It's just crazy that you can go on there and buy friggin' heroin just like you buy something from Amazon.com.
When you put it like that it's pretty funny lol
Topic: Bitcoin and the Silk Road - page 3. (Read 10187 times)
When you put it like that it's pretty funny lol
It's just crazy that you can go on there and buy friggin' heroin just like you buy something from Amazon.com.
When you put it like that it's pretty funny lol
Comments or corrections?
Yes, there was someone here that posted a great saying that went something like, if you're not sure how to use Bitcoin anonymously then assume it is not anonymous.
That is super accurate advice.
Truthfully, you have to be an expert at Bitcoin to be sure you're using it anonymously. It's not easy, but certainly possible.
The biggest technical hurdle is someone tracking coins to you that you wish they couldn't. With Bitcoin every transaction is public, so if you receive coins associated with an "illegal" drug sale and enforcers are aware of those coins, then you have to take steps to be sure those coins can't be connected to you. The enforcers can watch everywhere those coins go, just as anyone else can, so mixing services for example are used so those coins can mix with people not connected with the sale.
I was thinking about The Silk Road website. That site just totally fascinates me for some reason. It's just crazy that you can go on there and buy friggin' heroin just like you buy something from Amazon.com.
This dude was saying at the bitcoin conference that the sellers are all going to get busted because it's easy to trade bitcoin movements, but I just don't see how that makes sense. It seems like they could just go to McD or Starbucks and jump on their wifi AND use a VPN and set up a bitcoin wallet somewhere and then people make the payments to that and it's in no way associated with them.
So there is no way to identify them by IP and no way to identify them through BTC movements.
The only way I could see that they could get busted is if when they take the money back out of the system. Like if they transferred the bitcoin to coinbase and cashed out or if they bought something with the BTC and then had it shipped to their home. But if they left the BTC in an online wallet for months or years and then withdrew it later, seems like little chance they could get busted. Of course would be smart to use a VPN whenever accessing said wallet.
And I don't even know how well bitcoins are traceable. Like if I send funds from my wallet to Mt Gox, can it be traced to Gox where I have my name on my account? I guess probably but I'm not sure. Anyway it's a fascinating subject because we lose more and more privacy all the time and there are some very, very evil people out there who like to mess with others for either financial gain... or just for the lulz.
Comments or corrections?
This dude was saying at the bitcoin conference that the sellers are all going to get busted because it's easy to trade bitcoin movements, but I just don't see how that makes sense. It seems like they could just go to McD or Starbucks and jump on their wifi AND use a VPN and set up a bitcoin wallet somewhere and then people make the payments to that and it's in no way associated with them.
So there is no way to identify them by IP and no way to identify them through BTC movements.
The only way I could see that they could get busted is if when they take the money back out of the system. Like if they transferred the bitcoin to coinbase and cashed out or if they bought something with the BTC and then had it shipped to their home. But if they left the BTC in an online wallet for months or years and then withdrew it later, seems like little chance they could get busted. Of course would be smart to use a VPN whenever accessing said wallet.
And I don't even know how well bitcoins are traceable. Like if I send funds from my wallet to Mt Gox, can it be traced to Gox where I have my name on my account? I guess probably but I'm not sure. Anyway it's a fascinating subject because we lose more and more privacy all the time and there are some very, very evil people out there who like to mess with others for either financial gain... or just for the lulz.
Comments or corrections?
Jump to: