Topic: How 'Anonymous' is Bitcoin? (Read 9191 times)

this is really "anon" since u don't need to fill your personal identity 

once you post ur adress publicly saying its urs - not anonymous anymore.

it anonymous if you could exchange your bitcoin to real money anonymously, and its possible you can exchange it to AsMoney or Perfectmoney

Didn't Satoshi talk about financial privacy? That's really just a nicer term for anonymity.

One of Satoshis quotes is
 July 5, 2010: We don’t want to lead with “anonymous (currency)”… (or) “currency outside the reach of any government.” I am definitely not making an such taunt or assertion.

 When did all the talk of "anonymity" start?
 

you are right!

thank you !

Using a new bitcoin address each time can help you to keep somewhat anonymous however I don't think as of yet it's all that simple to make bitcoin completely anonymous, it would take a lot of doing even if it was possible and even then there may be a way around it eventually.

That is great news! However, luckily I don't require anonymity as of now.  Unless one day world governments are going to state cryptocurrencies are illegal... Then we will have a real black market here.

We no need it more anonymous than this,you don't need registration/verification to use an pass you coins what else would you want than?

I believe the most anonymous currently available technology is that employed by Monero (XMR; see http://reddit.com/r/monero). It is based on CryptoNote, which uses ring-signatures to sign transactions. This makes Monero transactions untraceable. Monero is working on integration with i2p, which will allow for IP address obfuscation as well. Bitcoin core dev GMaxwell (the inventor of CoinJoin, I think) has said that he is impressed by CryptoNote's privacy tech.

This is maybe more technical than what you're looking for, but I have a long Bitcoin.SE post about anonymity which talks about both CoinJoin and Zerocash.

Bitcoin is not as anonymous as most people think. If you use a new bitcoin address each time, will help. But to say bitcoin is anonymous is not valid. I believe there is a new coin that is technically anon. but Its amazing how coinbase catches people that are gambling..

Absolutely but also as long as we use it for legal purposes why do we want it to be completely anonymous then,its completely okay to be decentralized only and we can use it happily ever after

It's anonymous in the term that you don't have to register,verify it's just free flowing system of money

look at supercoin, they implemented a trustless anonymous system using multisig, it is a decentralized peer-2-peer system. if bitcoin adopts the same, it will have a anonymous wallet.

I don't think ZeroCash actually works yet, while CoinJoin is available, at least in beta, in some wallets, and is more likely to be the default anonymizing system.

What is the most advanced technology for anonymous transactions feature?
I’ve heard about zerocash and coinjoin but which one of them has a technological edge?

Bitcoin is anonymous enough that we can't trade every last bitcoin that someone has stolen or scammed. Services like stealth or coinjoin definitely enable bitcoin users to keep their transactions secret if they want to, by obfuscation.

Bitcoin is anonymous only in the sense that there is no official link between the holder and their address. Transactions are linkable since people know who made the transactions. Any anonymizing network is another way to keep your address separate from you. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Your BTC transactions are fully available for anyone to see on the blockchain. It's not completely anonymous but pseudonymous..

There are new anonymous currencies being developed such as Monero - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/xmr-monero-a-secure-private-untraceable-cryptocurrency-583449

Don't tell anyone your addresses, unless you are accepting donations or trading.

Hmm, with VPN the service provider knows yours ip, with TOR some government agency may also know, and with cell phone operator knows the IMEI of your cell phone. So no perfect anonymity there.

Actualy, it offer spretty good anonymity.

You can use mixer services, also VPN, TOR, and connect using a prepaid SIM card on you cellphone.
Where theres a will, there is a way.

How about I2P, do you think it is any better?

There seem to be at least one bitcoin client available: https://github.com/VirtualDestructor/bitcoin-qt-i2p

Thank You Dany Hamilton this clears up alot of questions most people have regarding
the Anonymity of BITCOIN!

There are a number of ways you lose your privacy with bitcoin.

You need to connect to other nodes for blocks, so your IP is revealed.

Spv wallets - the nodes these connect to have the IP, and a huge list of addresses all owned by that person.

All transaction history is public, unchangeable, so retrospective analysis is possible. If you were up to no good on the silkroad, imagine the FBI set up a node to service SPV clients? And they logged the IP of owners of addresses linked to the silk road? Are you sure you removed that key from your wallet? :-p

Into transactions now.. Services that use multisig are bad for privacy if you don't tumble coins. If you pay into a multisig address s, coins can't be mixed up (not talking about bitfog here, just the wallet preferentially spending older coins to keep fees low - this means seller might get diff coins to the one you lodged). So, if I have a list of multisig addresses a marketplace used, I can learn the address of the buyer and seller.

