

Ask HN: If Bitcoins are traceable, can't we trace and find Bitcoin thieves? - panabee

Assuming thieves want to profit from their stolen Bitcoins, doesn&#x27;t the Bitcoin traceability property mean it&#x27;s possible to track the Bitcoins stolen from Mt. Gox, for instance, and any related transactions?
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dfc
Yes. Just drop the criminal transaction ID into blockchain.info. Do you know
which transaction represents the theft?

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brudgers
What does it mean to claim a bitcoin is stolen? It's not a claim based on the
blockchains but on something else. It becomes a matter of proof based on
something like server logs and testimony of individuals.

Is it even a criminal matter or simply a contractual dispute over ownership of
some assets? Suppose there is a judgement. Who enforces it and how? A judge
can't undo the block chain.

Who is going to testify that they received the stolen bitcoin? Surely not one
or the other side in a Silk Road transaction.

Getting away with stuff is what makes bitcoin useful.

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gesman
Mixers works well with small "typical" amounts. When 200,000 bitcoins are
stolen - mixers are useless to hide them.

Theoretically it is possible to track down criminal if physical product stores
would cooperate in that.

If criminal buys something to be shipped to certain address - backtracing
logic could be utilized to detect that money are coming from stolen source.

This does not guarantee that actual thief is spending bitcoins but possibility
is there.

I expect some API "bitcoin theft detection" sevices will start popping up.

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natdempk
You can at first, but Bitcoin mixers make it unlikely. If you take stolen
coins, throw them into a pool with other coins, make a lot of transactions
within that pool and with other addresses, and generate a bunch of new
addresses with new balances its hard to say what belongs to who.

See [http://www.bitcoinfog.com/](http://www.bitcoinfog.com/) for an example of
one such service.

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patmcc
Yes, except there are ways to launder bitcoins. Put them through a tumbler,
use them to buy something, gamble with them and withdraw later, put them in a
wallet service and transfer them around (wallets may move bitcoins around,
they're probably not wherever they were originally sent), etc.

You can definitely see the first step, but after that it's tricky.

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panabee
thanks for clarifying!

