Is Bitcoin really anonymous?

[hulk]

That is why I create lots of lots of bitcoin address, one for real life, one for bitcoin forum and etc. This way I can reduce the expose

This is one of the reasons why I use a new address for EVERY TRANSACTION I receive and I NEVER RE-USE an address I've used in the past.

So you must have like 100000 Bitcoin address by now?

[1714978389]

1714978389

[1714978389]

1714978389

[1714978389]

1714978389

[1714978389]

1714978389

[1714978389]

1714978389

[BTCMiners.net]

Is it anonymous? Well, depends on who you're talkin bout. Big brother can do pretty much anything they want and nothing will save you from that. 

You can always use TOR, or a proxy, and hide what you do. Even in China

Big brother is powerfull and TOR will not save you. All your ISP logs, including every packet is shared with big brother. Beat that!

Big brother can't peak into my TCC a.k.a. Tin Can Connection.  Beat that! 

[b!z]

It is pseudonymous. It can protect your privacy if you use it properly.

[DannyHamilton]

That is why I create lots of lots of bitcoin address, one for real life, one for bitcoin forum and etc. This way I can reduce the expose

This is one of the reasons why I use a new address for EVERY TRANSACTION I receive and I NEVER RE-USE an address I've used in the past.

So you must have like 100000 Bitcoin address by now?

I've been using bitcoin for approximtely a year.

Is there a reason that you think I engage in more than 300 transactions per day?

Also, since I never re-use addresses, many of my addresses and private keys can be deleted once I'm done with them.  At the moment, my Bitcoin-Qt wallet has exactly 22 addresses listed in the "Receive" section.

[DannyHamilton]

Big brother can't peak into my TCC a.k.a. Tin Can Connection.  Beat that! 

Actually, if they can see the string that you use to connect your tin cans, they can listen in pretty easily with a laser and some electronic equipment.

[Kluge]

Big brother can't peak into my TCC a.k.a. Tin Can Connection.  Beat that! 

Actually, if they can see the string that you use to connect your tin cans, they can listen in pretty easily with a laser and some electronic equipment.

A CitM attack would probably be most cost-effective.

[User705]

Big brother can't peak into my TCC a.k.a. Tin Can Connection.  Beat that! 

Actually, if they can see the string that you use to connect your tin cans, they can listen in pretty easily with a laser and some electronic equipment.

A CitM attack would probably be most cost-effective.

ROFL.  That needs a picture.

[odolvlobo]

That is why I create lots of lots of bitcoin address, one for real life, one for bitcoin forum and etc. This way I can reduce the expose

This is one of the reasons why I use a new address for EVERY TRANSACTION I receive and I NEVER RE-USE an address I've used in the past.

That only partially works because all those individual addresses will be linked to each other when you send bitcoins from your wallet unless you take extra precautions.

[shuttleclock]

Using inputs wallet is one of the easiest way to mix your transaction, so your transaction won't appear on the blockchain. The negative side is the owner of that site will be able to track the transaction easily, and may share it if required by laws.. 

[DannyHamilton]

That is why I create lots of lots of bitcoin address, one for real life, one for bitcoin forum and etc. This way I can reduce the expose

This is one of the reasons why I use a new address for EVERY TRANSACTION I receive and I NEVER RE-USE an address I've used in the past.

That only partially works because all those individual addresses will be linked to each other when you send bitcoins from your wallet unless you take extra precautions.

I don't think that I said using a new address for every transaction would provide anonymity, only that it would "reduce the exposure", which it most certainly will.

[fattypig]

That is why I create lots of lots of bitcoin address, one for real life, one for bitcoin forum and etc. This way I can reduce the expose

This is one of the reasons why I use a new address for EVERY TRANSACTION I receive and I NEVER RE-USE an address I've used in the past.

So you must have like 100000 Bitcoin address by now?

I've been using bitcoin for approximtely a year.

Is there a reason that you think I engage in more than 300 transactions per day?

