[pattymayo]

Curious if anyone else has had this or something similar happen. I’ve been purchasing bitcoin from an ATM operated by Cottonwood Vending for a couple years now, sending it to my Blockchain account and then from Blockchain sending it to a book.

Went today and put in my phone number and said account suspended, emailed and they said they suspended me because my “account transactions have been associated with gambling websites.” How exactly would they know, after I purchase from them and send to Blockchain app?

The only other way I’ve purchased bitcoin is via Coinbase, and I do the same thing, purchase via Coinbase and then send to Blockchain app, then to the book.

Has anyone else had this happen?

[littlekona]

i have done many 100's of them through my local ATm sending direct to Heritage, Nitrogen and AC88 no issue yet. the way you do it sending it to your blockchain as a middle man makes it near impossible to detect...

[pattymayo]

That’s exactly why I’m confused. And all they know about me is the phone number i log in with. If I’m purchasing from the ATM and scanning my Blockchain account to receive the funds, how would they know anything about where the funds go after that?

[PharaohUB]

Damn near impossible ? Not really. There is a record of the entire chain. If they want to they can see where it goes after your wallet quite easy. Just every level probably takes exponentially more computing power to detect. The books reallly need to fix on their end. What is it they are doing with the bitcoin that it’s so easily detectable they are gambling sites ? If anything they should be sending few a couple middle men when they unload not us as they can do it en masse and save us all the headache. If they can go undetected we wouldn’t have to worry about it. And there is no reason they couldn’t protect it better. They just don’t give a shit about you

[themike78]

Its crazy how these people can find out if a bunch of numbered addresses are gambling related. I thought bitcoin was supposed to be anonymous? Apparently not.

[PharaohUB]

Themike it’s not that hard. You Run a query of the blockchain on all your transactions and go 3-4 levels deep and colllect all the bitcoin addresses in the chain. If you see an address pop up 1000 times somewhere along the chain that sourced from your accounts. You take a closer look at those accounts. Can quickly see it follows a pattern of gambling type deposits. Lots of weekend transactions. Irregular frequency. etc. you know everyone now connected to that bitcoin address is likely gambling. Not hard at all actually.

The books could do us all a favor and hide it a bit better on their end but at the moment there is no incentive for them to do so.

[littlekona]

Themike it’s not that hard. You Run a query of the blockchain on all your transactions and go 3-4 levels deep and colllect all the bitcoin addresses in the chain. If you see an address pop up 1000 times somewhere along the chain that sourced from your accounts. You take a closer look at those accounts. Can quickly see it follows a pattern of gambling type deposits. Lots of weekend transactions. Irregular frequency. etc. you know everyone now connected to that bitcoin address is likely gambling. Not hard at all actually.

The books could do us all a favor and hide it a bit better on their end but at the moment there is no incentive for them to do so.

But the address change with pretty much every transaction...even the incoming wallet address changes on personal wallets...very tough near impossible to trace

[Darkside Magick]

Use burner wallets

[PharaohUB]

But the address change with pretty much every transaction...even the incoming wallet address changes on personal wallets...very tough near impossible to trace

It doesn't work that way. At least not a blockchain wallet. I'll give you perfect example from today.

This was my incoming transaction from a coinbase like site.
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/a1...9351fac72610fc

Now click on the 16bXukrzkCBfrs71hVpwa4yMGm7BLbYH8y one (which is the piece that went to me).

Now look at the last transaction. That 1FMWPPBLacsDb63BsLAgLAcNnPdjURQHCV address is the book's address.

So yes it's very easy to follow, it's all connected...

After that step (or within a couple of steps) I would imagine the book (or their processor) would then move all of the transactions into a single wallet.

It would be very easy to analyze this. Wouldn't even take anything that special. Just some computing power.

[Optional]

^^^ Once they are suspicious of a destination address, they simply ask customers who's funds have ended up there.

People tell the truth.


It's not that complicated really.

[lotuspod]

It doesn't work that way. At least not a blockchain wallet. I'll give you perfect example from today.

This was my incoming transaction from a coinbase like site.
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/a1...9351fac72610fc

Now click on the 16bXukrzkCBfrs71hVpwa4yMGm7BLbYH8y one (which is the piece that went to me).

Now look at the last transaction. That 1FMWPPBLacsDb63BsLAgLAcNnPdjURQHCV address is the book's address.

So yes it's very easy to follow, it's all connected...

After that step (or within a couple of steps) I would imagine the book (or their processor) would then move all of the transactions into a single wallet.

It would be very easy to analyze this. Wouldn't even take anything that special. Just some computing power.

There are multiple competing tracking systems these days, essentially seeing who can piece together the most. Even 20-30+ hops back in some instances.

One of the more straightforward and targeted ways, but expensive - is dusting a particular pool of addresses with tiny amounts of btc and seeing which address(es) it leads back to. Some of the more sophisticated wallets currently though are starting to offer features to prevent this from happening, Samourai wallet mentioned it recently I know of for sure.

[PharaohUB]

I think there are some crypto’s that attempt to solve this problem. Maybe z-cash? Haven’t been keeping up with things as much as I used to.

[lotuspod]

Perfect time of year to bring this article from last Halloween back, which explains basic concept(s) behind many of these privacy functions - https://hackernoon.com/eli5-zero-kno...f-78a276db9eff

[Roscoe_Word]

I'm thinking when Quantum computing arrives, our blockchain privacy will be gone.

[lotuspod]

I'm thinking when Quantum computing arrives, our blockchain privacy will be gone.

It's not really that big of an issue, they can be made quantum-resistant already - but there's no need yet for that extra overhead.

Also a new research paper is out on the subject of tracing transactions across various ledgers, to help shed some light on a subject for which there is a lot of misinformation and false assumptions floating around. Have to click PDF there to read the full paper, but it's free.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.12786

[Wohlford]

OP: When you send the BTC to your wallet on the Blockchain app, do you use the same destination address repeatedly or do you use a fresh one every time?

[RonPaul2008]

There are multiple competing tracking systems these days, essentially seeing who can piece together the most. Even 20-30+ hops back in some instances.

One of the more straightforward and targeted ways, but expensive - is dusting a particular pool of addresses with tiny amounts of btc and seeing which address(es) it leads back to. Some of the more sophisticated wallets currently though are starting to offer features to prevent this from happening, Samourai wallet mentioned it recently I know of for sure.

Interesting. What would a person do to throw off the scent if their wallet got dusted?

[Optional]

Interesting. What would a person do to throw off the scent if their wallet got dusted?

Good Q for Lotuspod.

But I'd guess monitoring your wallets for micro payments that aren't change, and either bouncing them back to the sender or quarantining them in some way so it doesn't get involved in your normal legit sends.

[lotuspod]

Interesting. What would a person do to throw off the scent if their wallet got dusted?

Start fresh with as much as you realistically can, and the simplest way I can put it is don't let coins from any of the old addresses/wallets get mixed in with (or somehow tied to) the new ones. It's not a black or white scale for safety/security either, it's more of a range with it generally being more and more difficult/expensive/time-consuming to get higher - a tree where you really don't want to be the lowest hanging fruit. It would also be the perfect time to review your computer security, since bettors often have to deal with some pretty invasive software from who knows where.

The major privacy coins tend to have some of the best and most up-to-date info, well worth it to take a bit of time and read through some of it to get yourself in the right mindset. New info comes out often, and the landscape is always changing quickly since we're really still in the early days for this. We can't get too complacent.

[RonPaul2008]

..
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[Shifty]

Planning to try Bitstamp for my next transaction. Got my account verified. Are they gambling friendly for US bettors?