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Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Doc Gonzo on August 09, 2012, 07:41 am

Title: Anonymizing bitcoins in Europe
Post by: Doc Gonzo on August 09, 2012, 07:41 am
This is, I'm sure, a noob question and if it's been covered before, my apologies and please direct me to the relevant post(s).

The country where I live isn't as advanced as the US, UK or Oz and so there's not the sort of infrasrtucture available to anonymize bicoins by thru bininstant cash deposits and such.. Or if there is, I'm not aware of it - if someone knows of something similar in Europe I'd be interested to hear about it. Anyway that's not the main question - the main question is this: if I fund a perfectly open and unanonymous MtGox account from my own personal bank account and then send those bitcoins through a variety of different instawallets and torwallets using different amounts and tumbling and make this all several layers deep, is it really, that insecure. Obviously the most secure is to be able to anonymize the initial purchase and I know I could do that thru Vladimir (sp?) but if the instawallets are really anonymous and the tumblers really work then I would have thought using 10-20 instawallers would provide sufficient anonymity to be able to sleep at night.
Title: Re: Anonymizing bitcoins in Europe
Post by: vlad1m1r on August 09, 2012, 04:17 pm
This is, I'm sure, a noob question and if it's been covered before, my apologies and please direct me to the relevant post(s).

The country where I live isn't as advanced as the US, UK or Oz and so there's not the sort of infrasrtucture available to anonymize bicoins by thru bininstant cash deposits and such.. Or if there is, I'm not aware of it - if someone knows of something similar in Europe I'd be interested to hear about it. Anyway that's not the main question - the main question is this: if I fund a perfectly open and unanonymous MtGox account from my own personal bank account and then send those bitcoins through a variety of different instawallets and torwallets using different amounts and tumbling and make this all several layers deep, is it really, that insecure. Obviously the most secure is to be able to anonymize the initial purchase and I know I could do that thru Vladimir (sp?) but if the instawallets are really anonymous and the tumblers really work then I would have thought using 10-20 instawallers would provide sufficient anonymity to be able to sleep at night.

Hi Doc!

The exchanges can be used to tumble coins but a detailed analysis of the block chain could still trace the original purchase of coins back to you - please see this thread for a more detailed explanation as to why this is:

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=25163.0

I'm always happy to deal with European customers and accept Euros at no extra cost to you. If you're interested please feel free to visit my listing and follow the steps there:

http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/item/57b32a1924

Thanks,

V.
Title: Re: Anonymizing bitcoins in Europe
Post by: vlad1m1r on August 09, 2012, 09:08 pm
a detailed analysis of the block chain could still trace the original purchase of coins back to you

this is actually impossible, that's the entire point of a strong mix. granted if the op is using a wallet service that wasn't designed as a mix network (such as instawallet or sr), it's entirely possible to trace coins back to their point of purchase

Well all you've really said here is provided the mix is good enough, it's good enough!

This is a far cry from mixing coins providing the buyer with anonymity. No matter how well you mix the coins, if you used a traceable method such as bank transfer to purchase them in the first place, that in itself can be linked to you - it may not be possible to prove you'd carried out a specific transaction but as I mention in the thread above, if you are caught signing for contraband being delivered to your home and try to plead ignorance as to its contents, would you really want it coming out in court that you bought the no. 1 digital currency for trafficking in contraband? Of course as I tell all my clients who mention naughty things like drugs I know they're really buying Bitcoins to order T-shirts and other promotional items. :-)

V.

Title: Re: Anonymizing bitcoins in Europe
Post by: Doc Gonzo on August 10, 2012, 04:15 pm
thanks for the info. In relation to remarks about mixing and instawallters - do you have any opinions on the tor wallet service? And just so I'm clear, is tumbling the same as mixing?

cheers