Is bitcoin anonymous?

[xnarf]

Depends on usage, however, bitcoin is not 100% anonymous. Bitcoin addresses can only be tracked towards an owner if linked with other sites or if "dusted" with exchanges tracked. Bitcoin has a blockchain explorer with any address able to be located and tracked. A truly anonymous option would be an altcoin such as Monero.

[Lorence.xD]

Bitcoin is anonymous. I don't know if it's pseudo anonymous or not, but if you have bitcoins on a non-custodian wallet there's literally no way for somebody to find out. Once you make a transaction, again, same thing. You just broadcast a signed message. Nodes don't know who moved the bitcoins, because they don't know who sent/received the message first.

When anonymity loses its point? Once you reveal yourself! If you believe that you have to sell your bitcoins, then yeah, at least 1 person will find out who you are, because somehow you'll have to transfer fiat.

Cryptography makes it anonymous, whether we want it or not.

I think this is the most appropriate answer so far, the cryptography is intended to make it anonymous, it is a Schrodinger anonymity, if you reveal yourself then it is not anonymous and if not then you are anonymous. The only question is how can authorities track this users who fund terrorist if they are anonymous.

[ranochigo]

Like you said bitcoin is pseudo anonymous.  I personally fear the lightning network making bitcoin anonymous.  I've still yet to get a concrete answer whether the Lightning Network actually makes bitcoin truly anonymous or not, but if it does, I worry.  Man countries don't allow their women to drive, vote, or hold many career positions that men do..why on earth are they going to allow an anonymous currency to operate in their country? Of course OTC will always live, but shutting down exchanges could be detrimental to bitcoins future.

Is that an issue with the government or is that an issue with Bitcoin? Anonymity doesn't present any issues that would interfere with the basic human rights. It's their own rights to their privacy and governments shouldn't have the liberty to track the activities of their citizens. Using methods to conceal their identity shouldn't be illegal or cause any concerns at all. If governments starts to ban Bitcoin on the grounds of anonymity, then I think Bitcoin is fulfilling it's primary purpose.

Shutting down the exchanges will hinder the adoption of Bitcoin but isn't the main reason why Bitcoin is created specifically to promote freedom and circumvent the flaws of the fiat system?

[YOSHIE]

Questions are frequently asked by the community.
Answer, yes Bitcoin no Anonymous.
You can read the topics below.

Topic: Is it really Bitcoin Anonymous?

Topic: Bitcoin the anonymous cryptocurrency

Topic: Anonymity

Topic: Anonymous Bitcoin, Anon, and What the Upcoming September Hardfork Means

This is what Satoshi said:

> Can nodes on the network tell from which and or to which bitcoin
> address coins are being sent? Do blocks contain a history of where
> bitcoins have been transfered to and from?

Bitcoins are sent to and from bitcoin addresses, which are essentially random numbers with no identifying information.

When you send to an IP address, the transaction is still written to a bitcoin address.  The IP address is only used to connect to the recipient's computer to request a fresh bitcoin address, give the transaction directly to the recipient and get a confirmation.

Blocks contain a history of the bitcoin addresses that a coin has been transferred to.  If the identities of the people using the bitcoin addresses are not known and each address is used only once, then this information only reveals that some unknown person transferred some amount to someone else.

The possibility to be anonymous or pseudonymous relies on you not revealing any identifying information about yourself in connection with the bitcoin addresses you use.  If you post your bitcoin address on the web, then you're associating that address and any transactions with it with the name you posted under.  If you posted under a handle that you haven't associated with your real identity, then you're still pseudonymous.

For greater privacy, it's best to use bitcoin addresses only once.  You can change addresses as often as you want using Options->Change Your Address.  Transfers by IP address automatically use a new bitcoin address each time.

> Can nodes tell which bitcoin addresses belong to which IP addresses?

No.

> Is there a command line option to enable the sock proxy the first
> time that bitcoin starts?

In the next release (version 0.2), the command line to run it through a proxy from the first time is:
bitcoin -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050

The problem for TOR is that the IRC server which Bitcoin uses to initially discover other nodes bans the TOR exit nodes, as all IRC servers do.  If you've already connected once before then you're already seeded, but for the first time, you'd need to provide the address of a node as such:
bitcoin -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050 -addnode=<someipaddress>

If someone running a node with a static IP address that can accept incoming connections could post their IP to use for -addnode, that would be great.

> What happens if you send bitcoins to an IP address that has multiple
> clients connected through network address translation (NAT)?

Whichever one you've set your NAT to forward port 8333 to will receive it.  If your router can change the port number when it forwards, you could allow more than one client to receive.  For instance, if port 8334 forwards to a computer's port 8333, then senders could send to "x.x.x.x:8334"

If your NAT can't translate port numbers, there currently isn't a command line option to change the incoming port that bitcoin binds to, but I'll look into it.