Also, since I never re-use addresses, many of my addresses and private keys can be deleted once I'm done with them.  At the moment, my Bitcoin-Qt wallet has exactly 22 addresses listed in the "Receive" section.

Sorry but i'm kinda noob, how do you delete a address? I'm using Bitcoin-Qt as my wallet too.

[Buffer Overflow]

That is why I create lots of lots of bitcoin address, one for real life, one for bitcoin forum and etc. This way I can reduce the expose

This is one of the reasons why I use a new address for EVERY TRANSACTION I receive and I NEVER RE-USE an address I've used in the past.

So you must have like 100000 Bitcoin address by now?

I've been using bitcoin for approximtely a year.

Is there a reason that you think I engage in more than 300 transactions per day?

Also, since I never re-use addresses, many of my addresses and private keys can be deleted once I'm done with them.  At the moment, my Bitcoin-Qt wallet has exactly 22 addresses listed in the "Receive" section.

Sorry but i'm kinda noob, how do you delete a address? I'm using Bitcoin-Qt as my wallet too.

It can be done, but it's not easy. Just ignore them would be best.

[DannyHamilton]

Sorry but i'm kinda noob, how do you delete a address? I'm using Bitcoin-Qt as my wallet too.

I suppose it's not really something you want to be messing around with as a noob.  There are some opportunities to mess things up if you aren't careful.  There are a few ways to do it, but here's the method I use most often:

• In the "Console" section of the "Debug Window" under the "Help" menu, run dumpprivkey for each address that you want to keep.
• Write down or otherwise store all the private keys that you got from your dumpprivkey commands
• Shut down Bitcoin-Qt and wait for it to completely close
• Rename your wallet.dat to wallet.old
• Start up Bitcoin-Qt
• You will have a brand new empty wallet with a single new bitcoin address
• Create as many new addresses as you'd like to receive bitcoins from your previous wallet
• Write down or otherwise store the bitcoin addresses from your new wallet that you will be using your old wallet to send to
• Shut down Bitcoin-Qt and wait for it to completely close
• Rename wallet.dat to wallet.new
• Rename wallet.old to wallet.dat
• Start up Bitcoin-Qt
• You will be back in your old wallet with access to your bitcoins and old addresses
• Send the bitcoins as you desire to the addresses you wrote down from the new wallet (I use createrawtransaction to get control over which bitcoins go to which addresses.  This allows me to avoid linking addresses together if I don't want them to be linked)
• Wait for all your transactions to receive at least one confirmation
• Shut down Bitcoin-Qt and wait for it to completely close
• Delete wallet.dat (And when you do this, your old addresses are now gone, including change addresses. If you don't have the private key or a backup somewhere any bitcoins that you accidentally forgot to move are lost permanently)
• Rename wallet.new to wallet.dat
• Start up Bitcoin-Qt
• The bitcoins that you sent to addresses in this wallet should now appear
• In the "Console" section of the "Debug Window" under the "Help" menu, run importprivkey for each private key you dumped from the old wallet.
• The addresses that you wanted to keep are now all in the new wallet

While the process of creating and using a new address for every transaction isn't very "administratively complicated", this process of deleting old undesired keys certainly is.  It also carries significant risk if you don't know what you're doing or aren't careful.  It would be nice if the Bitcoin-Qt was modified to "archive", or "hide" addresses that aren't needed any longer.

There are simpler methods, but they don't provide quite as much control over what is deleted and what is kept.

In general, until/unless additional tools are created for Bitcoin-Qt, I'd advise against trying to repeat my process.

A safer and easier process that doesn't keep any old addresses and links some addresses together can be described in the following 5 steps:

• Run a second wallet somewhere (MultiBit, Electrum, blockchain.info, or just a second computer with BitCoin-Qt)
• Send all bitcoins from the first wallet to an address (or addresses) in the second wallet, leaving an empty first wallet
• Once all transactions have confirmed, shutdown the first wallet and delete its wallet.dat
• Start up the first wallet with a now empty new wallet (all old addresses permanently deleted and inaccessible)
• Send all bitcoins from the second wallet back to the new address in the first wallet