My consternation regarding the monitoring of Bitcoin transactions.

[Dzwaafu11]

I asked other cryptocurrency users if bitcoin transactions could be tracked. Some of them say yes, but they don't explain how it can be tracked, and from what I read, all unconfirmed bitcoin transactions are sent to the mem-pool before the miners take it and mine it, then it is confirmed and added to the blockchain, so how do we know where and how bitcoin transactions can be tracked? When I went on to read more, I discovered two things: Dash and Monero. These have me perplexed; are they using them to track bitcoin transactions in another way? If so, how and why?

What is the distinction between Dash and monero?

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[tromp]

What is the distinction between Dash and monero?

Dash is a cash grab by Evan Duffield, amplifying his insta-mine through rent-seeking masternodes.
Dash doesn't offer much in the way of privacy.
Monero on the other hand does, by hiding amounts and addresses, and by almost completely obscuring the transaction graph.

[paid2]

Indeed, Bitcoin transactions can be tracked. Bitcoin offers pseudonymity, not full anonymity.
That's why it's recommended to use each BTC address only once, for example. The privacy regarding the BTC network depends solely on the user in question and the choices they make. Some people use mixers, but mixed coins can be flagged and become complicated to exchange on CEX or to spend with certain merchants. You could also use Lightning Network, which seems to offer more privacy.

Some companies are specialized in tracking cryptocurrency transactions, like Chainanalysis for example: https://www.chainalysis.com/
Also, CEX (Binance, Coinbase etc...etc...) have tools that allow them to track transactions, group them to identities from their KYC database etc...

Surely to protect your privacy Monero seems like a good option if you don't have the patience or voluntee to take care of your own privacy on the Bitcoin network. Monero by nature is opaque and untraceable.
However, with a few basic habits, you can make the path of your BTC transactions complex to follow.

[rat03gopoh]

Transaction explorer gives only limited information like tx value, tx hash, block number, date, number of confirmations etc like a common tracker. As for if you mean tracing ownership personally, that requires a special effort. Someone may have dealt with a centralized service where he distributed identities for an account connected to several addresses. And some digital forensics experts can use IP to detect the location of the owner of the address. cmiiw

[NotATether]

And some digital forensics experts can use IP to detect the location of the owner of the address. cmiiw

With pure blockchain you can't do that. You can only figure out which IP addresses broadcasted a transaction, but since anyone can broadcast other people's transactions and confirmed transactions, this information is inconclusive.

[odolvlobo]

I asked other cryptocurrency users if bitcoin transactions could be tracked. Some of them say yes, ... so how do we know where and how bitcoin transactions can be tracked?

The ability of someone to track Bitcoin transactions is limited.

All transactions are public. Using the information in transactions and by looking at all transactions, some additional information such as which transactions belong to which wallet may be deduced. The identity of the owner of a wallet can be discovered simply by asking a recipient who sent them the bitcoins.

When I went on to read more, I discovered two things: Dash and Monero. These have me perplexed; are they using them to track bitcoin transactions in another way? If so, how and why?
What is the distinction between Dash and monero?

Dash and Monero are altcoins.

Dash improves privacy with a built-in coin-join feature that mixes your coins while they sit in your wallet.

Monero uses encryption and obfuscation to hide the sending and receiving addresses, as well as the amount of the transaction.

[joniboini]

Other ways you can improve your privacy other than never reusing an address are to never post your wallet addresses online, use throwaway accounts and addresses if you want to participate in raffle/giveaway, utilize privacy tools like coinjoin, etc. Keep in mind that some implementation of coinjoin or mixer is not good, hence why exchange or other services can block and identify them. Make sure you do your research before you use them. As far as I can see, social media/forum posts are where others find out which users own what addresses.

That being said, if you do all of those things but you still use centralized services that require KYC, it would be meaningless imo. Try to use DEX or go P2P where KYC is not used and they have other means to make sure your deals are processed successfully such as using deposit/multi-sig. CMIIW.

[BlackBoss_]

all unconfirmed bitcoin transactions are sent to the mem-pool before the miners take it and mine it, then it is confirmed and added to the blockchain

Miners don't mine bitcoin transactions. They mine blocks and bitcoin transactions are included in bitcoin blocks.

You can say Bitcoin miners confirm your transactions but can not say they mine your transactions.

so how do we know where and how bitcoin transactions can be tracked?

Track will be done by transaction inputs, outputs, UTXOs and your IP addresses. When you make a transaction, there will be input(s), output(s) and the best is don't reuse your address but use change address.

Use Tor when your broadcast your transaction.
Don't check your address or transaction on block explorers without Tor.

[Dzwaafu11]

all unconfirmed bitcoin transactions are sent to the mem-pool before the miners take it and mine it, then it is confirmed and added to the blockchain

Miners don't mine bitcoin transactions. They mine blocks and bitcoin transactions are included in bitcoin blocks.

You can say Bitcoin miners confirm your transactions but can not say they mine your transactions.

How? But you know miners choose unconfirmed transactions from the mem-pool to verify it and add it to blockchain.

[ABCbits]

I asked other cryptocurrency users if bitcoin transactions could be tracked. Some of them say yes, but they don't explain how it can be tracked, and from what I read, all unconfirmed bitcoin transactions are sent to the mem-pool before the miners take it and mine it, then it is confirmed and added to the blockchain, so how do we know where and how bitcoin transactions can be tracked?

You might want to read basic explanation from Chainalysis at https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/is-bitcoin-traceable/. Obviously everyone have different way to track Bitcoin.

What is the distinction between Dash and monero?

Dash is a cash grab by Evan Duffield, amplifying his insta-mine through rent-seeking masternodes.
Dash doesn't offer much in the way of privacy.
Monero on the other hand does, by hiding amounts and addresses, and by almost completely obscuring the transaction graph.

In addition, CoinJoin feature also exist on some Bitcoin wallet such as Sparrow and Samourai wallet.

[Carlton Banks]

how do we know where and how bitcoin transactions can be tracked?

it's not possibly to know simply from looking at a single transaction. but if you look for patterns in the entire blockchain, and run spy nodes on the Bitcoin network, you can find out reliably who might own which addresses.

various special transaction types can be used to make the "might" part less reliable. NOT including "mixer" websites, where you basically tell the website everything and expect them not to sell that information on to others.

When I went on to read more, I discovered two things: Dash and Monero.

these privacy coins are trade-offs on the whole cryptocurrency concept, don't expect:

• speed
• low costs
• scalability
• resilience

...from those coins. maybe it's possible to get some kind of improvement of these properties in comparison to their balance in bitcoin, but it is a balance (famously observed in a phenomenon named "Zookoo's triangle")