--------------------
anonguy54:
Request: Make this anonymous?
Posted:Thu 15 of Oct, 2009 (19:58 UTC)

Are there any plans to make this service anonymous?

e.g; Being able to route BitCoin through Tor.

There will be a proxy setting in version 0.2 so you can connect through TOR.  I've done a careful scrub to make sure it doesn't use DNS or do anything that would leak your IP while in proxy mode.

Another thing you would want to consider is browser finger printing and device fingerprinting.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/browser-fingerprinting
http://testdeprivacidad.com/fingerprint/en

[Charles-Tim]

For me, I'd say bitcoin is anonymous. Considering the fact that I do not need to submit any personal document to transact with it. However, this post is quite thoughtful and has made me rethink. What if wallet app / site has been recording my IP addresses? What if they can use it to track me? 

Because bitcoin can be tracked on bitcoin blockchain, it is not anonymous, people can not see or notice anything that is anonymous, but if you properly make the transactions and not linked to your personal identity, that makes it pseudonyms. Bitcoin is for privacy not for anonymity.

[Warkop]

According to what I know Bitcoin is not anonymous, because Bitcoin looks real and public, everything can be traced from the wallet address or transaction, but cannot be known for the personal data of the wallet address owner. Maybe only Bitcoin creators can be said to be anonymous, because everyone doesn't know their personal data from then until now. So if you are not sure it is better to do a review with what you are aiming at for this.

[Leviathan.007]

Bitcoin is not fully anonymous because anyone can see the transactions on the explorers like blockchain and they can trace the transactions easily if they want to. People usually use Monero as anonymous coin. however, you can never be 100% about your privacy. You can just increase your privacy protection by using mixer,tails os, tor network and VPNs. That's why many local exchanges won't accept the mixed bitcoins, because it's hard to trace the transactions.

[Om.monata]

Is Bitcoin entirely anonymous? It’s common for people to say that in reality bitcoin is absolutely anonymous but are not knowledgeable enough to know that is pseudonymous . Bitcoin being pseudonymous rather than the assumed anonymous gives us an understanding that each user has a established public address. So that further tells us theoretically bitcoin address can be traced back using an IP address or an exchange account.
We should be more concerned about to what level or extent is bitcoin anonymous ?

Bitcoin for now is like anonymous, but there are tech-savvy people who can easily track bitcoin and IP addresses, and can find out who are bitcoin users. So I think bitcoin anonymity is more transparent nowadays and it's no secret

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Bitcoin is not anonymous because all bitcoin transactions are stored in publicly that you can literally see every transaction on a certain bitcoin address permanently on it's network. The only way for you to make transaction on bitcoin's network anonymously if you only use a bitcoin mixers because you will be able to send coins randomly that it will be difficult for someone to track your bitcoins.

[coolcoinz]

It is anonymous as long as no personal details of yours appear in any of the transactions. This means that if you got coins for free from a friend or a member of family, or earned them in a signature campaign, they are anonymous. If you then go to a service that requires KYC and spend them there, they stop being anonymous, but if you exchange them with someone for something (barter) they will remain anonymous.

I can not agree to this, so far the coins can be tracked on blockchain, it is not anonymou. That is why bitcoin transactions are called pseudonymous because it is possible for the transactions to be known but not linked to the owner until it is linked with kyc, that is why bitcoin is called a privacy coin. There are some anonymou coins like monero, zcash and dash which transactions can not be seen on blockchain.

Tracked to what? A random address that is not connected to your identity in any way? A bitcoin transaction can be just as anonymous as cash transaction. You can argue that cash also leaves a trace because every bill has a number that can be used to identify it, just as an address is unique and can be used to look up the transaction in the blockchain, but that doesn't mean the transaction itself isn't anonymous.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Is Bitcoin entirely anonymous? It’s common for people to say that in reality bitcoin is absolutely anonymous but are not knowledgeable enough to know that is pseudonymous . Bitcoin being pseudonymous rather than the assumed anonymous gives us an understanding that each user has a established public address. So that further tells us theoretically bitcoin address can be traced back using an IP address or an exchange account.
We should be more concerned about to what level or extent is bitcoin anonymous ?

Bitcoin remain anonymous provided you're anonymous, you don't expect after you have compile to all the KYC verification on exchanges, given them your private information and still expect your statue to stay anonymous. For others linking their profiles to specific address as a result of bounty promotions etc, you can't do such and still think you're anonymous.

When you abstain from patronizing third party service providers which is very possible with the use of peer2peer service that don't require any verification and also use wallet that let you be in charge of your coins, you keep your identity intact and anonymous. This actually was the way bitcoin was design and intended to be used but the search for government approval have made it impossible to enjoy this features.

