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posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 21 2017, @08:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the bloodhounds-of-bitcoins dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

More and more shopping Web sites accept cryptocurrencies as a method of payment, but users should be aware that these transactions can be used to deanonymize them – even if they are using blockchain anonymity techniques such as CoinJoin.

Independent researcher Dillon Reisman and Steven Goldfeder, Harry Kalodner and Arvind Narayanan from Princeton University have demonstrated that third-party online tracking provides enough information to identify a transaction on the blockchain, link it to the user's cookie and, ultimately, to the user's real identity.

"Based on tracking cookies, the transaction can be linked to the user's activities across the web. And based on well-known Bitcoin address clustering techniques, it can be linked to their other Bitcoin transactions," they noted.

Add to this the fact that many merchants additionally leak users' PII such as name or email address to trackers, and if becomes obvious that trackers can easily link the transaction to a user's web profile and identity.

But, until know, it was possible to believe that using mixing technique such as the aforementioned CoinJoin or other types of coin mixing would prevent the linkage of Bitcoin addresses to user's identity. Unfortunately, that's not true.

Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2017/08/21/identify-users-behind-bitcoin-transactions/


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  • (Score: 1) by liberza on Monday August 21 2017, @09:57PM (3 children)

    by liberza (6137) on Monday August 21 2017, @09:57PM (#557247)

    Traceability seems like one of the largest threats to BTC at the moment. One of the best things about cash is that I can take a $20 bill that somebody 3 transactions down the line bought meth with, and go buy TP and eggs without anyone batting an eye. Currencies that have privacy by default are highly desirable, so I've got high hopes for certain privacy-focused coins...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @11:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @11:48PM (#557287)

    Because zcash and anoncoin both AFAIK had issues with excessive blockchain usage, and etherium has issues with its vm/contract security.

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 21 2017, @11:50PM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 21 2017, @11:50PM (#557288) Journal

    Well, there is also the fact that if you buy a physical product - legal or otherwise - using "anonymous" currency, you still have to provide a delivery address. So, you're friendly FBI agent delivers the product, and his three accomplices hang around, waiting to see who picks up the package with the radio beacon in it.