If someone redeems the funds from the multisig, everyone learns the public keys of the people involved. Imagine you keep that key in your wallet, expecting to never use it again... But your node gives away that you own it by bloom filters mentioned above?

There is a full stack of software to understand.. Plus, have you read all the research papers on the topic? Martin and Harrigans was in 2011, so you've plenty to read from between now and then.

There must be something simpler now, no?

Anyone see any flaws in my oh-so-simple-but-oh-so-effective security measures?  I don't.

I think I've figured out some good ways to stay anonymous, here's the short version.

A laptop with a fully zero wiped hard drive with no personal information.  Then load Windows or even better, a Linux variant.

A bicycle with which to ride to open wireless access points.

Night time works well for making security cameras useless, as does a disguise.

And, as I live in a big city with many many many free WiFi points, that makes it easy to find an internet connection that is not in my name.

Multiple BitCoin wallets on the laptop.

Tor Browser

And NEVER connect the laptop to your home network and do anything with it!

The first step to staying anonymous is to not use it at the IP address registered in your name!

I'm not saying the NSA couldn't find me if I'm doing things like this, but I'll make them work a little bit!  

Might come down to a matter of luck and timing on which system could exert enough power over the other first. It would be really helpful for bitcoin to have a backup network that didn't have an off switch, though.

The governments are doing a pretty "solid" job to bankrupt themselves without the assistance of bitcoin. I doubt bitcoin will really play any role in their bankruptcy and certainly not from lost taxes. What bitcoin can do is to reduce the faith in national currencies by people switching to it.

Most governments are not really 100% dependent in tax revenue for their operations - and that's especially true for western governments with national currency / own issuing of money (eurozone is an exception). If they have a deficit (more expenses than income) they simply print more money to cover the difference.

If the US for example was basing all of its operations on the tax income, then these operations would need to be slashed by 25% because the tax income is not enough (income ~2.7 trillion / expenses ~3.5 trillion). Instead, the US government borrows more money which is covered by the Fed, indirectly. So there is always money to go around, as long as the issuing of new currency doesn't destroy people's faith in it.

Bitcoin is an alternative to national currencies but gold and silver are also. And when you have "preppers" for the economic armaggedon stacking gold and silver coins for like a decade, that's a larger problem for a government than Bitcoin because it's about person-to-person transactions that aren't monitored from a central console like the movement of bitcoins, nor can they be regulated by software solutions.

I wonder. To track bitcoin, especially if things like Tor and CoinJoin are used, you need quite a few resources, on the level of the NSA. On the other hand, if AnonyMint's prophesized economic devastation happens, maybe by bitcoin itself starving governments of tax revenue, that would mean that economy collapsed, along with governments, and there is no money to extract from citizens to pay for such a program. So wouldn't Bitcoin's anonymity be asured by bitcoin itself as it cuts off the flow of funds to the very thing that has any chance of breaking its anonymity?

gallom, I couldn't have said it better. Thanks.

The only two ways I know of to be reliably anonymous w.r.t. to making it impossible to connect your IP address to your identity, at least until I release my new technology for anonymity of a block chain.

Note I think Zerocoin has a very important role to play combined with my design for mixing, but not by itself.

Others are starting to understand that low-latency Chaum mix-nets such as Tor aren't reliable anonymity.

Hypothesis A) Bitcoin was created with a good intention by the idealist Satoshi, and the official story is true.

Hypothesis B) NSA invented bitcoin, and to prevent free competetive alternatives to gain first mover advantage they released bitcoin as open source and crerated the cyber jesus "Satoshi".
Their strategy with internet and bitcoin: First they give you more freedom than you are used with, then they collect data about you without you knowing about it and finally they sue you,  blackmail you or put you in jail (if you are a threat).

Tor = Government spying network

Try a trustworthy VPN instead. And bitcoin mixing services, but don't send too many coins, you never know when you get "goxxed"

AnonyMint who do you think created Bitcoin? Was it the "good" guys (common people), or the "bad" guys (aka establishment masquarading as a pseudonymous creator)?

Why Tor isn't anonymous and analysis of the flaws of DarkCoin (DRK):

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.5465510

The NSA won't have any problem providing records to the tax and law authorities. They've already announced coordination with the G20 to do so.

