"If we're required to track payments coming in or out of Silk Road,we'll comply"

[Suggester]

That was Tibanne's (Mt Gox's owner) CEO, Mark Karpeles speaking. It's part of an article titled Bitcoin exchanges offer anti- money-laundering aid.

Just in case you didn't know, Silk Road is the name of a tor's hidden service that anonymously sells illegal drugs using bitcoins.

Though I never purchased illegal drugs and probably never will, that announcement disappointed me. What's the point of having an anonymous p2p currency if the money trail in and out of the system will be tracked by the intermediaries? They might as well have registered their exchange in Fort Meade instead of Japan.

On the technical side, however, I don't see how's this feasible. The drug dealer can simply send his new funds to another wallet daily and change its address whenever he sells some coins on the exchange. If I understand the system correctly, this will render him indistinguishable from any other normal Mt Gox trader.

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[julz]

This is obvious and unimportant.
Of course companies dealing with bitcoins could be required to give information to law enforcement.

If you don't want things tracked - don't send bitcoins directly from any online service which can be tied to your identity.

[Suggester]

This is obvious and unimportant.
Of course companies dealing with bitcoins could be required to give information to law enforcement.

It's a jurisdiction issue here. Why would a Japanese company be "required" to give info to the American government? My guess is that they're ready to sell their clients to avoid a US crackdown (frozen bank accounts, bogus terrorism and money laundry charges, etc).

[error]

This is over a month old, and was discussed at the time it appeared.

[hugolp]

This is obvious and unimportant.
Of course companies dealing with bitcoins could be required to give information to law enforcement.

It's a jurisdiction issue here. Why would a Japanese company be "required" to give info to the American government? My guess is that they're ready to sell their clients to avoid a US crackdown (frozen bank accounts, bogus terrorism and money laundry charges, etc).

Obviously. And its the right path. A single company can not fight against the USA government. Its ridiculous.

Bitcoin can be very anonymous. It does not mean is always anonymous.

[klaus]

This is over a month old, and was discussed at the time it appeared.

+1