Topic: The Anonymity of Bitcoin (Read 1691 times)

zerocoin, proxy mixers (e.g. anoncoin) and other P2P coin mixers have the same problem that they can be honeypotted with Sybil identitites, or if the other participants reveal their identities, then yours is revealed by process of elimination.

Exchanging between altcoins on an exchange is equivalent in terms of anonymity of using a coin mixer that is an exchange site. These are not going to guarantee you anonymity for numerous reasons, including they can be honeypotted with Sybil identitites, or if the other participants reveal their identities, then yours is revealed by process of elimination, and the various ways exchanges can be compromised.

The NSA can not always look inside an exchange, although there are many ways it might be inside.

Look at what facebook is up to:

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2013/12/06/facebooks-future-plans-for-data-collection-beyond-all-imagination/

Also the governments can force users to abandon anonymity on Bitcoin.

Suggestion:

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+can+i+erase+myself+from+facebook

Facebook’s patent holdings are just a taste of what’s arriving here and now. The way you type, the rate, common mistakes, intervals between certain characters, is all unique, like your fingerprint, and there are already cyber robots that can identify you as you peck away at keys. Facebook has even patented methods of individual identification with obviously cybernetic overtones, where the machine becomes an appendage of the person. U.S. Patents 8,306,256, 8,472,662, and 8,503,718, all filed within the last year, allow Facebook’s web robots to identify a user based on the unique pixelation and other characteristics of their smartphone’s camera. Identification of the subject is the first step toward building a useful data set to file among the billion or so other user logs. Then comes analysis, then prediction, then efforts to influence a parting of money.

emunie
zero coin
anoncoin

will put an end to this

I believe you gave a talk to NJIT alumni and has the Bitcoin Nj plate?  if you have any more talks let me know.  I wen to Rutgers and I am trying to get some professors involved.

You can prevent that,

but I think most bitcoin users don't want or need to be that anonymous. I have nothing to hide, so there is no reason for me to be practically untraceable.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

Nothing is anonymous people could find out who owned the bitcoin address by some former forum post and find out who the person is in real life and trace them but that most likely will not happen

if it isn't "practically" and "effectively" anonymous then how come not a single large btc theft has been traced to an individual?

How is this for a lay-person explanation, regarding anonymity:

lets wait for Zerocoin...

Cash transactions are entirely anonymous since no party is there to witness the transaction or identify the participants. Unless you give some personal information with the transaction, you are anonymous and it is impossible to track how much money you spent and on what, with cash. Most electronic forms of payment are not anonymous by virtue of the fact that you need to register with some company to use the online payment method. When you sign up for a credit card, you divulge almost all of your personal details to the issuing bank. The same is true of PayPal, Western Union and other online payment services. As a result, the records indicating what was purchased and by whom exist and can be subject to scrutiny, targeted-marketing or even criminal investigation.

Bitcoin transactions are completely anonymous by default since there is no need to register with any company in order to send or receive bitcoins. Although several services exist that ask for your personal information, such as exchanges, online wallets and payment providers, these are all services built on top of the Bitcoin network, which is inherently anonymous. Sending bitcoins to a recipient can be even more anonymous than a cash transaction because you do not need to be present to hand over the bitcoins – they are transmitted over the Internet. No information about your location, your IP address, your name, email address or any personally identifiable information is sent along with the transaction. While a record of the transaction exists in the public ledger known as the “Blockchain,” the identities of the participants in the transaction are not maintained.

This anonymity is a double-edged sword however. By publically announcing just one of your Bitcoin addresses, you create a link between yourself and your wallet that can be used to identify yourself. Imagine, for example, that you run a website and have a Bitcoin donation address; that Bitcoin address is forever tied to you in the public domain and it is trivial for anyone to see how many bitcoins have been sent to that address, along with when and how much has been spent.