The only easy way bitcoin can be anonymous is to
-Always use TOR
-mine them yourself or in a pool
-spend them in a way that your real identity is not revealed
Topic: How are bitcoins anonymous? (Read 2093 times)
Please, elaborate.
When the government begins to pay close attention to all transactions and their originators, they will flood the Bitcoin network with a lot of their nodes (or a few nodes with thousands connections). If they control, say, 25% of all "connections", then they can determine the originator of a transaction with 90% success ( == 1 - 0.25^8 ). If they control 50%, then this chance will be 99.6%.
PS: They may already are doing this.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Is IP address recorded in the blockchain?
No, but http://blockchain.info does it.
Just checked my last transaction cffb723e5dc2c0176d1deb0739b5126403c6d603d5456474450838c2884bb7f0 , and I do not see IP address where this transaction was made from. The one on the "relayed by ip" line is not mine. Can you determine my IP using this info?
P.S. Anonymity is not a big deal for me, just curious if it is really true.
No, I can't determine. But govt agents have much more chances to track u down.
Please, elaborate.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Is IP address recorded in the blockchain?
No, but http://blockchain.info does it.
Just checked my last transaction cffb723e5dc2c0176d1deb0739b5126403c6d603d5456474450838c2884bb7f0 , and I do not see IP address where this transaction was made from. The one on the "relayed by ip" line is not mine. Can you determine my IP using this info?
P.S. Anonymity is not a big deal for me, just curious if it is really true.
No, I can't determine. But govt agents have much more chances to track u down.
Just checked my last transaction cffb723e5dc2c0176d1deb0739b5126403c6d603d5456474450838c2884bb7f0 , and I do not see IP address where this transaction was made from. The one on the "relayed by ip" line is not mine. Can you determine my IP using this info?
P.S. Anonymity is not a big deal for me, just curious if it is really true.
P.S. Anonymity is not a big deal for me, just curious if it is really true.
No, your address cannot be determined from blockchain.info. At any point in time there might be 10,000 or more instances of bitcoin-qt or other full-node software running. Blockchain.info is only connected to a small subset of these. A transaction might get passed through many nodes before being "seen" by blockchain.info, so there is no way to know if the IP address stored on their site is the true originator of the transaction.
Having said that, I still think it is a very bad practice for blockchain.info to be recording IP addresses (with friends like that, who needs enemies?). They should, at a minimum, publish a list of all listening addresses, and the client needs to have the option of rejecting a list of nodes. In the absence of these measures, a good way to protect your anonymity and also help the network is to leave the client running all the time. Soon there will be hundreds of transactions recorded on blockchain.info as having originated from your IP, when in fact none may have.
People who want Bitcoin to be anonymous can make it anonymous for themselves.
Same as with using cash for things you do not want people to know about instead of traceable purchases.
Same as with using cash for things you do not want people to know about instead of traceable purchases.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Is IP address recorded in the blockchain?
No, but http://blockchain.info does it.
Just checked my last transaction cffb723e5dc2c0176d1deb0739b5126403c6d603d5456474450838c2884bb7f0 , and I do not see IP address where this transaction was made from. The one on the "relayed by ip" line is not mine. Can you determine my IP using this info?
P.S. Anonymity is not a big deal for me, just curious if it is really true.
OP, the simple answer is that bitcoin *addresses* are tracked, but there is nothing that associates your IRL identity with an address. If you use an exchange that knows your IRL and cash out to an address, the police can ask the exchange and the exchange can say "we think this address probably belongs to him", but all you have to do then is send to one other address, and claim you bought something from somebody, and bam, no more link to you IRL.
If you REALLY want to be anonymous, you have to set up fake accounts on exchanges, and move money in and out of them to the point where the original paper trail is simply too long and too obscure to follow.
But you are absolutely correct that it is possible to follow every transaction, it's just difficult to link an IRL identity with an address, and since you can create as many addresses as you want on whim, and create fake transactions to yourself over and over again, it's possible to obscure your bitcoins to the point of anonymity.
If you REALLY want to be anonymous, you have to set up fake accounts on exchanges, and move money in and out of them to the point where the original paper trail is simply too long and too obscure to follow.
