Cyclone Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Depends on what exactly is stored as part of the transaction, if it includes the IP address and a timestamp then it could (with court orders and effort) be traced back to where it originated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Who would the court order be served on exactly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 The ISP that issued that IP address at that time. The police would then seize his IT equipment, etc... Although if all the transactions were recorded then you could just jump straight back to whichever point you were interested in. A digital payment of any kind is always going to be more traceable than cold hard cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootsBooster Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 A digital payment of any kind is always going to be more traceable than cold hard cash. That's what I thought. So, it's not going to be the "Dangerous" or "Untraceable" threat that the article paints it to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Dangerous in that if you're holding some of them they might turn out to be worthless tomorrow. But I can't see how it's dangerous in any significant way to the fabric of society or anything like that. Anyone determined to hide transfers of cash can use fake ID and western union, or just give you a wad of notes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quisquose Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Dangerous in that if you're holding some of them they might turn out to be worthless tomorrow. But I can't see how it's dangerous in any significant way to the fabric of society or anything like that. Anyone determined to hide transfers of cash can use fake ID and western union, or just give you a wad of notes. Dangerous to the fabric of society in that it is more open to the abuses of money laundering, payment for illegal activities, or avoiding taxes. Same could be said for cash to a certain extent, but the money laundering rules have put paid to a lot of that. In fact we now have criminals setting up pretend businesses, and declaring pretend income to pay unnecessary taxes, simply to legitimise their ill gotten gains. Any third-party currency outside the control of government is bound to be stopped in its tracks if it becomes popular, at least if it becomes more than some local voucher scheme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 No more so than cash is. Money laundering has existed for at least a century, it's not a new idea. The government have no need to do anything to stop it, it's destined to fail due to design. Nor can I see how they really could stop it, if you want to give money away for magic bean tokens then that's up to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 The ISP that issued that IP address at that time. The police would then seize his IT equipment, etc... Although if all the transactions were recorded then you could just jump straight back to whichever point you were interested in. A digital payment of any kind is always going to be more traceable than cold hard cash. If someone wants to be circumspect, they can just route their traffic through the TOR network. It all depends on how hard you work to keep your bitcoin identity decoupled from your other internet identities. It can be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 If the IP address is hashed into the bitcoin then the routing doesn't really matter, depending on which end does that hashing I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 If the IP address is hashed into the bitcoin then the routing doesn't really matter, depending on which end does that hashing I suppose. I don't believe it is - only bitcoin related stuff is recorded in the transaction hashes, the ip is irrelevant to bitcoin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now