On 03/19/2017 08:43 PM, Greg Freemyer wrote:
On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 10:34 PM, George from the tribe <tech@reachthetribes.org> wrote:
The basics of bitcoin are like this, and I am just getting started so this may not be 100% correct. You can store bitcoins either in an online exchange, like a bank, but the problem is many exchanges have been hacked. Furthermore, hackers and governments will be able to track you and know how many bitcoins you have. You can also store them securely in a "wallet" on your pc, and make the storage unhackable. You can even store them on a piece of paper in your desk drawer, and as long as nobody knows it is there, they can't steal your funds. The bitcoin network allows you to transfer bitcoins anywhere in the world without having to fill out paperwork and get approval from governments. That is why it is appealing to 2 groups of people - privacy advocates, and criminals.
You left out:
- Every bitcoin transaction is publicly and permanently documented. The unique ID of both the source and destination wallet is recorded and publicly available. The unique ID of wallets therefore should be considered non-secure.
- Privacy and non-tracability is achieved by using a "new wallet" for every transaction, so no nexus of activity can be established.
- law enforcement (LE) leverages lazy (unknowledgeable) bitcoin users (LBUs). For LBUs, once LE figure out the unique ID of the LBUs wallet, LE can determine every transaction they've ever made with that same wallet.
That is a good thing to remember. Perhaps one of the reasons why bitcoin is considered "pseudonymous" and not "anonymous". However, my understanding is that even though the transactions are a matter of public record, with source and destination being recorded on every transaction, the source and destinations in the blockchain are unhackable hashcodes, not actual identifiable locations, like an IP address. There is, however a new technology out there for banks, so it will just be a matter of time before an API for LE is developed. Here is the link: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-elliptic-startup-anti-money-launderin... So it seems that with due diligence, and keeping your investments out of the view of banks, at least for now, it is possible to maintain your anonymity. Creating a new bitcoin wallet for every transaction might be a bit of overkill for the common user, but perhaps changing your bitcoin wallet every few months would be the pertinent thing to do. Eventually, though, it may become difficult to maintain anonymity. -- George Box: 42.2 | KDE Plasma 5.8 | AMD Phenom IIX4 | 64 | 32GB Laptop #1: 42.2 | KDE Plasma 5.8 | Core i7-4710HQ | 64 | 16GB Laptop #2: 42.2 | KDE Plasma 5.8 | Core i5 | 64 | 8GB -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org