Now, if the zerocoin concept would be implemented in bitcoin, it would be cool.
that will never happen in my view, zerocoin will be on its own.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3878992
Topic: MtGox database leak: why you should always mix your coins. - page 2. (Read 4616 times)
that will never happen in my view, zerocoin will be on its own.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3878992
After the Gox dabatase leak the names and home addresses of pretty much everybody involved in BTC are now public, at least among the criminal community.
Those singing the song that goes "I don't mix my coins because I have nothing to hide" are either:
a) totally brainwashed/incredibly naive
b) just stupid.
Even if you mined the vast majority of your coins and used an exchange just to cash out a minor part of your holdings, your total BTC balance can be discovered by trivial blockchain analysis, following the links with just one deposit/withdrawal address.
Morale of the story: Everybody should ALWAYS mix their coins and use Tor for BTC related activities. Information is power. Never give it away.
Those singing the song that goes "I don't mix my coins because I have nothing to hide" are either:
a) totally brainwashed/incredibly naive
b) just stupid.
Even if you mined the vast majority of your coins and used an exchange just to cash out a minor part of your holdings, your total BTC balance can be discovered by trivial blockchain analysis, following the links with just one deposit/withdrawal address.
Morale of the story: Everybody should ALWAYS mix their coins and use Tor for BTC related activities. Information is power. Never give it away.
Morale of the story so far would read more like: User Mixed their BTC on the previous largest mixer out there- Silk Road. User got goxed. Or use TOR with Mt.Gox and as they explicitly forbid this, ban your account and never respond again to your support messages: Get Goxed again.
It's a good idea in theory, but in reality we don't have good enough privacy tools for BTC yet.
Now, if the zerocoin concept would be implemented in bitcoin, it would be cool.
Morale of the story: Everybody should ALWAYS mix their coins and use Tor for BTC related activities. Information is power. Never give it away.
Never recommend noobs to use Tor, it's a honeypot where they are worse off than not using Tor at all.Noobs should use a trustworthy VPN instead.
The optimal solution is VPN + Tor.
mix coins because why?
Nah, never used Gox, lol.
mix coins because why?
Yes, I think CoinJoin should be a very good start. But do any really decentralised and fully working implementations of CoinJoin exist already? I don't think so and would be interested to know if they are.
I'm not aware of any either but don't let that deter you from using one of the already existing solutions even if they aren't perfect.
Got any good suggestions for trustless and low-fee mixers? I think all the P2P mixer projects are not yet fully ready, as far as I know.
While it is not the best solution in terms of obfuscation, coinjoin is a pretty good system that IMO everybody should use. It's not perfect, but IMO it gives enough protection against the casual "let's see how much money this guy has" situation. A prepared and determined opponent will probably end up finding up your total balance, but it will take him more resources and time, which normally is something the casual criminal wants to avoid when looking for targets.
Summing up: By using coinjoin you avoid being the low hanging fruit, which is usually enough protection against a potential dangerous situation similar to what happened with the leak of the Gox database. The criminals won't be able to easily check your current BTC balance, so you will probably be discarded as a target.
Tumblers like bitcoinfog provide better obfuscation, but the (huge) trade-off is that you should trust an unknown third party. I'd never risk more than 1% of my holdings to such services, but I think the service they provide is necessary and should be used, albeit with care and with just a very minor portion of ones funds at a time.
Yes, I think CoinJoin should be a very good start. But do any really decentralised and fully working implementations of CoinJoin exist already? I don't think so and would be interested to know if they are.
Got any good suggestions for trustless and low-fee mixers? I think all the P2P mixer projects are not yet fully ready, as far as I know.
While it is not the best solution in terms of obfuscation, coinjoin is a pretty good system that IMO everybody should use. It's not perfect, but IMO it gives enough protection against the casual "let's see how much money this guy has" situation. A prepared and determined opponent will probably end up finding up your total balance, but it will take him more resources and time, which normally is something the casual criminal wants to avoid when looking for targets.
Summing up: By using coinjoin you avoid being the low hanging fruit, which is usually enough protection against a potential dangerous situation similar to what happened with the leak of the Gox database. The criminals won't be able to easily check your current BTC balance, so you will probably be discarded as a target.
Tumblers like bitcoinfog provide better obfuscation, but the (huge) trade-off is that you should trust an unknown third party. I'd never risk more than 1% of my holdings to such services, but I think the service they provide is necessary and should be used, albeit with care and with just a very minor portion of ones funds at a time.
Got any good suggestions for trustless and low-fee mixers? I think all the P2P mixer projects are not yet fully ready, as far as I know.
After the Gox dabatase leak the names and home addresses of pretty much everybody involved in BTC are now public, at least among the criminal community.
Those singing the song that goes "I don't mix my coins because I have nothing to hide" are either:
a) totally brainwashed/incredibly naive
b) just stupid.
Even if you mined the vast majority of your coins and used an exchange just to cash out a minor part of your holdings, your total BTC balance can be discovered by trivial blockchain analysis, following the links with just one deposit/withdrawal address.
Morale of the story: Everybody should ALWAYS mix their coins and use Tor for BTC related activities. Information is power. Never give it away.
EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION:
Bitcoin is pseudoanonymous: as soon as someone links one of your addresses to you (because you made a payment to him, or because a database of a service such as Gox is leaked) then he can learn your total BTC balance - or at least the total BTC balance of the wallet to which that address belongs - with trivial blockchain analysis.
By mixing your coins you make that task much more difficult, and thus you eliminate yourself from the list of easy targets in a situation as per the Gox database leak.
Said with other words: by not mixing your coins you are revealing your whole balance to the recipient of every transaction you make... And that is an important privacy breach.
Those singing the song that goes "I don't mix my coins because I have nothing to hide" are either:
a) totally brainwashed/incredibly naive
b) just stupid.
Even if you mined the vast majority of your coins and used an exchange just to cash out a minor part of your holdings, your total BTC balance can be discovered by trivial blockchain analysis, following the links with just one deposit/withdrawal address.
Morale of the story: Everybody should ALWAYS mix their coins and use Tor for BTC related activities. Information is power. Never give it away.
EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION:
Bitcoin is pseudoanonymous: as soon as someone links one of your addresses to you (because you made a payment to him, or because a database of a service such as Gox is leaked) then he can learn your total BTC balance - or at least the total BTC balance of the wallet to which that address belongs - with trivial blockchain analysis.
By mixing your coins you make that task much more difficult, and thus you eliminate yourself from the list of easy targets in a situation as per the Gox database leak.
Said with other words: by not mixing your coins you are revealing your whole balance to the recipient of every transaction you make... And that is an important privacy breach.
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