Topic: stolen bitcoins (Read 2942 times)
Anonymous coins? So much mystery, smells like the CIA?
In the US (I don't know about other countries), all paper money have unique serial numbers. That means my $100 bill is different than your $100 bill. If someone stole my $100 bill, I can try to recover it by looking for the serial number. Somebody has my $100 bill, but I don't know who it is. If some body else came across the serial number that I'm looking for, I still don't know who the thief was.
Bitcoins have unique addresses. You don't know who owns it. If that address is used somewhere else, still no one knows who it used to belong to.
Bitcoins have unique addresses. You don't know who owns it. If that address is used somewhere else, still no one knows who it used to belong to.
You have as many addresses as you want and you can mix your coins so you can be untraceable.
In the US (I don't know about other countries), all paper money have unique serial numbers. That means my $100 bill is different than your $100 bill. If someone stole my $100 bill, I can try to recover it by looking for the serial number. Somebody has my $100 bill, but I don't know who it is. If some body else came across the serial number that I'm looking for, I still don't know who the thief was.
Bitcoins have unique addresses. You don't know who owns it. If that address is used somewhere else, still no one knows who it used to belong to.
Bitcoins have unique addresses. You don't know who owns it. If that address is used somewhere else, still no one knows who it used to belong to.
As mentioned above we can all see the addresses involved, but addresses are not tied to identity, so we have no idea who owns them.
would be possible to create a system where every time you generate an address of BTC you have to identify?for example, every time I go to create a BTC address, my ID is required. And if I do not identify me, the address is not created
it would be possible create a system to do that? or is possible but impractical
It is safer to create your address offline (on a computer that is not compromised)
As mentioned above we can all see the addresses involved, but addresses are not tied to identity, so we have no idea who owns them.
would be possible to create a system where every time you generate an address of BTC you have to identify?for example, every time I go to create a BTC address, my ID is required. And if I do not identify me, the address is not created
it would be possible create a system to do that? or is possible but impractical
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is one of the greatest things about bitcoins. The stolen coins can be tracked and the spending of them will lead them back to the thief.
Thats something that can definitely not be done with fiat.
Thats something that can definitely not be done with fiat.
It would be unethical and stealers can mix their coins.
sure we can track them, but still, he's anonymous with only address 
that's something good in bitcoin, but bad in the same time if you dont keep your coins safe
that's something good in bitcoin, but bad in the same time if you dont keep your coins safe
The moment he makes up an account for a few exchange's with false info buys a shed load of nxt xmr xcp " paycoin 'lol' etc transfers them to another exchange cashes out if paranoid mixes, how on earth are you going to track him? surprised if you can still see a single coin now if you can he is a little nooby imo i would have had them clean spent on pot and stored coldwater in no time
Slightly off topic, but close none the less. Is there a way to tell if 1 address is owned by the same wallet at all?
This is pretty good tool, just enter the address and it'll show you the wallet activity and all related active addresses:
http://www.walletexplorer.com/
As mentioned above we can all see the addresses involved, but addresses are not tied to identity, so we have no idea who owns them.
would be possible to create a system where every time you generate an address of BTC you have to identify?for example, every time I go to create a BTC address, my ID is required. And if I do not identify me, the address is not created
it would be possible create a system to do that? or is possible but impractical
sure we can track them, but still, he's anonymous with only address
that's something good in bitcoin, but bad in the same time if you dont keep your coins safe
that's something good in bitcoin, but bad in the same time if you dont keep your coins safe
There're some cloud mining services that sell "freshly" mined bitcoins.
If the thief sells those coins to cloud mining service he'll get backgroundless bitcoins and Cloud service will distribute those stollen coins to the its users. So how will you track then?
edit: Those ponzi/cloud services mostly based on Russia (like HP) and they don't share any public info about themselves. If the thief is Russian; probably we won't be able to find him/her
If the thief sells those coins to cloud mining service he'll get backgroundless bitcoins and Cloud service will distribute those stollen coins to the its users. So how will you track then?
edit: Those ponzi/cloud services mostly based on Russia (like HP) and they don't share any public info about themselves. If the thief is Russian; probably we won't be able to find him/her
Slightly off topic, but close none the less. Is there a way to tell if 1 address is owned by the same wallet at all?
If you create a transaction with inputs from 2 addresses, the 2 addresses must be owned by the same person.
that is not true, the person might have used something like a bitmixer so it cannot be certain who sent the bitcoins from the inputs
Slightly off topic, but close none the less. Is there a way to tell if 1 address is owned by the same wallet at all?
If you create a transaction with inputs from 2 addresses, the 2 addresses must be owned by the same person.
that is not true, the person might have used something like a bitmixer so it cannot be certain who sent the bitcoins from the inputs
i think OP is looking for a cryptocurrency owned by someone. e.g. the government issues a DPOS cryptocurrency so they have authority over all transactions but at the same time the ledger is public.
Slightly off topic, but close none the less. Is there a way to tell if 1 address is owned by the same wallet at all?
If you create a transaction with inputs from 2 addresses, the 2 addresses must be owned by the same person.
Well, if I'd be offered to buy some of the stolen BTC's from Bitstamp (for example) at half the current market price through a totally anonymous method such as "cash in the mail" or whatever method gives the most anonymity (provided I'd trust the seller to send the btc or use trusted escrow services), even if I'd know 100% that those btc's are the stolen ones, I'd buy them. And I bet I'm not the only one without a high moral stance... I'm human after all, greed is part of my nature!
Slightly off topic, but close none the less. Is there a way to tell if 1 address is owned by the same wallet at all?
i dont think so if you arent owner of it because it doesnt give any specific info about it
Slightly off topic, but close none the less. Is there a way to tell if 1 address is owned by the same wallet at all?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is one of the greatest things about bitcoins. The stolen coins can be tracked and the spending of them will lead them back to the thief.
Thats something that can definitely not be done with fiat.
as someone mentioned here, you will never know if next address is owned by thief or new person which bought coins from him and didn't know they were stolen Thats something that can definitely not be done with fiat.
If the thief has managed to sell the stolen coins anonymously, there will be no way to track him down. The buyer of the stolen Bitcoins can't be made responsible for the theft (Though I might be checking where these BTC were coming from, before I'd buy them)
That depends on your jurisdiction and law enforcers' approach. If bitcoin is an asset, then buyer is likely to have his newly bought bitcoin seized.
Just like when you unknowingly buy a stolen car.
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