If you didn't acquire your bitcoins anonymously, TUMBLE.

You think you can't get tracked down for illegal purchases? Think again

Forbes ran a test. An employee made 3 transactions on the darknet and then asked a bitcoin-focused computer science researcher to see what she could dig up with only their Coinbase wallet address to start.

When I asked Meiklejohn to try to trace Forbes' transactions, I started by giving her the Bitcoin addresses associated with our account on the popular Bitcoin wallet service Coinbase--information that could in theory be obtained by any investigating law enforcement agency that sends Coinbase a subpoena. With just that list of my public addresses, she was able to identify every transaction we had made, including deposits to the Silk Road, to competitor sites Atlantis and Black Market Reloaded.

To be fair, Meiklejohn had seen my story on our three experimental drug buys, which obviously informed her guesses. But her ability to identify the Silk Road transaction didn't involve any such cheating. To spend bitcoins on sites like Silk Road, users must first deposit them in their account on the site. Meiklejohn was able to trace Forbes' deposit to our Silk Road account by tying the deposit address to around 200 other addresses, several of which she had identified as associated with the Silk Road in her clustering analysis. After we sent .3 bitcoins to that Silk Road deposit address, the blockchain showed that our bitcoins and small amounts of bitcoins from all of those other addresses--including the known Silk Road addresses--were aggregated together in a 40 bitcoin account. That proves, Meiklejohn explains, that whoever had control of the deposit address we used also must have had control of Silk Road addresses, which means our earlier transaction could be identified as a Silk Road deposit.

. . .

And the final lesson of Meiklejohn's experiment is that Bitcoin users seeking privacy should be careful about revealing their addresses in public or using a subpoenable Bitcoin service like Coinbase that might connect their Bitcoin addresses and real names. If we had taken the extra consideration of shuffling our bitcoin expenditures through other addresses created with desktop-based wallet software, or gone to the further effort of sending them through a bitcoin "laundry service" such as Bitlaundry, Bitmix or Bitcoinlaundry, tracing them would have become much harder or even impossible.

TL;DR You can absolutely be caught if the bitcoins you bought wasn't anonymously acquired. You're just betting that LE don't think you're important enough, which isn't worth the risk.

source


Comments


[12 Points] qemist:

Tumbling is a waste of money. It's generally not difficult to defeat.


[8 Points] None:

If you're a big timer, sure, tumble away. Personal use buyers, why even fuck with it, it's just another way to waste time and money.


[3 Points] Snnsndjdjdjd:

The Tumble War Continues.


[2 Points] Seraphim_X:

Any evidence of any market user ever having coins traced back to them would be appreciated. Without proof of users being busted by coins being traced, telling them to tumble because the "mystery btc police" might bust them is speading F.U.D. You didn't even link any proof, all you provide is text.

We once sacrificed our virgin daughters to appease rain gods, now we just wait for the weather-man.


[2 Points] workthrowaway9348394:

Can you provide a link to this article? I can't seem to find anything from searching online. You cut/pasted some sections, but from reading all I see it saying is if you tell someone your wallet address they can confirm you own it. Am I missing something else here?

Showing the likely flow of something through a blockchain is still not proving anything. If it could be done you would see people getting arrested for it.


[1 Points] mjmedstarved:

Telling people they have to tumble is like telling them not to speed in the car. Ever. Because highways have cams and radars...

The reality is they can't afford to police everything/everyone, and people like me speed every day.

Do I speed going 100? No. But, I will always drive 10 over without hesitation.

Why? Because there's many people who drive faster. So much so cops won't waste their time with me.

Same goes for small consumers here.

edit: spelling errors


[1 Points] None:

[deleted]


[1 Points] KellyNyze:

Even when I use localbitcoins to buy some bitcoins in person or use Bitcoin ATM I always use a tumble my coins. I remembered back in the day I used Bitcoin fog but now I only use Helix and sometimes BitBlender and there great.


[1 Points] None:

[deleted]


[1 Points] chFDevin:

Your username and this post go very well together.


[1 Points] The1coupdegrace:

Sniff.. Sniff... Why cant we all just be friends? =(. Seriously tho, if it has been established that there exists a way to tumble your own coins for free or almost free, wouldnt it be more productive to explore that avenue? I just feel like it would be a win win. No third parties would be involved and those who like their coins tumbled would still have them tumbled at a lower cost. Im just sayin, we could all be best buds smokin blunts around the metaphorical fire, /r/thedarknetmarkets, if we spent half the amount of energy researching a way to tumble ourselves than arguing over a tumbling service's neccessity lol


[1 Points] xmr_is_private:

You can absolutely be caught if the bitcoins you bought wasn't anonymously acquired.

Correct, and even tumbling can be ineffective.

Big resources are being devoted to blockchain analysis, including amount/timing attacks which tumbling won't help with.

It's better to use a natively private alternative.


[0 Points] SaintVengeance:

Finally good advice.


[0 Points] d45f67h8:

if the bitcoins you bought wasn't anonymously acquired

first off retard it's "weren't" not "wasn't" and secondly Forbes is fake news.