Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: b999 on February 19, 2013, 11:21 am

Title: Is there any way to be totally anonymous on bitcoin?
Post by: b999 on February 19, 2013, 11:21 am
Bitcoin seems like a great idea, except that every transaction ever, including IP addresses, the works, is entirely traceable.

Should we be concerned?  Is there any way to remain totally anonymous using bitcoins?  Wouldn't the authorities just be sitting around harvesting all the activity around Silk Road, collecting evidence ready to once day pounce?
Title: Re: Is there any way to be totally anonymous on bitcoin?
Post by: shadrock on February 19, 2013, 03:42 pm
If you want to have truly anonymous bitcoins you can wash them with a service like Bitcoin Fog : http://fogcore5n3ov3tui.onion/

Create a new Fog account for each purchase. Have the Fog deposit where you want them to arrive anonymously. It doesn't matter if the coins were anonymous before going through the Fog. The Fog can also be used to hide the source of coins before taking delivery of other currencies. There are other washing/tumbling services available too.
Title: Re: Is there any way to be totally anonymous on bitcoin?
Post by: acider on February 19, 2013, 05:27 pm
Besides the tumbling services mentioned, your post is not entirely true.
Firstly "including IP addresses" is not a btc feature. If you re talking about online wallets then yes, your transactions and your IP will probably be logged but that's not a general requirement for btc transactions. Even if it was, you can use tor. And still that's not in the blockchain meaning it's not publicly available.
More importantly your assumption that the authorities can sit around harvesting addresses is not possible if they don't know SR's btc addresses. What would they be looking for?

To answer your question, in order to be anonymous you should avoid some things, buying btc using bank account/transfer requiring ID (I can't avoid that so I use a mixing service) , avoid using online wallets with normal browser (use tor) configure your local btc client to run through tor (socks proxy 9050 if I recall correctly) are some of the most usual precautions.
Title: Re: Is there any way to be totally anonymous on bitcoin?
Post by: shadrock on February 19, 2013, 06:56 pm
acider makes very good points. Using a client like bitcoin-qt over tor is a good practice.
Title: Re: Is there any way to be totally anonymous on bitcoin?
Post by: b999 on February 20, 2013, 10:44 am
Yeah good point... I have been buying Bitcoins over SMS / bank transfer from some online advertisement.  Was a bit of a risk but it worked (shame silk road lost my money during the Great Crash last weekend but maybe it will still turn up).  So I guess I really should go in to a bank to get bitcoins then, using cash, and then run bitcoin over TOR.  And that works ok generally?

What about the few transactions I now have on my account..  I was kinda hoping that buying bitcoins is not an alarm signal for the authorities.  It seems there are many legitimate uses and even investment houses are taking notice now.  What are some of the legitimate uses for bitcoins in case I am ever asked?
Title: Re: Is there any way to be totally anonymous on bitcoin?
Post by: DMTisinME on February 21, 2013, 04:49 pm
What are some of the legitimate uses for bitcoins in case I am ever asked?

I have an addiction to porn (legal stuff) and am very ashamed of it so I try to cover it up so no one can know. Maybe.
Title: Re: Is there any way to be totally anonymous on bitcoin?
Post by: Oompaloompa on February 21, 2013, 09:58 pm
Personally I consider buying drugs to be a legitimate use of bitcoins, but if you're looking for some publicly acceptable uses you could go with:

Buying things
Buying things without giving away a load of your personal data
Buying sex things
Gambling online
Donating money to organisations credit card companies won't support, like wikileaks or drug law reform campaigners
speculating on the price of bitcoins
Not trusting that there paper money they keep printing more & more of