Topic: Bitcoin anonymity - page 3. (Read 3278 times)

Yes, it's true.  "Bitcoin anonymity" is an oxymoron.

The closest we can get is Bitcoin obscurity, via various mixing schemes.

For everything else, there's Monero.   

Relevant to the discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/3ctjed/friendly_reminder_to_bitcoin_users_that_seek/

Actually with xmr.to you can easily use Monero at any shop that accepts BTC. Very fast, secure and easy

i don't care if banks/governments reveal information of criminals! it is good, actually.

i m worried that my neighbor knows everything about me! it is dangerous! people are envious.
bitcoin don't protect me of my neighbor. banks do.

The only good way of mixing is to trade your BTC for other cryptocoins, there is no direct tie on the blockchain this way.

https://github.com/justusranvier/wallet-ratings/blob/2015-2/2015-2/threat%20model.wiki

unless major istitutions like banks are forced by taxes man like IRS to reveal information about an individual which presumably he is doing money laundering or he is evading taxes with a big amount that wasn't declared previously..

they can control everything that can travel on any fiat circuit, that's why they fear bitcoin

Paypal, credit cards don't reveal your company profits, or your salary.

You should check out this article. It's exactly about this, everything is clear and simple to read even for Newbie. From my own experience, Bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous. You are anonymous when randomly sending transaction but you can be easily tracked when doing trades through exchanges. It depends on people if they want to stay anonymous or not.

If people didn't feel the way I do then they would pay for everything with cash. No one would use PayPal, credit cards, debit cards, checks or just about any other modern payment method. BTW: When I first started using checks they always put your SSN under your address and drivers licenses had your SSN on them too.

Not to say I don't believe you, but the real point is that most people won't feel the way you say you do.

Your original statement implied that people only mix transactions if they're doing something shady. These examples are some of the other reasons.

Lol, use a proxy then problem solved. IPs are the least of your worries. Bitcoin is anon in that you have no idea who the person is. If I send money to you you don't know my real name or personal details.

Why not, everyone that wants the info on my salary can get it now anyway. In fact, if they can get my SSN they can get my tax records too.

I'm fine with business transparency. One of the problems we have with modern business is the lack of transparency. That's also one of the biggest problems with government.

Like others have said, it's not really possible to use Bitcoin anonymously. Even using it pseudonymously takes effort. You should at least always use a VPN or Tor when connecting to the network.

If you want to use Bitcoin pseudonymously, I recommend creating a number of different "identities" each of which has their own bitcoin wallet. Some of these identities can be "connected" and others should not be. For example, you could have identities Alice, Bob and Charlie, each of which has their own bitcoin wallet. Alice could be connected to your real life identity. You could send Alice some coins, but never Bob or Charlie. Alice could send you or Bob some coins, but never Charlie. Bob could send Alice or Charlie coins, but never you. Charlie can send coins to Bob, but no one else. In a picture:

You <-> Alice <-> Bob <-> Charlie

If you want to get serious, sending coins through the <-> links should use coinjoin or a mixer.

Note that since there are (at least) 4 different wallets here, the coins for the different identities can't be accidentally combined as inputs to a transaction.

I learned about this way of doing things through discussions with a friend who coded "idmas" -- it's a tool for using BIP0032 (HD Wallets) to create and manage identities like the kind above. It's free and open source -- this isn't an ad. But it doesn't have a GUI, so it's only for people comfortable with the command line.

https://github.com/cjbauer/idmas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abINpUxZwPI

Another recommendation I'd make is one that's probably hard for people who really believe in the potential of Bitcoin: stop talking to people about Bitcoin. In your everyday life, don't bring it up. If someone brings it up to you, just say it's an interesting technology, but that you're no longer interested in it as a currency/investment. You can, for example, use the block size debate as an excuse why you've divested. (I'm not saying divest. I'm saying don't trust people.)

Basically: Bitcoin is Fight Club.

BTC can be traceable, and that's why dark markets' CEO went to jails, cause FBI can check their btc wallet to gather proofs. The best anon things should be monero or darkcoin, they are both best altcoins and anonymous coins, the addresses can't be traceable, so many criminals like them, maybe they will be huge in the future, who knows. Top 5 coin marketcap is possible for them.

Bitcoin is not anonymous, it reveals your IP when you make transaction and its easy to correlate your addresses :/
In future i think it will be improved by protocol or 3rd party.

This. You are absolutely right. I used Coinbase when I first heard about Bitcoin, because no fees.
Then I discovered that Coinbase, obviously, sucks. Good for me.

Send them to an address that has a  lot of coin, then withdraw in different sized amounts
Exchanges, for example, maybe change coin types, do some trades if it makes you feel better.
Mixers
direct exchange to anon coins like monero using, say, shapeshift followed by back to xbt in another exchange.
All of the above make things pretty onerous for even resourcefull trackers.

Like someone mentioned, if someone like Coinbase has a policy of investigating the origin of the Bitcoins you send and they find out they come from criminal activities then you are in trouble, even if you had NO IDEA that those coins were in Silk Road sometime ago. This really sucks and will hinder mainstream adoption. It kills fungibility. The average end user should not care about it and not have that worry on their mind. I myself avoid stuff like Coinbase because who the hell knows where the Bitcoins that you got come from? It's a joke, but I don't really see a way around this as long as the blockchain is an open ledger... any solutions?

monero cannot be used directly(i'm not aware of shops that accept it), you need at some point to return to bitcoin, at least try to use two exchanges to perform this

until zerocoin/darkwallet or some unknown sidechain will be implemented to solve this little issue the best solution is cryptonight at the moment