But you are absolutely correct that it is possible to follow every transaction, it's just difficult to link an IRL identity with an address, and since you can create as many addresses as you want on whim, and create fake transactions to yourself over and over again, it's possible to obscure your bitcoins to the point of anonymity.
Finally Gweedo and I agree on something. Please use tor.
Not true, it records the IP address of the node that relayed the transactions to them. Just don't connect to them and your fine.
If u buys drugs and pay from "tied" addresses, and ur IP in most of this transactions then it will be quite hard to prove that it wasn't u.
The blockchain itself holds no ip information, and if you don't connect to blockchain.info's node, how can they find your ip? They can't. Remember bitcoin's is anonymous if you make it anonymous
Blockchain.Info is usually connected to 1000 nodes. What's its IP to avoid accidental connection?
I don't know, I use the -connect switch to connect to only nodes I trust. Also I use tor
Not true, it records the IP address of the node that relayed the transactions to them. Just don't connect to them and your fine.
If u buys drugs and pay from "tied" addresses, and ur IP in most of this transactions then it will be quite hard to prove that it wasn't u.
The blockchain itself holds no ip information, and if you don't connect to blockchain.info's node, how can they find your ip? They can't. Remember bitcoin's is anonymous if you make it anonymous
Blockchain.Info is usually connected to 1000 nodes. What's its IP to avoid accidental connection?
Not true, it records the IP address of the node that relayed the transactions to them. Just don't connect to them and your fine.
If u buy drugs and pay from "tied" addresses, and ur IP in most of this transactions then it will be quite hard to prove that it wasn't u.
EDIT: U can play with http://blockchain.info/ip-address/127.0.0.1
Quote
couldn't BitInstant just save my bitcoin address to my name and be able to track exactly where those coins go forever using the block chain
Just send your BTC to a new wallet and delete the one you used to buy bitcoins. Nobody will know, did you send your BTC to yourself or to somebody else.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Is IP address recorded in the blockchain?
No, but http://blockchain.info does it.
Shit. I did not know this.
Don't worry. If that was just once then u can say that u just relayed a transaction.
Quote
couldn't BitInstant just save my bitcoin address to my name and be able to track exactly where those coins go forever using the block chain
Just send your BTC to a new wallet and delete the one you used to buy bitcoins. Nobody will know, did you send your BTC to yourself or to somebody else.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Is IP address recorded in the blockchain?
No, but http://blockchain.info does it.
Shit. I did not know this.
Not true, it records the IP address of the node that relayed the transactions to them. Just don't connect to them and your fine.
Quote
couldn't BitInstant just save my bitcoin address to my name and be able to track exactly where those coins go forever using the block chain
Just send your BTC to a new wallet and delete the one you used to buy bitcoins. Nobody will know, did you send your BTC to yourself or to somebody else.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Is IP address recorded in the blockchain?
No, but http://blockchain.info does it.
Shit. I did not know this.
Quote
couldn't BitInstant just save my bitcoin address to my name and be able to track exactly where those coins go forever using the block chain
Just send your BTC to a new wallet and delete the one you used to buy bitcoins. Nobody will know, did you send your BTC to yourself or to somebody else.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Is IP address recorded in the blockchain?
No, but http://blockchain.info does it.
Quote
couldn't BitInstant just save my bitcoin address to my name and be able to track exactly where those coins go forever using the block chain
Just send your BTC to a new wallet and delete the one you used to buy bitcoins. Nobody will know, did you send your BTC to yourself or to somebody else.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Is IP address recorded in the blockchain?
Quote
couldn't BitInstant just save my bitcoin address to my name and be able to track exactly where those coins go forever using the block chain
Just send your BTC to a new wallet and delete the one you used to buy bitcoins. Nobody will know, did you send your BTC to yourself or to somebody else.
IP address will be the same. So don't forget to change it. And never use these coins with ur old IP.
Quote
couldn't BitInstant just save my bitcoin address to my name and be able to track exactly where those coins go forever using the block chain
Just send your BTC to a new wallet and delete the one you used to buy bitcoins. Nobody will know, did you send your BTC to yourself or to somebody else.
If you can't decide for yourself if the way you are using Bitcoin is or is not anonymous I would strongly encourage you to assume that it is not.
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