Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: samAllardyce on October 24, 2012, 10:14 am
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Hi, I'm completely new but been have been researching ways of obtaining bitcoins and getting them to silk road completely anonymously....
Go to a pub and use their wifi. Create a bitcoin wallet and a new email address.
Use this email address to arrange a cash deposit to a bitcoin trader bank account / bitcoin transfer to newly created wallet.
Back in pub, transfer bitcoins from wallet to SR. Go shopping.
Never use created wallet or email address from home IP address….
Part of the reasoning being that for private key security etc, a local pub wifi is less likely to be observed than a tor exit node? Does this sound okay or am I being totally over-kill? lol. Are there any easier ways that avoid anything personally identifiable (e.g. IP address) / are tor exit nodes safer than that?
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Interesting thoughts, from one newbie to another.
I just got my Bitcoin wallet (synchronizing now, taking forEVER) using my home WiFi. I don't anticipate any problems once I buy some BTC and transfer them to SR, but maybe that's just because I'm not paranoid enough. From what I understand (not much) an ISP may be able to see that you use Tor, and even that you have downloaded/traded Bitcoin, but they shouldn't be able to see where your Bitcoin is sent.
But now you have me wondering if I should delete it all and get a new Bitcoin wallet using public WiFi instead... Gosh, I hope I get through the newbie stage soon.
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Me too - so much to learn! Basically the question is, how secure is TOR, if unlike with SR, you have to use an exit node?
What I understand so far is that blockchain.info log IP addresses. Therefore it's possible to track from SR--> my blockchain wallet --> my IP address.
With email, ISP's log sending (but not contents?) of emails. Nothing wrong with me emailing a bitcoin trader, but reduces deniabilty in the event that something gets intercepted by customs perhaps. Plus if I communicate wallet address to send bitcoins to via email and some nasty bugger is sat at an exit node, then there's the potential for SR <-- wallet address --> email address --> IP address
Now if I'm right, TOR should sort this kind of thing out as it breaks the link between email contact / blockchain and my IP address, if the TOR exit node is secure..... (?) I think that's what it boils down to, anonymity through TOR or in the pub. Or maybe I'm just looking to spend an afternoon in the pub :-)
Btw what do you mean by synchronising? Just for fun I opened a wallet on blockchain and it was easy as pie, plus plenty of useful information there
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PS I wouldn't worry too much, it's probably me being way too paranoid lol, mostly just curious as much as anything
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Using BTC OTC, TOR is blocked so used my home IP. I feel I may have partially given up my plausible deniability here. I feel a VPN or pub would have been more cautious. However, for small purchases we should be fine. Depends how security conscious you are. I do cash deposits, but cba to nip down the pub evrytime I want BTC.
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Me too - so much to learn! Basically the question is, how secure is TOR, if unlike with SR, you have to use an exit node?
What I understand so far is that blockchain.info log IP addresses. Therefore it's possible to track from SR--> my blockchain wallet --> my IP address.
With email, ISP's log sending (but not contents?) of emails. Nothing wrong with me emailing a bitcoin trader, but reduces deniabilty in the event that something gets intercepted by customs perhaps. Plus if I communicate wallet address to send bitcoins to via email and some nasty bugger is sat at an exit node, then there's the potential for SR <-- wallet address --> email address --> IP address
Now if I'm right, TOR should sort this kind of thing out as it breaks the link between email contact / blockchain and my IP address, if the TOR exit node is secure..... (?) I think that's what it boils down to, anonymity through TOR or in the pub. Or maybe I'm just looking to spend an afternoon in the pub :-)
Btw what do you mean by synchronising? Just for fun I opened a wallet on blockchain and it was easy as pie, plus plenty of useful information there
With TOR you do not have to worry about your IP address, that is the beauty of it. It is a peer to peer network, so the IP address is irrelevant, besides which, the TOR browser bundle assigns an IP address to you which is what the outside world would see, and it is different every time you use it. That is why the "Are you using Tor" (if you are using the TOR browser bundle of coarse) says "your IP address appears to be X.X.X.X
If you have a bitcoin client then it takes some time to update itself (synchronize) to the block chain that you have your transaction in,
Don't get too paranoid about all this, otherwise you will give yourself a headache trying to cover all the angles. A bit of paranoia is good, essential even, but not too much. Read this:
[CLEARNET] https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en
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Btw what do you mean by synchronising? Just for fun I opened a wallet on blockchain and it was easy as pie, plus plenty of useful information there
Synchronizing with the network and downloading the blocks of transaction history. It started out fast enough but then slowed to a crawl. I've had it synchronizing for almost 12 hours now. It might be going slower though due to the fact that my Bitcoin program/wallet is running off an old 2GB flash drive. I read somewhere it's a good idea to have all your SR-related programs and files installed and running off a flash drive that can be quickly and easily destroyed, should worst-case scenarios come true. I like the idea of not having any of this stuff on my actual computer's hard drive.
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Sweet cheers guys, great suggestions both with the flash drive and the paranoia lol. Can't wait to get stuck in, love this place :-)