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Except that Bitcoin isn't actually anonymous. If you have a wallet address, you can trace the blockchain, and most (if not all) exchanges that transfer BTC to d

Except that Bitcoin isn't actually anonymous. If you have a wallet address, you can trace the blockchain, and most (if not all) exchanges that transfer BTC to dollars, or vice versa, require a lot of personal information that can be tied to that wallet. I'm not too sure where the "bitcoin is anonymous" misinformation comes from, sadly.

wcoenen 14y ago
> I'm not too sure where the "bitcoin is anonymous" misinformation comes from, sadly. Saying that "bitcoin is anonymous" is indeed misleading. But bitcoin does make it possible to stay anonymous, if you are very careful. For example, you can generate a new address and use it to receive bitcoins without revealing anything about yourself at the time of payment, and without revealing to any third party that you were paid. Making payments without leaking any information is much more difficult. You would have to pass your bitcoins through a third party which you trust not to reveal the link between deposits and withdrawals. If you don't fully trust any such service, you can pass through multiple independent ones. Even then, somebody could correlate deposits and withdrawals by their size and timing. There exist Mixer Services (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mixing_service https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mixing_service) which are designed to make this difficult.
agorabinary 14y ago
Bitcoin is anonymous if you aren't an idiot about it. I mean seriously, all you have to do is generate a new address everytime you send or receive coins. Which is a click of a button. If anything, this "Bitcoin isn't actually anonymous" is the real misinformation.
- AndrewDucker 14y ago
  If address #1 received a coin, and then address #2 transfers the coin out, and there are no mentions of that coin in-between, then can someone be sure that address #1 and address #2 are actually the same address?
- pseudonym 14y ago
  Except that's still traceable. It makes it a pain in the ass, sure, but any point where you need to deal with an exchange to get money out is a point where you lose your anonymity. So it's fair to say "Bitcoin can be anonymous IF you have a way to get bitcoins without exchanging dollars for bitcoins, and IF you're only exchanging said BTC for non-physical goods that don't need to be shipped somewhere", but that's about it.
- oleganza 14y ago
  The problem still remains when you want to aggregate or split funds. Imagine you receive small payments in 100 different addresses and then want to buy a new computer. If you create a single transaction with all those addresses as inputs, you make a big trace of a single owner of all of them. I myself not worried about that at all - if you have to hide your stuff from someone, then the problem is not in the hiding techniques, but in the threat. Today the biggest threat is the govt, not some thieves whom you don't want to tell when you go to vacation.

wcoenen 14y ago

> I'm not too sure where the "bitcoin is anonymous" misinformation comes from, sadly. Saying that "bitcoin is anonymous" is indeed misleading. But bitcoin does make it possible to stay anonymous, if you are very careful. For example, you can generate a new address and use it to receive bitcoins without revealing anything about yourself at the time of payment, and without revealing to any third party that you were paid. Making payments without leaking any information is much more difficult. You would have to pass your bitcoins through a third party which you trust not to reveal the link between deposits and withdrawals. If you don't fully trust any such service, you can pass through multiple independent ones. Even then, somebody could correlate deposits and withdrawals by their size and timing. There exist Mixer Services (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mixing_service https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mixing_service) which are designed to make this difficult.

agorabinary 14y ago

Bitcoin is anonymous if you aren't an idiot about it. I mean seriously, all you have to do is generate a new address everytime you send or receive coins. Which is a click of a button. If anything, this "Bitcoin isn't actually anonymous" is the real misinformation.

AndrewDucker 14y ago
If address #1 received a coin, and then address #2 transfers the coin out, and there are no mentions of that coin in-between, then can someone be sure that address #1 and address #2 are actually the same address?
pseudonym 14y ago
Except that's still traceable. It makes it a pain in the ass, sure, but any point where you need to deal with an exchange to get money out is a point where you lose your anonymity. So it's fair to say "Bitcoin can be anonymous IF you have a way to get bitcoins without exchanging dollars for bitcoins, and IF you're only exchanging said BTC for non-physical goods that don't need to be shipped somewhere", but that's about it.
oleganza 14y ago
The problem still remains when you want to aggregate or split funds. Imagine you receive small payments in 100 different addresses and then want to buy a new computer. If you create a single transaction with all those addresses as inputs, you make a big trace of a single owner of all of them. I myself not worried about that at all - if you have to hide your stuff from someone, then the problem is not in the hiding techniques, but in the threat. Today the biggest threat is the govt, not some thieves whom you don't want to tell when you go to vacation.