Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: yogsmythe on September 12, 2011, 11:53 am

Title: Receiving BTC to USB Wallet, IP traceable?
Post by: yogsmythe on September 12, 2011, 11:53 am
So, if this is the path:

Bank Account -> MtGox ->Purchase BC's -> 1/3 of BC's -> Instawallet 1 and other 2/3 of BC's to Instawallet 2 (Both instawallets created and only ever visited through TOR)

Instwallet 1 & Instawallet 2 -> Instawallet 3 (again created and only ever visited through TOR)

Instawallet 3 -> BC Address created by BC Software on a USB drive.

Now, my question, upon receival of BC's from Instawallet 3 into my USB wallet, is my IP address in any way linked to those received BC's or to the BC wallet number generated by the BC software on the USB drive? If so, how possible is it to track my IP address?

Just been doing some reading on how BC's arent as anonymous as the media and most people make them out to be, getting a bit paro....

Yogsmythe
Title: Re: Receiving BTC to USB Wallet, IP traceable?
Post by: LexusMiles on September 13, 2011, 06:21 am
Your IP address is linked the the USB wallet only so far as Instawallet internal logs will show that you sent BTC to that wallet address. Since the Instawallet was visited only with TOR, then its not a concern for you. The important note is that your USB wallet is not associated with any IP address at all on the BTC network -- typically only web-based wallets will be associated with an IP, because of the logs kept by those web-based providers. Of course there will always be exceptions to the rule, such as real-time statistical analysis of the entire Bitcoin network -- something I really doubt wold be in effect right now.

*Interesting note*: If you leave BTC in the Instawallet for more than few hours, your BTC will anonymized (this is a good thing). To see this with your own eyes, go to blockexplorer.com and enter your wallet address in the search box. You can see that all the BTC you recieved in the wallet has already been sent out - but your balance is still the same. I don't know the technical detail of why it happens, but the effect is that the BTC remaining in your account is some random BTC that the Instawallet has assigned to you.