Someone is sending out 0.001 BTC's to hundreds of random people. Who and why? - page 2.

Trongersoll

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Quote from: Viceroy on July 12, 2013, 12:16:15 PM

It's the US Federal Government finding the criminals who adopted the ponzi scheme known as bitcoin to attempt to wash their ill gotten gains. Duh. The NSA's budget is the largest black ops budget in the world. 100 x 0.001 transactions costs only a penny. Imagine how much they could learn if they applied $100k to the "problem".

We know from Casey Jones arrest that the DEA holds bitcoin (at least they hold his). To the address owners... ever buy anything on silk road?

Quote from: jhansen858 on July 12, 2013, 02:16:00 AM

Nice try NSA... Shake your fist and say the words out loud, "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids"

Given the recent revelation from Snowden it's clear that the NSA has been around decades longer than bitcoin. They are adding bitcoin information to the omnipotent data they already own, if they didn't invent bitcoin to begin with. It's a perfect way to identify every criminal they want to find, isn't it? Every bitcoin transaction is recorded in a public record. Not a good choice for criminal activity. Coke encrusted cash is a much easier thing to deal with but I bet the NSA has been scanning dollar bills serial numbers from the time before they started embedding money with RFID.

all your base are belong to us. (CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.)

Really? you think Bitcoin is on NSA's radar? Do you think that they have nothing better to do? They do have a charter that they are supposed to operate within, they don't get to do what ever they dream up. Sure, if what they are looking at is involved with BTC they'll get what they need, but overall i doubt that they care. besides, they probably understand BTC better than we do. There is a book called "The Puzzle Palace" that can give some insight into their mindset. Of course things have changed a bit since 9/11.

Viceroy

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It's the US Federal Government finding the criminals who adopted the ponzi scheme known as bitcoin to attempt to wash their ill gotten gains. Duh. The NSA's budget is the largest black ops budget in the world. 100 x 0.001 transactions costs only a penny. Imagine how much they could learn if they applied $100k to the "problem".

We know from Casey Jones arrest that the DEA holds bitcoin (at least they hold his). To the address owners... ever buy anything on silk road?

Quote from: jhansen858 on July 12, 2013, 02:16:00 AM

Nice try NSA... Shake your fist and say the words out loud, "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids"

Given the recent revelation from Snowden it's clear that the NSA has been around decades longer than bitcoin. They are adding bitcoin information to the omnipotent data they already own, if they didn't invent bitcoin to begin with. It's a perfect way to identify every criminal they want to find, isn't it? Every bitcoin transaction is recorded in a public record. Not a good choice for criminal activity. Coke encrusted cash is a much easier thing to deal with but I bet the NSA has been scanning dollar bills serial numbers from the time before they started embedding money with RFID.

all your base are belong to us. (CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.)

QuestionAuthority

legendary

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Quote from: ?? on ??

Money mapping... It is a sort of traffic analysis technique. It could be just some random researcher.

That's the most reasonable thing said so far.

keystroke

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advocate of a cryptographic attack on the globe

Here's another transaction like this. I know because I received 0.001 BTC.

https://blockchain.info/tx/4c6e38a39ac940460495bfa4f9a4ec406029b83cde820d3e01fc192433712fa9

Trongersoll

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I'd be interested to know if the transactions start going in the other direction. What can you gain from knowing an address is valid? Could something like the vanity software find the other part?

hashman

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I'm not sure I follow the "address probe" reasoning.
Don't change addresses on the block chain already have some money on them? They are already "tagged"..
But if there isn't much there, and somebody is grasping at straws looking for any information at all..

In any case, the next step for you sleuths out there is to see what those 1000 addresses have in common, i.e. to see why the lulz giveaway targeted them. Any common addresses in their input branches?

jhansen858

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Quote from: 1PFYcabWEwZFm2Ez5LGTx3ftz on July 11, 2013, 07:46:45 PM

Quote from: scotaloo on July 11, 2013, 07:31:03 PM

Dude, seriously? You are one paranoid guy, earlier you thought somebody who needed their wallet password bruteforced was trying to start a media scare, and now this?

This happens all the time, anyone can send anyone BTC for any reason, scripts go haywire, people copy & paste the wrong address, people send money "for lulz" and as someone else pointed out, to probe addresses to see if their alive, or to see if they spend that BTC in a joint transaction so that they can see other addresses that the person owns.

People come here all the time with wallets that need bruteforcing or to ask about money they randomly received, they're two very common threads, use the search or just browse the forum and you'll see.

Damn dude whats wrong with you? Take your meds.

Better to be paranoid, than an idiot. So your hypothesis is, that someone sent 0.001 BTC * 1000 = 1 BTC = ~80 USD to random strangers just "for lulz". Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

The hypothesis that it was done to probe and track addresses actually makes a lot of sense, but it is also scary, because if that is true, then it means that someone is willing to spend ~80 USD just to be able to potentially track ~1000 of bitcoin addresses.

Am I paranoid, for pointing out, that even the ddos of mtgox was called "Bitcoin was hacked" in mass-media?
Am I paranoid, for pointing out, how much FUD and anti-bitcoin propaganda is in mass-media?
Am I paranoid, for believing, that since mass-media loves spreading anti-bitcoin propaganda, and has called ddos of one bitcoin exchange as "Bitcoin hacking", that they will also call bruteforcing of a bitcoin wallet as "Bitcoin hacking"?

