Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: Ganeen on February 08, 2012, 06:51 am

Title: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: Ganeen on February 08, 2012, 06:51 am
After you purchase your bitcoins from an exchange, is it a good idea to deposit them into instawallet first before they go to Silk Road?  I have heard conflicting reports if this actually does anything, and since SR tumbles your coins anyway I want to know if it something that should still be done?   If it adds any level of security obviously you should do it, but this seems slightly redundant.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: supersecretsquirrel on February 08, 2012, 08:54 am
After you purchase your bitcoins from an exchange, is it a good idea to deposit them into instawallet first before they go to Silk Road?  I have heard conflicting reports if this actually does anything, and since SR tumbles your coins anyway I want to know if it something that should still be done?   If it adds any level of security obviously you should do it, but this seems slightly redundant.

Security by obscurity, yes, but it all depends on how paranoid you are. Someone who really, really, really wants to track you down can do so by spending enough time looking for you in the BTC transaction logs. Sending your coins through instawallet before hitting SR may make it harder to trace, but not impossible.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: jochem on February 08, 2012, 09:37 am
It depends on how linkable your BTC-exchange account is to your real identity. If it's not, it doesn't really matter (even following the trace from SR to your BTC-exchange account won't get them anywhere further). If it is somehow (because you deposit by transfering money from your bank account, for instance), I'd recommend going the extra mile to disconnect your BTC-exchange account from SR. In this case I wouldn't trust SR that the tumbling done by them is enough.

Using an extra wallet like instawallet, only accessed though Tor, probably does the trick. I assume that it's plausible enough that you transferred the coins to some guy and that that guy used them to buy stuff on SR. I'm not sure if you could keep that story up in the long run.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: QTC on February 08, 2012, 03:10 pm
It depends on how linkable your BTC-exchange account is to your real identity. If it's not, it doesn't really matter (even following the trace from SR to your BTC-exchange account won't get them anywhere further). If it is somehow (because you deposit by transfering money from your bank account, for instance), I'd recommend going the extra mile to disconnect your BTC-exchange account from SR. In this case I wouldn't trust SR that the tumbling done by them is enough.
This is really good advice, especially the point about how SR's tumbler is a black box to us.
Using an extra wallet like instawallet, only accessed though Tor, probably does the trick. I assume that it's plausible enough that you transferred the coins to some guy and that that guy used them to buy stuff on SR. I'm not sure if you could keep that story up in the long run.
This isn't true, you need a mixing service, not an online wallet.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: jochem on February 08, 2012, 06:46 pm
This isn't true, you need a mixing service, not an online wallet.
A mixing service is probably better, but an online wallet would also create some financial distance between you and SR. The online wallet is only linkable to you because you've done a transaction to it. There's no way to prove that that wallet belongs to you, so there's no way to prove that transactions from that wallet to SR are done by you.

On the other hand, it's only a slightly bigger gap between the real you and SR... Depending on many factors you want to make that gap bigger.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: GreenPEAs on February 08, 2012, 07:10 pm
If you live in the United States, you're probably fine if you're just buying from SR. You should never send straight from an exchange to SR or vice versa though; you risk having your account flagged in the future and the coins seized.

It is the vendors who need to worry about the BTC trail, because they are the ones who the DEA will target. If you're just buying some weed or ecstasy in small amounts for personal use, no one is going to give a shit about you at a federal level. They will leave that to local / highway PD to deal with.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: Drone75blackbird on February 08, 2012, 10:29 pm
In the past we could rely on that but they may want to cause paranoia on SR in general by taking out buyers - you never know. In the long run yeah they do want to get the vendors though as buyers have no way up the chain on SR and therefore can't narc on anyone. The drugs would just keep flowing.

QTC would you mind suggesting some of these mixing services? The only intermediary I know of to put coins in from an exchange to SR is instawallet.

On the plus side for everyone who is worrying about SR, I think federal agents would be way more concerned with groups like anonymous and other other cyber criminals. Not to say the DEA isn't all over this

Also can someone who knows computer security say if using the green address on instawallet really does anything?
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: SierraRS on February 08, 2012, 11:12 pm
Quote
Also can someone who knows computer security say if using the green address on instawallet really does anything?
It sends out coins from specific address, so everyone knows it is sent from instawallet. Not a good idea in my opinion.

And why nobody are using Bitcoin software running on their PC's? For LEA requesting access to logs from websites such as instawallet is easier than trying to figure out what node sent the transaction on Bitcoin network.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: QTC on February 08, 2012, 11:32 pm
QTC would you mind suggesting some of these mixing services? The only intermediary I know of to put coins in from an exchange to SR is instawallet.
I like Bitcoin Fog (fogcore5n3ov3tui.onion) because of their low fees. In fact, their fee structure adds another element of unlinkability which I think is pretty cool. BitLaundry (bitlaundry.appspot.com) is also good but 5% + .02 BTC per withdraw is too rich for my blood.
On the plus side for everyone who is worrying about SR, I think federal agents would be way more concerned with groups like anonymous and other other cyber criminals. Not to say the DEA isn't all over this
Buyers from similar networks have gotten controlled deliveries before once the network was compromised. I've also heard secondhand that customers from vendors taken down in operation web tryp got visits.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: Drone75blackbird on February 09, 2012, 02:34 am
Thanks! I'll look into fog...

Also wouldn't you just say you didn't order anything online and not sign? Yeah it sucks LE might be on to you but at least evidence would be pretty minimal.
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: Kelly29 on February 09, 2012, 04:38 am
Hello,
 
I am new and worried about bitcoins being traced back to me. Can you reccomend someone to give my money pak too for exchange of coins?
I want to get some good ganja!
Thanks Friends!
Title: Re: Using Instawallet as an extra layer of security?
Post by: jochem on February 09, 2012, 09:52 am
Quote
Also can someone who knows computer security say if using the green address on instawallet really does anything?
It sends out coins from specific address, so everyone knows it is sent from instawallet. Not a good idea in my opinion.
Why is that not a good idea? You get a shitload of transactions, all from the same address, making it probably harder to trace any transaction?
And why nobody are using Bitcoin software running on their PC's? For LEA requesting access to logs from websites such as instawallet is easier than trying to figure out what node sent the transaction on Bitcoin network.
If I use Tor to access instawallet, the logs wouldn't really matter. It's basically the same as using a Bitcoin client on your PC through Tor.