re: US Treasury issues guidance on virtual currencies, regulatory details unclear

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So if somebody wanted to track them they couldn't?

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All bitcoin transaction are 100% public. You can go and look at every transaction in history.

This site will help you: https://blockchain.info/

Here you can watch transactions as they are made: https://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/


So, to answer your question: Could forensic software be utilized to examine the blockchain? Sure.

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I doesn't seem like tracking A to B to C and so on would be very hard if somebody wanted to.

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But this is where examining the blockchain becomes difficult.

For instance, if a regulated exchange reported that they sent 100 bitcoins to your address, but you then sent 20 bitcoins to another address, there is no way to tell if you sent it to another person/company or if you simply sent it to another address that you own. So that's where plausible deniability comes in.

But not only that, there are tumbler functions and washing sites out there that will completed break the links your bitcoins have to any exchange.