is there any other way about it? because we are afraid the bitcoin we get is painstakingly stolen by the unaccountable person.

[Ray55]

There are lots of stories for stolen bitcoin.  We must have protect our points  from the the hackers.There are many IT developer  can hack your account  and take your all the bitcoins from your wallet if your technology  not be strong. And also you  can't  detect the thieves.

[nelsmining]

Remember asking for more regulation will always bring unintended consequences so I believe what you are asking for could possibly be put in to effect but the consequences of such an action would basically kill what is great about bitcoin in the first place. Never give up your freedom in order to attain complete security.

[hacker1001101001]

Bitcoin has the only features that if once the funds are transferred by the user than it is unable to refund unless the recive= send it back to the wallet and there is no other development med like in which we can beak the transaction and track the stolen coins all around the world. Thier are many people using multiple wallets to make their crypto management more simple.

[onnz423]

It's possible to track down stolen bitcoins by following the input/output trail, but they will only help if they end up depositing to a known address where you could potentially gather their KYC information. If they end up trading for something such as monero, then the trail will probably be irreversibly broken.