You guys are just thinking the world is going to remain sane. You are going to be shocked when this shit spirals into chaos 2016ish.

I'm tired of arguing with you. Have it your way at Burger King. Enjoy your bliss.

As I understand the situation, DRK may achieve a status of "legally anonymous", which is anonymous for all intents and purposes minus the largest players like NSA who controls all devices, all networks, serious AI pattern recognition software, etc etc. These large players will be unable or unwilling to explain their methods in a court of law, or they will have to admit all their illegal activities - which would compromise their activities around the globe.

I mean, consider this: They go to a court and say we have these evidence, obtained by these illegal methods of spying every single device (that would be a "smash" for high tech exports  ), or the networks of several FOREIGN COUNTRIES (and that would cause no international uproar, lol), and some HINTS by this pattern recognition software which INDICATE (not conclusively prove) that the X amount was transferred from entity A to entity B because the wallet of A emptied by 1 DRK and the wallet of B got 1 DRK.

And even if this can happen in the US, it will not happen in other countries. For example, in Greece, the right of the individual to privacy (including telecommunications) cannot be breached unless there is some SERIOUS crime. That's on the constitution. You can't just eavesdrop and use these information as ...evidence. Illegal evidence = bye bye mr prosecutor, you've just admitted to committing a crime yourself. Additionally, when say traffic is routed throughout the world, how many countries can say that they have access to all the networks in order to convince a judge that yeah that transaction went from here, to there, to there, to there, and then back to this place. And the judge will be "ok, and you know this HOW?".

Parody trials where the accuser / prosecutor will not have to actually submit the evidence or methods of obtainment, is another issue altogether that is more serious than anonymizing bitcoin, darkcoin etc.

Right.. inflate it away then do another qe because we are actually in deflationary spriral dontcha know? Buy low sell high in one big trade. Thats how they are cutting debt down... as far as smart money they have no choice but to buy it there is no other option.. err was no other option.. gold cant be currency.

I think a US gov crackdown is unlikely, considering all the VC involved and positions made by hedge funds already. They'll find ways to regulate exchanges and tax capital gains, surely, but a ban seems unlikely. Cash is far more problematic for crime and that's not going away any time soon. Stay away from illegal activity the same way you would with cash and you should be fine.

The US will be more worried about foreign investors fleeing US assets and domestic investors fleeing to gold once inflation kicks up. Massive USD inflation is a foregone conclusion thanks to Fed Reserve money printing. I suspect they have printed all this money not only to temporarily prop up the falling asset bubbles but use resulting inflation to default on US gov debt, letting inflation wipe it away. They know they have no hope of ever paying it back.

The above argument about complete anonymity is more relevant to communist countries such as China and Vietnam, which are more likely to try to crack down on crypto. How users in those countries get around surveillance of ordinary use will be interesting.

My understanding of VPNs:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.5442845
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.5454811

"Live and learn"
I am embarrassed cause I haven't heard about Tor before I read this thread!
Thanks for this thread, useful for noobs like me!  

Yes. Most users don't even try to be anonymous!

Or they do something silly like pass their coins through a mixer, which may be a honeypot and they didn't even obscure their IP address well (maybe only Tor).

Not to mention other mistakes such as browsing to other websites where they have login account of identity saved with cookies on while they are on the same connection that made spend.


Apparently the EU has a change of plan coming for you all too.

For example France is a leading example, which even proposed tracking and taxing all internet traffic sending to outside of France.

Just wait until the core of the EU implodes from the $150 trillion debt crisis next year. Then you will see the true colors of the EU.

We've got another year or 18 months of this mirage that Europeans are living in.


I'm not very knowledgeable about EU laws, yet I believe your ISP is breaking the EU edicts on this. I'm aware that some VPNs for example in Romania defy this, but this apparently a legal gray area for the moment. I am aware of that small landlocked country Liechtenstein in Europe that has ISPs that offer anonymous, no logs hosting.

I expect the NSA and GCHQ are hacking into these ISPs and compromising them. Remember the USA and Germany even bribed employees to get bank records in Switzerland. These ISPs would not even know they've been rooted or otherwise hacked. These covert agencies though might save these hacks for the higher profile cases, so for the moment you might be anonymous. But remember upthread I underlined the word "reliable". My point is you don't know! So don't have peace-of-mind, unless it is ignorant bliss.

Encryption doesn't hide the IPs of source and destination.


