Is Bitcoin traceable?

Cryptocurrency has become popular because of the blockchains that carry information about every transaction. While you may have heard Bitcoin offering anonymity, it’s important to look at what it does and doesn’t offer. Bitcoin is traceable, but only in certain aspects. One of the reasons why bitcoin became so popular when it released in 2009 was because of the belief that it was private and untraceable. People assume that it cannot be tracked or followed by any kind of outside entity. While at first glance Bitcoin appears to be untraceable, that is not the case.

Bitcoin is Decentralized

Bitcoin is a product of decentralization, which means that it is not controlled by the government or any other central entity. Due to it being decentralized, many people assume that it is untraceable, allowing them to fly under the radar. Decentralization simply means that there is no intermediary in place. It helps to reduce operational expenses. Further, with bitcoin being decentralized, it means that the distributing and dispersing power is taken away from the government. The cryptocurrency doesn’t have a single point of failure, ensuring that it is efficient and resilient.

How Transactions are Recorded

Bitcoin is highly transparent in the way that it is built. Investors are responsible for protecting the privacy of their transactions. Understanding how transactions are recorded allows you to see just how traceable they are. Every transaction is recorded within a block that becomes a part of the blockchain. Bitcoin transactions are public and permanently recorded within the bitcoin network. Every person who makes a transaction has a bitcoin address, also known as a wallet. This information is attached to the transaction, making every transaction traceable in one capacity or another. Bitcoin addresses are created privately by each user. That address is the only information made public with the transactions. As soon as a person uses an address, their entire history becomes visible. It is possible to view an address’ transaction history at any time. An address must be revealed or a transaction to be completed. This means that remaining fully anonymous is not possible. Transactions become pseudonyms. Identities aren’t hidden, but they are obscured to the public. People will have the ability to see the address and the transactions that address has been a part of. However, the owner of the address isn’t explicitly known. Although bitcoin is neither untraceable nor anonymous, there are strategies that will allow you to maintain your privacy from the public ledgers.

Ways to Minimize Traceability

You can choose the strategies to employ to determine just how much information is kept private.

Create New Addresses for Every Transaction

There’s no limit to the number of addresses that you can create. The benefit to this is that you have the ability to use a new Bitcoin address each time you make a transaction. It eliminates the possibility of someone being able to see the history of transactions you have completed in the past. Should anyone want to look at past transactions identify a pattern, they will be unable to do so. If you are extremely active when it comes to cryptocurrency, you may find it overwhelming to create a new address for every transaction. This is when it can be beneficial to use different wallets. This would allow you to assign each wallet to a different purpose. Transactions would be placed in isolation. It allows you to have more traceability within your own transactions while making it difficult for others to associate them to you.

Choose Where You Share

As soon as you choose to share information, it becomes public. You need to be cautious as to where you share your Bitcoin address or wallet if you choose to share it at all. The moment you share it, it is attached to the username or profile that you are sharing it from. In some instances, if you have used bitcoin to make a donation, you may want the information to be publicly known. However, that donation is only a single transaction – you have to ask yourself whether you want everyone to see every other transaction you have conducted. This is when it can be beneficial to create a different wallet so that you place some distance between your identity and all of your other transactions.

As soon as possible and links your bitcoin address to you as a person, they gain insight into your transaction history and you lose anonymity.

Utilize Privacy Coins

These privacy coins are considered altcoins – they’re not Bitcoin and they’re not as successful. They prey on investors by promising to address issues that bitcoin has – such as traceability. However, they can be highly vulnerable, so you need to use them at your own discretion.

Some of the top privacy coins include:

• Monero: Six other random addresses are added from the blockchain to the transaction record. This makes it harder for people to determine which address belongs to both the sender and recipient.
• ZCash: Sender and recipient information is concealed using a technology known as zn-SNARKS. Additionally, the amount of money the transaction is for is also concealed.

More and more privacy coins are hitting the market on a regular basis. They deem themselves as helping with the survival and success of cryptocurrencies. Some use master node capabilities while others use ring signatures or shielded addresses. It’s important to do your research to find out what features are offered and how stable the coin is before using them for your transactions.

Traceable vs. Untraceable

Ultimately, you have to ask yourself why you would want to use a cryptocurrency that is traceable versus untraceable. This will help you to employ the necessary strategies so that your identity is not revealed with every transaction that you conduct. Bitcoin addresses never remain fully anonymous because most users will have to reveal their address in order to receive goods or services. Additionally, combine this with the ability for anyone to identify your balance and transactions once they obtain your address, don’t have as much privacy as you may desire.

Should you wish to make Bitcoin more anonymous, you can use various strategies while also using a logless VPN or TOR. Various criminals will often turn to crypto because they believe that it is untraceable. It has become a favourite of currency on the dark web. However, to prove just how traceable it is, authorities have learned how to catch scammers, money launderers, and others. There is always going to be some trace left for authorities to follow when a Bitcoin transaction is completed. It isn’t as traceless and anonymous as cash. There are typical patterns that can be spotted when it comes to currency movement, which leads to identifying the pseudonym of the suspects.

There is a line between wishing to remain anonymous and looking bitcoin as a way to conduct criminal activity. As an investor, you want to be smart about how you conduct transactions. While there is no such thing as being untraceable, you can minimize the traceability so that people aren’t following each and every transaction that you conduct. The goal here is mostly to defeat mass surveillance, while investigations for criminal activity can still have a place. Remember, should a user have to reveal themselves, the world will have the knowledge of who a user’s address is within seconds. The balance and every transaction becomes scrutinized. All it takes is one tweet or one Facebook post for it to be shared thousands or even millions of times. No one should face that level of scrutiny – and it’s why you can choose to make your bitcoin address less traceable.

How D-Central Will Protect Your Investment

At D-Central, we have been working with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole for four years. We know that new Bitcoin projects can be overwhelmed by hardware, deployment, and other aspects. We offer the training and solutions that help you to acquire digital sovereignty. We’ll show you the best ways to accomplish your task.