Quote from: NoirSup on May 03, 2012, 02:02 amOk so let's say hypothetically that one were to have purchased bitcoins from Mtgox and then transfered it directly to the SR wallet... if said person were to then transfer it through several other wallets in different amounts thereafter and back to SR but to a different wallet address... would that be secure? I mean what link is there between the wallet address assigned by SR and SR itself? The wallet isn't actually owned by SR is it? wouldn't it just be the same as transferring it to Instawallet first then to SR anyways?I'll answer, but I could be going out on a limb here when I talk about B$, so recheck this with the Bitcoin aficionados.SR has all your private keys associated with the Bitcoins addresses you've used on SR. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to update your account balance when you send bitcoin to an address you had previous used on SR.Effectively, SR owns your Bitcoin wallet (as does pretty much any Bitcoin service online). Now, if we were LEO doing blockchain analysis and we had all SR's private keys and account details associated with them, we could see that Bitcoins entered SR and returned to SR to an account controlled by a single entity. This loop suggests that the transactions were controlled by 1 entity. It is circumstantial evidence rather than hard evidence.For a bitcoin to get recycled in and out of the Silk Road is probably normal, given it's influence on the bitcoin economy. But for a bitcoin to get cycled from that 1 SR account and then that exact bitcoin comes home later to that same account, that is pretty unlikely in my estimation. If you had a different SR account for it to arrive into, that would be different unless there was a way for LE to show an ownership connection between those two accounts e.g. you sent vendors the same geographical address and it wasn't encrypted from both accounts.The things to watch out for are:- anonymously obtaining bitcoin or visa versa for your currency.- using Tor network/proxies as described in this thread whenever accessing any wallet related service. e.g. the exchanges, instawallet etc.I am wary of instawallet. It is good and it is popular. Maybe too popular. I would like to see more diversity of temporary instawallet like services being used instead of one entity. I also am concerned that people might be using these services on the clearweb. On the other hand, it's better than using a wallet on your computer. What if a edition of bitcoin wallet sent your IP address and Bitcoin address to LE? I'm not saying it is happening, only that you can circumvent that possibility in the first place.Again, if you are anonymous in the first place, it is best. Hypothetically you then don't need to use a mix or pool service for bitcoins. Then even if SR was compromised completely, it would not be relevant. There's a long way between the cup and the lip from LEO's perspective, but why make their life easier? Earn your tax payer dollars you animals!tldr; 1. Don't send from exchange to SR wallet directly.2. 100% definitely don't use clearweb and do No.1 3. If you did 1 or 2, it's ok, everybody makes mistakes, then put your bitcoin through a mix and use instawallet-like services all of which you are doing through proxies which you are accessing through the Tor network. Then forward your bitcoins to a new SR account or one not associated with your old one. Not associated with your old account. This is the important bit or everything you've done could be a waste of time (if SR fell to LE) e.g. use a new PGP public key, don't send your address to old vendor you used before through your brand new SR account, think it through step by step.