Irrelevant isn't it? If you commit a crime, you've lost that good status.

You didn't see the GCHQ went on a fishing expedition in Yahoo Messenger and has 180,000 images.

They are doing widespread data recording. The Utah facility can process 2 Yottabytes.

Majority of bitcoin users are not anonymous? You mean all Americans living and residing in the United States right? I'm all the way on the other side of the world.

Maybe you could also mean, all American citizens who live anywhere, since they must file taxes on world wide income regardless of residence.

My ISP is not breaking the law. They just don't keep logs long enough. So do a lot of off-shore VPNs. Or my ISP could be keeping logs, but since all packets are encrypted, they don't know what is in them, or to who they were (really) sent to.

Guilty until proven innocent is unfortunate; I have actually learned to accept that kind of thinking where I live. There are ways around that, if it ever gets to court. The best scenario for you, as an individual, is to never get that far.

As far as my government is concerned, (and as far as the US government too, since I've been there, and lived there for some time), I am a model citizen: paying taxes and filing records as needed. I have just barely enough records for them that I exist, just like all the other millions of other people with no bad records, no criminal records, zero traffic or driving tickets, squeaky clean police clearance, etc.

I'm no one. Or nobody. They're not interested in me.

As I pointed out upthread even if you succeed to be anonymous (e.g. using an ISP that breaks the law as you propose), the majority of the Bitcoin users are not anonymous, so you can be compelled to provide identity else no one will transact with you. This is after the governments start cracking down. Read my post upthread please again more carefully.

On the issue of you trying to convince a judge, the law has now changed to "guilty until proven innocent":

http://www.nestmann.com/could-the-government-force-you-to-tell-your-deepest-darkest-secrets

I don't believe you have a prayer of winning by using "Plausible deniability" in a court-of-law, when the spend transaction was sent from your connection. Especially given the $150 trillion debt implosion and the NSA+G20 promising to hunt down all wealth. The courts are going to say, "show us your records proving that someone else sent that transaction from your connection".

What if the ISP does not keep logs? Or it takes awhile to get those logs? Or the logs just show encrypted data with no way to decrypt it?

I'm not here to attempt to convince a judge. I'm just saying it is not proof.

What the judge believes, or what the jury say, or what the people understand is different. If you have a good lawyer (if you even end up in court), I'm sure they can say something.

Its not anonymous

IP address means also they can get access to your ISP's logs so they can see your connection sent the data.

So you if are arguing that sending your public key to a sender which then receives BTC, or originating the send of a signed spend, is not proof that you own a coin, I think you will have a difficult time convincing a judge of that.

What would be your argument to the judge?

Help me understand. I'm sure a lot of other people don't get it too. I may be wrong about the NSA, but I don't think I'm wrong about proving ownership of a particular bitcoin address.

You may link an IP address to it, but that's not proof. The only proof is access to the private key before it gets broadcast to the entire world.

Here's an address for you: 171KdbGvgVN9hzxXiBYYTVD9RS9RokJ959
Here's the private key: L4hmg78a2zxY7J56C423yfwwAXXqwnWGSCfJh6NZDVfABBZE1Usn

Who owns that? Not me.

What I do understand, is sometimes people do not need proof in order to crucify someone, or to hand a guilty verdict. They just all need to agree they don't want you around, so they will get rid of you.

You are wrong. You have not read my upthread posts carefully.

CoinJoin exists. It doesn't have to be used by everyone.

It's similar to the small community where a portion of the population are armed. The whole community is a less desirable target for robbers or thieves.

Basically, no one can prove beyond reasonable doubt that you own or control a particular bitcoin address.

If the NSA is already watching you, then there is nothing you can really do, you are already on their scope. But if you've been relatively anonymous up to this point, then not even the NSA knows you are there. Oh, yes, they can probably see you. They just don't know it's you.

wear a veil

You have not refuted the points of my prior post:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.5355485

CoinJoin is not used always by everyone, thus that  prior post applies. CoinJoin is subject to timing and pattern analysis. And even if CoinJoin was used by all, there is still a problem...

Also CoinJoin does not obscure IP addresses. And Tor is cracked by the NSA (low-latency Chaum mix-nets are subject to timing analysis by entities that can see all inter-node traffic in spite of the packets being encrypted. Also the NSA has probably compromised most of the servers on Tor).

There is no reliable anonymity possible in Bitcoin against the NSA+GCHQ+G20 tax and law enforcement. Forget it.