[The Cryptovator]

Isn't bitcoin in front of us and we are using it regularly? So how it would be anonymous? We can say Bitcoin creator is anonymous. We don't know who is behind that, still, they are anonymous. Bitcoin codes or transaction details aren't anonymous means Bitcoin isn't anonymous itself. But as a user, if you want to use it anonymously, then you can use it. If you care about your privacy then no one can reveal you but you should know all the technical things how you can use anonymously. It fully depends on you how you are going to hide yourself to stay anonymous.

[pixie85]

Transactions are visible but users od Bitcoin are anonymous if they are careful.

Avoid centralized exchanges, avoid KYC, avoid payments linked to your bank account like paypal, don't share your personal data and nobody will know who you are.

[JeffBrad12]

Is Bitcoin entirely anonymous? It’s common for people to say that in reality bitcoin is absolutely anonymous but are not knowledgeable enough to know that is pseudonymous . Bitcoin being pseudonymous rather than the assumed anonymous gives us an understanding that each user has a established public address. So that further tells us theoretically bitcoin address can be traced back using an IP address or an exchange account.
We should be more concerned about to what level or extent is bitcoin anonymous ?

The possible thing to tract the bitcoin addresses use the exchange site's account. I don't think that we can track the addresses use IP. The anonymously is not an important thing though caused by when you wanna trade your bitcoin and then you will always go to the exchange site to be able to withdraw your bitcoin to the money or trade it as well. If you wanna go fully anonymous and then go to the anon coin. Some anon coins have good tech too.

[Kelvinid]

People know already about Bitcoin, it was already been on the television, newspaper but the one that holds it remains anonymous until such time he/she pronouns himself/herself on the public.

What some people using Bitcoin for illegality get caught by the authority? Is that because we are not completely anonymous this time, we are already traceable, we left a record once uses bitcoin, and that it helps why illegal activities get caught.

[oktana]

For me, I'd say bitcoin is anonymous. Considering the fact that I do not need to submit any personal document to transact with it. However, this post is quite thoughtful and has made me rethink. What if wallet app / site has been recording my IP addresses? What if they can use it to track me? 

Because bitcoin can be tracked on bitcoin blockchain, it is not anonymous, people can not see or notice anything that is anonymous, but if you properly make the transactions and not linked to your personal identity, that makes it pseudonyms. Bitcoin is for privacy not for anonymity.

I think there's a problem in our definitions of anonymous. Anonymous simply means "Lacking Individuality". And, with that, I can say that bitcoin is anonymous as it doesn't reveal individuality. So, I guess it's from the definitions.

[yazher]

Is Bitcoin entirely anonymous? It’s common for people to say that in reality bitcoin is absolutely anonymous but are not knowledgeable enough to know that is pseudonymous . Bitcoin being pseudonymous rather than the assumed anonymous gives us an understanding that each user has a established public address. So that further tells us theoretically bitcoin address can be traced back using an IP address or an exchange account.
We should be more concerned about to what level or extent is bitcoin anonymous ?

For some advanced users, no, it's not. But most of the users do find it hard to track a certain address so mostly it remains anonymous. Now that the other companies have to make their own way to contribute to Bitcoin, we will see the government will take its power to make Bitcoin as transparent as possible. we already have KYC on our list. After PayPal successfully implement a cryptocurrency payment on their company, we will see more development regarding its anonymity.

[FIFA worldcup]

Isn't bitcoin in front of us and we are using it regularly? So how it would be anonymous? We can say Bitcoin creator is anonymous. We don't know who is behind that, still, they are anonymous. Bitcoin codes or transaction details aren't anonymous means Bitcoin isn't anonymous itself. But as a user, if you want to use it anonymously, then you can use it. If you care about your privacy then no one can reveal you but you should know all the technical things how you can use anonymously. It fully depends on you how you are going to hide yourself to stay anonymous.

If you have bitcoin is desktop or hardware wallets, then no one will know who is the owner of these bitcoins. All the transactions for bitcoin are done without being known who is the sender and receiver. However, if you have bitcoin stored on online exchanges and you have done KYC on those exchanges, then your transactions can be traced anytime on demand.

[Sithara007]

Every single Bitcoin transaction is being stored in the Blockchain and therefore in a strict sense, Bitcoin is not anonymous. But it is not very easy to trace back the Bitcoin transactions to the individual user, unless at some point an exchange with fiat currency is being made. Anonymous coins are there, such as Monero and Deep Onion. But they never attained any sort of popularity or acceptance among the users and none of them are included in the top-10 list by Coinmarketcap.

[AicecreaME]

Bitcoin is not anonymous like other cryptocurrencies since our wallet balances could be seen by anyone because it is stored in a public network, but the owner of a certain address is anonymous unless he is going to buy something that could be the reason of his identity to be revealed, that's why protecting your privacy using Bitcoin will depends on you.