Author

Topic: Is my IP address really hidden? (Read 1960 times)

legendary
Activity: 1596
Merit: 1012
Democracy is vulnerable to a 51% attack.
June 29, 2011, 06:58:32 PM
#5
Hello,
I've started using Bitcoin few days ago. I've made few transactions, but I am not sure about whether my IP address is really hidden. Are IP addresses recorded in transaction logs?
No.

Quote
Can somebody track my transaction and find my IP address (eg. recepient of the payment or somebody who know my bitcoin address)?
They can find all the IP addresses connected to the BitCoin network. But the client 'trickles' out its own transactions. So if you send the transaction to A, B might get the transaction from A long before you send it to B. So how does B know whether you created the transaction or A did?

Quote
I see Proxy options in Bitcoin client setting. Why would there be an option to set a proxy if there is no way to track my IP?
If your computer is behind NAT but has access to a proxy with a public IP address, connecting through the proxy would allow it to accept inbound connections. Some computers only have Internet access through a proxy because they're behind firewalls that deny all traffic they don't understand, and they don't understand Bitcoin.
full member
Activity: 172
Merit: 283
Thomas Nasakioto
June 29, 2011, 06:52:52 PM
#4
Your IP is not hidden except if you use TOR or a proxy. However, other nodes can only tell you are an active node. I believe they can't necessarily associate a particular transaction with your node/IP.

Some people need to use a proxy as their networks won't allow them to communicate externally using certain ports.

legendary
Activity: 1204
Merit: 1015
June 29, 2011, 06:51:30 PM
#3
If somebody has enough connections, they can guess where a transaction came from based on which IP address was used to send them the transaction first. This risk can be mitigated by specifically specifying certain trusted nodes that your client will only connect to, but it's better to just use Tor.
sr. member
Activity: 240
Merit: 250
June 29, 2011, 06:49:52 PM
#2
No, it doesnt become tracked. Only your ISP saves maybe your connection data.
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
June 29, 2011, 06:30:04 PM
#1
Hello,
I've started using Bitcoin few days ago. I've made few transactions, but I am not sure about whether my IP address is really hidden. Are IP addresses recorded in transaction logs? Can somebody track my transaction and find my IP address (eg. recepient of the payment or somebody who know my bitcoin address)?

I see Proxy options in Bitcoin client setting. Why would there be an option to set a proxy if there is no way to track my IP?

Thanks.
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