There is anonymity in Bitcoin against other less powerful entities.

1. Because of CoinJoin, there is now no conclusive proof that all the addresses in the same transaction belong to the same person or entities.

2. If you can't link a private key to a person or entity, you can not prove they own a particular bitcoin address.

3. Even if a person or entity publicly reveals their receiving bitcoin address, it is not proof that they own or control it.

4. Merely revealing a private key allows the prior single owner to disown it. He or she is no longer the "owner" because everyone who has access to, or has seen, or read that particular private key is now the "owner".

We have your opinion on BitcoinFog, but what about CoinJoin? Especially if implemented as a standard for all transactions?

Come on Bitards, wake up from your stupor. There is no anonymity in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the ledger from hell that will destroy all your freedom. Everything can now be tracked. Zillions times worse than cash for mankind's freedom.

I can't even find a Bitcoin mixer, tumbler, or laundry which provides anonymity for mixing smaller amounts.

For example, Bitcoinfog does not make the deposit and withdrawal amount constant, e.g. 0.5 BTC, thus one can correlate the amounts sent in and the amounts withdrawn. It is very unlikely that there is a large pool of users who are splitting their up their withdrawals in a similar level of chunk sizes as you are, unless you are mixing 10 - 100+ BTC and can employ chunk sizes over many ranges, e.g. 0.1 BTC, 0.5BTC, 1BTC, 2BTC, 4BTC, etc..

And we don't even know if the operators of the mixing service are not already compromised by a national security gag order letter. We can probably assume they are, even if they deny it (gag order can force them to deny it). Since the service centralized, they are easy prey for the NSA to track down, hack, and serve with a order.

Also the legal liability for using a mixing service is potentially severe:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mixing_service

NSA can easily associate bitcoin addresses to your distinct internet fingerprint (cookies, ip, isp data, etc)
dont assume your bitcoin usage is anonymous

It can be very anonymous if used right. Most people won't be able to use it right for very long though.

I don't think so as If it was so than many people would do this. As far as I know Tor only make unknown your IP address.

Coint taint is the biggest flaw to Bitcoin fungibility.

Now imagine the government tax and law enforcement authorities crack down in the coming years (and the G20+NSA are announcing this intent) wherein they say if you can't provide the identity of whom your purchased your coins from and sold your coins to, then all tax and criminal liability from the time of mining until the future is all yours. Because there is no way for you to otherwise prove that you didn't buy the coin from yourself and sell it to yourself.

So with that very simple ruling, the governments can at-will force all anonymous coin holders (past and present) to be revealed, because nobody is going to accept a coin without identity history any more.

You could still try to find someone to accept your anonymous coins, but since most users are not anonymous, your effort to find such vendors and market for your anonymous coins will become untenable.

This is why the only way I can see to keep fungibility (without losing anonymity entirely) is to make most of the users anonymous, and that includes all their IP addresses when they transact.

CoinJoin and Dark Wallet won't do this.

And Tor is not strong enough, as it can be foiled with timing analysis by an entity that can see all packets, such as the NSA.

So the reality is that Bitcoin will be the government coin. You see how easily the U.S.A. government effectively controlled the outcome of Mt.Gox.

So does that mean those w@nkers who created ransomware (e.g. cryptolocker) and were paid in BTC could be tracked and hopefully flogged to death?

I guess it's not 100% anonymous, since your address can be tracked. It's anonymous in the sense that it's hard to connect your address to you. I guess if you have your profile in an exchange that has your information, then the police can find you that way.

TOR!?!?! are you bloody mental? Tor was compromised long ago by FBI and FEDs don't touch that shit. even using it is a red flag to ISP and government services

bittyweb:  Bitcoin is only truly "anonymous" so long as you don't do anything with it.

In addition to what DannyHamilton said, suppose you buy bitcoins from your localbitcoins dealer.  Now imagine the Florida scenario where those bitcoin dealers were busted.  Now their records/wallets (and timestamps) are presumably in the hands of law enforcement.  The dealer may have been under surveillance when he sold to you.  You might be on the starbucks security camera where you met the dealer.  Maybe you bought a coffee at the starbucks with a credit card or are known to the staff.  etc etc.  Once "they" find some of your addresses and put some effort into taint analysis, things get interesting.

In reality, Bitcoin only gives you a degree of anonymity.  It gets you out of the scope of the NSA casually fishing through bank records to find likely names/addresses of people, but if somebody REALLY wants to find you, sooner or later, they will.  The more you interact with or trade with people, the more traces you leave.