I could easily see this as an experiment by someone to see how much you really can track in the block chain just by "tagging" addresses.

jhansen858

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Quote from: scotaloo on July 11, 2013, 07:31:03 PM

Dude, seriously? You are one paranoid guy, earlier you thought somebody who needed their wallet password bruteforced was trying to start a media scare, and now this?

This happens all the time, anyone can send anyone BTC for any reason, scripts go haywire, people copy & paste the wrong address, people send money "for lulz" and as someone else pointed out, to probe addresses to see if their alive, or to see if they spend that BTC in a joint transaction so that they can see other addresses that the person owns.

People come here all the time with wallets that need bruteforcing or to ask about money they randomly received, they're two very common threads, use the search or just browse the forum and you'll see.

Damn dude whats wrong with you? Take your meds.

Nice try NSA... Shake your fist and say the words out loud, "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids"

ShadowOfHarbringer

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Quote from: klmist on July 11, 2013, 07:24:43 PM

I think it's a probe to test and see which new addresses are associated with that old one; when you spend that 0.001 BTC along with some of your other inputs they will become linked and they'll know that the same person that owned that old change address owns some other inputs that might not be otherwise associated with it. You could delete that change key from your wallet, or first import it somewhere else -- maybe redeem it on mtgox or something and thus foil their scheme :p

I had just the same thought.

But once coin control is incorporated in the mainline client, this no longer will be a problem. Then you will be able to select which exactly coins you send to what address.

AliceWonder

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It only cost $80 (or whatever) if they were the sender's coins to begin with.

If from stolen private keys, it didn't cost them anything.

Think about it - what better way is there to get back at your ex than to send their bitcoins to a bunch of random people.

Inedible

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What doesn't kill you only makes you sicker!

Quote from: 1PFYcabWEwZFm2Ez5LGTx3ftz on July 11, 2013, 07:46:45 PM

Better to be paranoid, than an idiot. So your hypothesis is, that someone sent 0.001 BTC * 1000 = 1 BTC = ~80 USD to random strangers just "for lulz". Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

I know. It's a ridiculous suggestion.

Next they'll be telling us someone spent 10,000 Bitcoin on a pizza lol

yona

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That would be s
Super elaborate and expensive

AliceWonder

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Could it be an encoded message, where they mined the blockchain for addresses that had letters in the right place to make their message?

QuestionAuthority

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You lead and I'll watch you walk away.

Quote from: 🏰 TradeFortress 🏰 on July 11, 2013, 11:03:17 PM

I sent you $80 USD to your address. Now be less crazy.

If it was $800 or $8000 then you may have a point. $80 for 1000 addresses is 8 cents per address.

If I agree that I'm batshit insane will you send me $80 too. lol

scotaloo

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Quote from: 1PFYcabWEwZFm2Ez5LGTx3ftz on July 11, 2013, 10:36:21 PM

Liar.

*facepalm*

LOL! That wasn't the only tx dude, read my previous posts and you'll understand why I sent your BTC in a single tx.

Also you could send 0.00001BTC to 1000 addresses and it'll cost you even less again.

🏰 TradeFortress 🏰

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👻

I sent you $80 USD to your address. Now be less crazy.

If it was $800 or $8000 then you may have a point. $80 for 1000 addresses is 8 cents per address.

1PFYcabWEwZFm2Ez5LGTx3ftz

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To get back on topic again: who would be willing to spend 80 USD to probe 1000 addresses?

If someone has skills in tracking transactions, it would be interesting to know, who is behind this. It may be nothing sinister. Or it may be a government preparing for a mass "money laundering" lawsuit.

1PFYcabWEwZFm2Ez5LGTx3ftz

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Quote from: scotaloo on July 11, 2013, 10:20:31 PM

Quote from: 1PFYcabWEwZFm2Ez5LGTx3ftz on July 11, 2013, 10:16:14 PM

I agree. Then the question is: who would be willing to spend 80 USD to probe 1000 addresses? And there may have been more transactions like this, so a lot more than 80 USD could have been actually spent.

Me. I just did it, not a 1000 addresses but not far off and not to probe, for the lulz, I made sure to include your address too Wink

Liar.

Here is the transaction: https://blockchain.info/tx/e631eba8669d07f4be996886cf03902e2e16e55805ad702ca1348b514d4f456f , you only sent to 3 addresses (the one with highest BTC amount probably belonging to you).

I really don't understand what your motivation is trying to trick people.

No one spends 80 USD to probe addresses if they don't have an agenda behind it.

scotaloo

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Quote from: 1PFYcabWEwZFm2Ez5LGTx3ftz on July 11, 2013, 10:16:14 PM

I agree. Then the question is: who would be willing to spend 80 USD to probe 1000 addresses? And there may have been more transactions like this, so a lot more than 80 USD could have been actually spent.

Me. I just did it, not a 1000 addresses but not far off and not to probe, for the lulz, I made sure to include your address too Wink

1PFYcabWEwZFm2Ez5LGTx3ftz

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Quote from: 🏰 TradeFortress 🏰 on July 11, 2013, 10:04:10 PM

No charges were filed and random youtube videos are not valid citations.

Let's go back on topic: it's most likely an address probe

I agree. Then the question is: who would be willing to spend 80 USD to probe 1000 addresses? And there may have been more transactions like this, so a lot more than 80 USD could have been actually spent.

Topic: Someone is sending out 0.001 BTC's to hundreds of random people. Who and why? - page 2. (Read 11270 times)