No, it is a lie we can't track bitcoins.

[LisaSimpson]

I am happy to share my knowledge about bitcoin because there are lots of lies in the media online. You can read everywhere that officials can track bitcoins. However, until today, no criminals have been arrested thanks to bitcoin tracking. However, the so called bitcoin tracking solution exists since 2013. media talks about so called consulting companies who could track bitcoins. I think they are frauds.

I have looked into my bitcoins transactions. I don't use gateway payments. Only bitcoin sender address and bitcoin receiver address. I have several wallets I use on mac and linux. From this wallet that is not part of a website like coinbase I receive bitcoins. Then, i transfer those bitcoins to other wallets to convert money.

On top of that, we know bitcoin. Conversely, I think that other cryptocurrencies are honeypots with spy in the code. The media tell you to move away from bitcoins, however we still didn't find anyone arrested because of bitcoin tracking. They tell you to move away from bitcoin tracking because other cryptocurrencies are easier to track down. I think about monero for instance; When it is smaller it is easier to track.

 

[JohnLocke]

Thanks for this useful publishing of your research. I read a lot about the consultancy firms being ablt to track btc but wasn't able to figure out how they would do that.

 

[W4rhol]

The anonymous BTC Wallet is really a tricky part for the justice system.

Example :
A hacker stole the btc of a random guy name Mr. X (Wallet A).
If the guy used to do some cashout with the Wallet A with a verified account so, we can assume that Wallet A = Mr. X
But if the hacker move the fund from Wallet A to Wallet B (who belongs to him) and do cashout with Wallet Z (all the previous wallet between B and Y belongs to the Hacker), then the justice have to prove that all the previous wallet used for transfer the stolen funds belong the the Hacker, which is quite impossible (except if the hacker do his job bad).

 

[blockchain4ever]

I am happy to share my knowledge about bitcoin because there are lots of lies in the media online. You can read everywhere that officials can track bitcoins. However, until today, no criminals have been arrested thanks to bitcoin tracking. However, the so called bitcoin tracking solution exists since 2013. media talks about so called consulting companies who could track bitcoins. I think they are frauds.

Hi Lisa, you're wrong and right.

You're right in that you should probably monitor how many criminals are arrested based on having their bitcoins tracked. However, you're wrong when you say it can't be done.

Tracking bitcoin payments is easy as it's all in a public ledger. Figuring out the identities of people can be done both through graph analysis of the public ledger, but also through IP monitoring, exactly the same technology used to monitor bittorrent networks.

These two techniques can then be combined to calculate the probability that two addresses belong to the same identity. Whether it actually works depends on how many transactions there are between a point in the graph the attacker can pin to a real identity, and the "criminal" transaction(s). It's like a distance metric. If your identity is found "close" to the interesting transaction, then you will be identified. If you're "far away" you will not.

You "move away" by moving funds.

 

[hiju]

hmmm a lie, no I don't think so, what I think it is complicated.

 

[KJK]

You can read everywhere that officials can track bitcoins. However, until today, no criminals have been arrested thanks to bitcoin tracking.

This is only one part of the truth. The second part is that there are many dark net operators who made some small mistake that brought attention to them (see e.g. Ross Ulbricht) and then thanks to blockchain tracking their activities and their crypto assets could be paired to them. I myself don't do any illegal or dark things but if someone does them and believes they are save thanks to Bitcoins, they are simply living in a lie. And even if it may be true today, that may change in one or two years.

I have looked into my bitcoins transactions. I don't use gateway payments. Only bitcoin sender address and bitcoin receiver address. I have several wallets I use on mac and linux. From this wallet that is not part of a website like coinbase I receive bitcoins. Then, i transfer those bitcoins to other wallets to convert money.

This use case is safe, of course. But also not very practical.

On top of that, we know bitcoin. Conversely, I think that other cryptocurrencies are honeypots with spy in the code.

This is the reason why I don't like currencies like Zcash very much. The only exception is Monero which is in my opinion really honest and with a good roadmap.

I recommend everybody to use HD wallets (Hierachical Deterministic) . For example you can use "JAXX" . A HD wallet creates a new wallet address after every transaction.
If you want further security you can "shapeshift" your BTC in other cryptos and then "shapeshift" them back at some point after adding some more transactions.
You will be traceable using every crypto coin, even XMR, BUT I am quite sure they won't try to trace you just because of tax savings.

Again, this can be a double-edged sword. Let's say you are a trader or an early adopter. You made some money with Bitcoin. Then you were "smart" enough to do some mixing and laundering with Shapeshift.
If someone wants you to prove that you made the Bitcoins with trading and you are not a terrorist or worse, you won't be able to prove much. They won't be able to prove anything either. So you will be left with "gray" Bitcoins that noone wants to touch because their source is unclear.

 

[blockchain4ever]

Again, this can be a double-edged sword. Let's say you are a trader or an early adopter. You made some money with Bitcoin. Then you were "smart" enough to do some mixing and laundering with Shapeshift.
If someone wants you to prove that you made the Bitcoins with trading and you are not a terrorist or worse, you won't be able to prove much. They won't be able to prove anything either. So you will be left with "gray" Bitcoins that noone wants to touch because their source is unclear.

I don't see a problem with proving that you mixed through Shapeshift. All you need to do is show that you had control of coins X at time T and at the same time got coins Y at the same time as you lost X.

You don't need to prove everything through the blockchain.

 

[blizz]

I don't see a problem with proving that you mixed through Shapeshift. All you need to do is show that you had control of coins X at time T and at the same time got coins Y at the same time as you lost X.

You don't need to prove everything through the blockchain.

isn't there a wallet that can hide your btc's ?

 

[blockchain4ever]

isn't there a wallet that can hide your btc's ?

Lots of wallets have various built-in services, they make money by these services' affiliate systems.

 

[niggashit]

You can track Bitcoins easily.

See here

 

[niggashit]

By the way, NSA does not even need these tools. They can use their X-key score system to find who owns each address.

The NSA Worked to “Track Down” Bitcoin Users, Snowden Documents Reveal

 

[niggashit]

My UK bank used these tools to approve mine account. I saw it from my eyes and it works.

 

[myhand]

What tool is used here exactly, any link or hint to where to find it?

 

[Spinat]

Would like to know that too

 

[niggashit]

They use some Machine learning and data science stuff. Tool Chainalysis - Blockchain analysis

 

[niggashit]

As it's a commercial tool. Here are some free ones:

WalletExplorer.com: smart Bitcoin block explorer
BlockSeer