So people say BTC is untraceble/anonymous currency

[mineistaken]

Yet, you can see all the transactions done by that certain person?

So ok, lets say nobody knows who that people is, but once you give your address to known person that person can google that key and view all your transactions?

[rowan]

Originally Posted by mineistaken

Yet, you can see all the transactions done by that certain person?

So ok, lets say nobody knows who that people is, but once you give your address to known person that person can google that key and view all your transactions?

Not quite. Each transaction is technically isolated - you can receive 100 different transactions to the same wallet and not have anyone else know that they're "to the same person" - UNTIL a future transaction uses two or more of them.

If a new transaction X uses proceeds (unspent outputs) from transactions A, B, and C then third parties now know that transactions A, B, C are associated with the same wallet as transaction X.

[Acepimp]

It can be backtracked by anyone with the skills and computing power.

Pro tip: Buy MONERO coins for privacy.

Check out this interview with John McAfee, he discusses Monero at 36:25

[jscott]

Originally Posted by Acepimp

Pro tip: Buy MONERO coins for privacy.

[rowan]

Originally Posted by Acepimp

It can be backtracked by anyone with the skills and computing power.

Not always with absolute certainty.

For example, using coin control, I can receive funds from one party, then send them to another, without any links (either deduced or absolute) to other addresses in my wallet whatsoever.

Bitcoin was never meant to be completely anonymous. Did you know you used to be able to send funds to an IP address?

[Bladewire]

^^^ Truth

[mineistaken]

Originally Posted by rowan

Bitcoin was never meant to be completely anonymous. Did you know you used to be able to send funds to an IP address?

Maybe it was never meant, but the popular sentiment of anonymity was there. Almost every pitch had anonymity as a major plus included

[NatalieK]

Originally Posted by mineistaken

Yet, you can see all the transactions done by that certain person?

So ok, lets say nobody knows who that people is, but once you give your address to known person that person can google that key and view all your transactions?

now with so much id validation, the amount spent and withdrawn is, so tax and other purposes are traceable, however, the actual transactions are not traceable as you are only given the wallet to send it to. No names, id etc...

[TheDynasty]

its untraceable if you use it right.

[rowan]

Originally Posted by GspotProductions

now with so much id validation, the amount spent and withdrawn is, so tax and other purposes are traceable, however, the actual transactions are not traceable as you are only given the wallet to send it to. No names, id etc...

It's a complete chain of transactions, not just "A gave funds to B", so in some cases it's possible to infer the identity of the final recipient based on the transactions which funded the final transaction, and the transactions which funded those transactions, and so on. I get lost after a couple of levels, but there's some pretty smart people who can pull some surprisingly useful information out of the blockchain.

It's also possible to send a tracer transaction to a known address and use that to link future transactions. If I send funds to known address A, then a future transaction from address B (which I didn't know about) incorporates those tracer funds, I now know that address A and B are from the same wallet, which opens up a whole new backwards path to explore.

I have two tracer transactions sitting in my wallet. No idea who sent them, or why. I have to be careful to manually exclude them every time I send funds.

[GUNNER]

If you're looking to BTC as a way to hide money or for other nefarious activities, then you're in it for the wrong reasons IMHO. That's not to say that there aren't advantages to the anonymity the blockchain provides, and Monero is a fine example of that, but it's not the main reason why someone like myself is heavily invested in crypto.