re: Let's play a game called Bitcoin Forensics

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It's an exercise to point out some features in the bitcoin system.

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No, it's not.

It's an exercise for you to try and save face on this board by proving you are more familiar with bitcoin technology than most of us are.

I can't speak for other posters, but I concede that you are a bigger computer geek than me. That has been true of every computer geek I've ever hired.........or fired.

ETA:

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But unfortunately, most of you don't actually have an interest in learning how bitcoin works.

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Why should we waste our time learning about something that is irrelevant in our lives........and why is that "unfortunately"???

Didn't see this new thread.

I don't think anyone is disputing the fact that Bitcoin is anonymous as of now, but that wsj article linked shows that it is becoming monitored more and more. If the Bitcoin "banks" are now going to be required to disclose transaction information then anonymity is lessening.

I touched on this in the other thread, individuals are able to hold their own Bitcoin with anonymity because of the numerous ways to hide it as you've discussed before, just like cash, but if companies are going to be required to disclose transaction info then once you use your Bitcoin at one of these companies your anonymity is gone.

I think there will always be a market for Bitcoin, mainly the black market, for people who mine their own Bitcoin and solely exchange it amongst like users, ala cash with drug cartels and such. But once it becomes popular for mainstream use, the gov is going to stick their greedy hands into it which will defeat the purpose for such a currency.

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Can't tell.

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Good answer.

Do you know why that is?

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Do you know why that is?

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Magic?

How much money do you have invested in Bitcoins? If you say none, you should be banned from ever starting another Bitcoin thread. This is the 4th that I personally remember.

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Each bitcoin transaction, by default (although it can be turned off if the user chooses) sends bitcoins to at least 2 addresses. The excess is called "change" and it is moved to another address that the sender owns. This makes forensic examinations much more difficult.

For example, suppose you own address A and use it to send 3.5 bitcoins to address B

The transaction will actually look something like this:

A ----> B 3.5 bitcoins
A ----> C 1.5 bitcoins

where C is another address that you own.

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! :jump1: :jump2:

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Very informative. But Wiki, let's not take our eye off the ball quite yet. You preach anonymity in a transaction that is quickly becoming more transparent (or assumedly). But what happens when say I try to send $20,000 worth of bitcoin to my drug dealer for 20 kilos of cocaine? My anonymous transaction gets reported to the regulatory body. The exchange reports the transaction and now the regulators come to me to find out what I did with the "anonymous" money and why. Poof, there goes the "benefit" that you've preached for the longest. Everybody will see it and I assume the draw to the monetary instrument declines, hence driving prices down.

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The only things getting reported to regulatory agencies are the exchanges from USD to bitcoin or vice versa. And that's only if you go through a regulated exchange anyway.

Transactions within the bitcoin network itself are viewable by the public. Click here to see them in real time. What aids in anonymity is that it is extremely difficult, if not practically impossible to link bitcoin addresses to an individual or organization.

And remember, it's trivial for an individual to have a million addresses that each contain .1 bitcoins if they so choose.

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Or even worse, they shut the exchanges down which makes the bitcoin worthless no?

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What if people get paid in bitcoins, bypassing exchanges altogether? What if a person performs some coding work for someone and gets paid in bitcoin? Or to be a bit visionary, what if the bitcoin economy grows enough to where exchanges aren't really necessary anymore?

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Can you show a picture of what this bitcoin looks like? Where do you store them? On your computer? Does it have a little bank where it tells you the value of your acct?

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This is what a bitcoin private key looks like:

5Kb8kLf9zgWQnogidDA76MzPL6TsZZY36hWXMssSzNydYXYB9KF



This is what a bitcoin public key (aka Bitcoin address) looks like:

1CC3X2gu58d6wXUWMffpuzN9JAfTUWu4Kj

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The private key is mathematically related to the Bitcoin address, and is designed so that the Bitcoin address can be calculated from the private key, but importantly, the same cannot be done in reverse.

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There are 2^256 possible private/public key combinations.


Bitcoins can be stored in a variety of manners, either on your own computer/mobile device, on a third party server, or even in your brain if you so choose. The storage of a bitcoin is essentially the storage of the private key.

There are many pieces of software out there that allow you to manage your bitcoins, and they act similarly to banks.

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Or to be a bit visionary, what if the bitcoin economy grows enough to where exchanges aren't really necessary anymore?

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Can I buy some pot from you?