You are either secure, or not secure. There is no in between. BTC is a permanent public ledger that can be analyzed for the rest of time. Without mixers (or similar techniques), it becomes possible to figure out lots of facts.
Similarly, your transactions can be tracked and analyzed because its all public information.
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And yes, people have been prosecuted for money laundering through mixers. (ie: Silk Road seizure + prosecution). So don't play the ignorance game, learn about the current state of affairs and understand the risks you're taking.
"You are either secure, or not secure. There is no in between."
First, no, everything is in between. You're never "secure", you're secure against certain classes of threats.
Second, I didn't say "secure", I said "anonymous". Leaving someone a handwritten note is more anonymous than meeting them face-to-face and producing ID, even if they could potentially hire handwriting experts and find you.
"BTC is a permanent public ledger that can be analyzed for the rest of time. Without mixers (or similar techniques), it becomes possible to figure out lots of facts."
Certainly. Even with mixers, it's possible to figure some of it out - I've said many times, "you're never leaking less information than you think". Even so, this sort of thing requires someone do the analysis, which is far easier to automate if you've got a big long list of (btc account, TIN) of a large percentage of actors in the system.
"So don't play the ignorance game, learn about the current state of affairs and understand the risks you're taking."
I own no bitcoins, and have never used a mixer. I'm not "playing the ignorance game", I'm trying to cure my ignorance. Don't be a dick.
You are either secure, or not secure. There is no in between. BTC is a permanent public ledger that can be analyzed for the rest of time. Without mixers (or similar techniques), it becomes possible to figure out lots of facts.
http://www.coindesk.com/194993-btc-transaction-147m-mystery-...
Similarly, your transactions can be tracked and analyzed because its all public information.
--------------------
And yes, people have been prosecuted for money laundering through mixers. (ie: Silk Road seizure + prosecution). So don't play the ignorance game, learn about the current state of affairs and understand the risks you're taking.