Cryptocurrency Anonymity Tracking

P.J. Westerhof Peter at isoc.nl
Wed Aug 30 01:13:15 PDT 2017


Old news.
Bitcoin was/is never anonymous, it was/is pseudonymous.
Tracking of Bitcoin was/is always possible unless countermeasures
were/are taken, like coinmixing. You can always use an AltCoin.

Gr.
Peter
____________________________________________________________
Op 24-08-17 om 23:17 grarpamp wrote:
> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608716/bitcoin-transactions-arent-as-anonymous-as-everyone-hoped/
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15085522
> https://arxiv.org/pdf/1708.04748.pdf
> 
> Cookies, conversions, CoinJoins, analysis
> 
> https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/08/23/2234207/irs-now-has-a-tool-to-unmask-bitcoin-tax-evaders
> http://www.thedailybeast.com/irs-now-has-a-tool-to-unmask-bitcoin-tax-cheats
> https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3935924-IRS-Chainalysis-Contract.html
> 
> You can use bitcoin. But you can't hide from the taxman. At least,
> that's the hope of the Internal Revenue Service, which has purchased
> specialist software to track those using bitcoin, according to a
> contract obtained by The Daily Beast. The document highlights how law
> enforcement isn't only concerned with criminals accumulating bitcoin
> from selling drugs or hacking targets, but also those who use the
> currency to hide wealth or avoid paying taxes. The IRS has claimed
> that only 802 people declared bitcoin losses or profits in 2015;
> clearly fewer than the actual number of people trading the
> cryptocurrency -- especially as more investors dip into the world of
> cryptocurrencies, and the value of bitcoin punches past the $4,000
> mark. Maybe lots of bitcoin traders didn't realize the government
> expects to collect tax on their digital earnings, or perhaps some
> thought they'd be able to get away with stockpiling bitcoin thanks to
> the perception that the cryptocurrency is largely anonymous.
> 
> "The purpose of this acquisition is to help us trace the movement of
> money through the bitcoin economy," a section of the contract reads.
> The Daily Beast obtained the document through the Freedom of
> Information Act. The contractor in this case is Chainalysis, a startup
> offering its "Reactor" tool to visualize, track, and analyze bitcoin
> transactions. Chainalysis' users include law enforcement agencies,
> banks, and regulatory entities. The software can follow bitcoin as it
> moves from one wallet to another, and eventually to an exchange where
> the bitcoin user will likely cash out into dollars or another
> currency. This is the point law enforcement could issue a subpoena to
> the exchange and figure out who is really behind the bitcoin.
> 
> https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/6u72kt/cryptocurrency_returns_for_2017/
> https://hackcabin.com/post/dont-mine-bitcoin-mine-altcoins/
> 


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