In short, don't depend on bitcoin to keep you out of jail if you're breaking the law.  It isn't designed for that.  It is meant to keep you out of reach of "fishing expeditions", not a concerted law enforcement effort.

Dany Hamilton answered perfectly for this question.

But the answer is, Bitcoin is anonymous since you dont need to give any personal info.

Thank you DannyHamilton. You pretty much hit the nail on the head.

very good explanation. Do I also have the same "problem" when I use e.g. Electrum or some other client?

No, it is pseudonymous, the blockchain and ALL transactions are public, any address ever used is public, there's no way to hide that, it's about whether you can be connected to the address or transactions that counts...

It depends on the wallet you are using.  Here's an example with the Bitcoin-Qt wallet:

Imagine you create a brand new wallet.  Then you create 2 addresses in the wallet (address A and address B).  Next you receive 1 BTC at address A, and then receive another 1 BTC at address B.

Now, if you want to send 1.2 BTC from this wallet to somewhere, the wallet will create a transaction that spends both the output that was sent to address A and the address that was sent to address B.  Both of these outputs will appear as inputs in the same transaction.  Then the wallet will create an output sending 1.2 BTC to your intended recipient as well as a second output sending 0.8 BTC (less any transaction fee you might be paying) back to a brand new address that your wallet creates for you and keeps hidden (the new bitcoin address is kept hidden, not the 0.8 bitcoins) from you.  Finally the wallet will provide 2 signature using the private keys from both you address A and your address B.

Since a single transaction has signatures from both address A and address B, it can be inferred that a single entity very likely has control of both addresses.  The addresses are therefore "linked together".

Gold? is that a private tor like software?

If you know how to use Gold 1.0/Gold 2.0 anonymously, it is anonymous. If you don't know, it is not.

  It's anoymous because you dont have to give your NAME or email on transactions...

It’s anonymous because no one controls it. It is not regulated by the bank or government, so it is anonymously circulating in the market.

I don´t think this is true. How do you think you would be able to link one address of a wallet to another address of the wallet 

It is my understanding that any bitcoin address inside of one wallet can eventually be associated with any other addresses when coins are sent.

That said. If you take coins from wallet A and send them to almost any service that sents out payments in bulk for withdraw requests, this effectively anonymizes your coins in most cases. At this point all you need to do is withdraw to a wallet (Wallet B if you will) seperate from your original one and the coins should have few ties to the original.

Unless you tell someone or advertise or are found in possession of the private keys controlling a wallet there is no way to conclusively prove any particular individual owns any particular said address. Sending someone coins is effectively telling them you own that address.

With stealth and CoinJoin, Bitcoin is basically anonymous. These concepts are workable and will soon be delivered.

https://wiki.unsystem.net/index.php/DarkWallet/Stealth

CoinJoin is already working since ages in all different ways and through tor too. You can use stealth using SX (command line tools): https://wiki.unsystem.net/index.php/Sx/Stealth

These tools are not yet readily available for the common user but they will be.

Together with other new emerging innovations, we will have decentralised uncensored crypto markets within this year.

Some very interesting thoughts here. Opened my mind up a little.

^THIS
I feel self regulation is the only way a currency can work properly.

Bitcoin is not anonymous, was never designed to be. Just the owners of Silk Road had to persuade it was so they could sell their "wares" to people, and those people thought they were safe. Very funny DPR. The joke is on you now.

Not entirely. Tor will hide your IP address, but not your Bitcoin address(es). Anyone who knows one of your Bitcoin addresses (eg, because they paid you, or you paid them) can see all past and future transactions involving that address (though they won't necessarily know what those transactions are for), and may provide that information to the authorities. Using a new address for each time your receive coins will reduce the number of transactions you can linked to, and you can use mixing services to further conceal the true origin of your transactions, though the fact the you used a mixing service may still be evident, even if nobody can tell where your mixed coins went.

What are you talking about? Bitcoin-Qt has Tor support built in. If you're looking for a GUI for Tor itself that uses Qt, I suggest Vidalia.

Ask Ross Ulbricht what he thinks.

use some Coinjoin service... many of them around

i'd like to know how you are going to get a custom designed tor-qt!!!???

not happening mate.

We all know it's not anonymous, but curious to hear opinions from the experts around BCT.

What steps need to be taken to make it anonymous?