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All in all, this is just another case where authorities have proven once more that Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency isn't really anonymous as it was advertised

All in all, this is just another case where authorities have proven once more that Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency isn't really anonymous as it was advertised for the past decade. Wait who advertised that ? I have always read that bitcoin was pseudonymous (not anonymous) and with public record of all transactions and wallets

tylersmith 8y ago
Unfortunately it's a common misconception. Many people with a surge knowledge if the technology believe it's anonymous. It seems like that the guy himself believed it was anonymous.
deltateam 8y ago
"wait, my employer isn't automatically withholding the earnings from this money, I've never been in this situation before, does nobody know that I have some money now, so therefore I don't have to pay taxes!" pretty much everyone in cryptocurrency, whether they thought a little harder about it or not
dogma1138 8y ago
Bitcoin isn’t really pseudonymous either (not by design) it only has one type of transaction that is always public and there is no inherent deniability as far as wallet ownership goes. There are some currencies that attempt at providing anonymity or at least deniability but those also haven’t been tested yet either against capable forensic adversaries.
- ethn 8y ago
  It has many types of transactions, in fact it has an entire script language for creating different types.
  - dogma1138 8y ago
    I know it has its own smart contract scripting but that isn’t used, there are only public transactions there, anonymous transactions, multi addresses and multi key wallets etc aren’t built in so there is no plausible deniability.
    - tylersmith 8y ago
      What do you mean by "multi addresses" and "multi key wallets" in terms of anonymity?
- coralreef 8y ago
  Isn't it pseudonymous? You use addresses to send and receive money, not your real identity. And anyone can generate addresses in a vacuum. Combine that with a VPN or some network routing, and its basically a mountain of work to trace any address or transaction to a person.
  - dogma1138 8y ago
    It does not offer inherent plausible deniability and only relies on the relative anonymity of your internet connection to hide your identity. Look at the difference between Bitcoin and say Monero when it comes to anonymity. My point isn’t about something being easy or hard but rather if the anonymity comes from the design of Bitcoin or is it circumstantial to how you use it and it’s essentially only the latter. The network was never designed to be anonymous and there isn’t any way to “hide” transactions or to deny your association with a wallet or an address if they trace the IP to you or you end up holding the private key it’s game over and nothing Bitcoin does impacts on the difficulty of this task.
    - coralreef 8y ago
      Sure we're talking about pseudonymity though, not anonymity.
      - dogma1138 8y ago
        Yes but the source of it isn’t Bitcoin but rather your own opsec which can be employed for any other commodity transaction.
        nyolfen 8y ago
        your name on the network is your wallet address, and not your own, actual name. hence psuedonymous. you’re inventing some bizarre definition of the word.

tylersmith 8y ago

Unfortunately it's a common misconception. Many people with a surge knowledge if the technology believe it's anonymous. It seems like that the guy himself believed it was anonymous.

deltateam 8y ago

"wait, my employer isn't automatically withholding the earnings from this money, I've never been in this situation before, does nobody know that I have some money now, so therefore I don't have to pay taxes!" pretty much everyone in cryptocurrency, whether they thought a little harder about it or not

dogma1138 8y ago

Bitcoin isn’t really pseudonymous either (not by design) it only has one type of transaction that is always public and there is no inherent deniability as far as wallet ownership goes. There are some currencies that attempt at providing anonymity or at least deniability but those also haven’t been tested yet either against capable forensic adversaries.

ethn 8y ago
It has many types of transactions, in fact it has an entire script language for creating different types.
- dogma1138 8y ago
  I know it has its own smart contract scripting but that isn’t used, there are only public transactions there, anonymous transactions, multi addresses and multi key wallets etc aren’t built in so there is no plausible deniability.
  - tylersmith 8y ago
    What do you mean by "multi addresses" and "multi key wallets" in terms of anonymity?
coralreef 8y ago
Isn't it pseudonymous? You use addresses to send and receive money, not your real identity. And anyone can generate addresses in a vacuum. Combine that with a VPN or some network routing, and its basically a mountain of work to trace any address or transaction to a person.
- dogma1138 8y ago
  It does not offer inherent plausible deniability and only relies on the relative anonymity of your internet connection to hide your identity. Look at the difference between Bitcoin and say Monero when it comes to anonymity. My point isn’t about something being easy or hard but rather if the anonymity comes from the design of Bitcoin or is it circumstantial to how you use it and it’s essentially only the latter. The network was never designed to be anonymous and there isn’t any way to “hide” transactions or to deny your association with a wallet or an address if they trace the IP to you or you end up holding the private key it’s game over and nothing Bitcoin does impacts on the difficulty of this task.
  - coralreef 8y ago
    Sure we're talking about pseudonymity though, not anonymity.
    - dogma1138 8y ago
      Yes but the source of it isn’t Bitcoin but rather your own opsec which can be employed for any other commodity transaction.
      - nyolfen 8y ago
        your name on the network is your wallet address, and not your own, actual name. hence psuedonymous. you’re inventing some bizarre definition of the word.