Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Roger67 on November 30, 2011, 09:43 am
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if you change the receiving address every time, is it safe to send coins to SR directly? maybe i got it wrong, but i don't see what links the coins to SR in that case
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Safe, well yeah sort of, but not really. I sent coins directly from my exchanger (who has my bank details) straight to SR once.
I now regret it totally because out there is an e-paper trail that I can't destroy. The block chain has recorded the fact that at a certain time, coins were sent from one wallet (which can be proven to be my exchanger) to another (which in the event of SR being busted, could be proven to be SR's). But there's been no knock on the door so far... nor do I expect there ever to be one. I think I still have plausible deniability because even if the sending of coins from my exchanger to SR could be proven... the SR tumbler means that I can deny any accusations that I bought contraband. Deny deny deny.
The truth is only you can decide the level of risk you're happy to take. But one thing's for sure: the more wallets that sit between the people who have your ID and the people who are selling you contraband, the harder it will be for anyone to link you to a specific deal.
If one or more of the wallets that sit between your ID and your dealer can be an anonymous e-wallet, some sort of tumbler or a wallet on your PC that's well-hidden and only ever been connected via TOR (and possibly securely deleted every once in a while and replaced with a completely clean, new one) then congratulations! You sir can plausibly deny that you ever sent coins into SR.
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SR looks like a pretty good way to tumble and mix coins... so you already have an alibi. You could say you used it as an ewallet.
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There's nothing that will somehow mark the coins as *** used to pay for contraband on Silk Road, LE pay attention *** but someone can look at your bank statement and trace the money that went to a bitcoin exchanger and find out what happened to the coins you bought there. While they can't prove what you used the coins for, it's still better if you have an explanation for who you sent the coins to and why you needed them in the first place and didn't use paypal or a more convenient/mainstream payment method. Instawallets/tumblers don't really protect you at all if LE starts investigating you, which is why you should ideally get bitcoins with cash.
Now, this is assuming that LE is interested in you because they've intercepted a package. If you bought anything from a LEO posing as a vendor, they would try to link the coins they've received to your identity, and this is where enough intermediate wallets/tumblers can save your ass. But again, buying your bitcoins with cash is even safer.
Oh, and if SR were to get busted like myolddutch said and you sent your money from your bank account to an exchanger and then to a second wallet and SR, no one can prove that the intermediate wallet belonged to you, so you can always claim that you sent those coins to someone claiming to be raising money for starving children in Africa and you're appalled to hear that the nice man on the phone lied and really used the money to buy drugs, officer!