A 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin's Anonymity | Hacker News Reader

A 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin's Anonymity

wired.com

27 pointsbookofjoe16 comments

I'm used to that headline format when the achiever is super-young or super-old. Is the codebreaker's age really that noteworthy here?

Right handed man finally cracks the code!

27 is pretty old for a mathematician too.

https://archive.ph/pZIks

https://arstechnica.com/features/2024/01/how-a-27-year-old-b...

I first learned about Bitcoin in a Podcast in ca 2011. They described Bitcoin as pseudonymous (not anonym) and how all transactions are public for anyone to be seen.

Weird to continue "busting" that myth in 2013.

This is a recent article, but it's talking about the bitcoin craze in the early 2010s.

> Having set down those words, and blowing a gaping hole in the myth of Bitcoin’s inherent untraceability, Meiklejohn, Savage, and her other adviser Geoffrey Voelker started brainstorming a clever title.

I was never involved with any cryptocurrency, so probably don't remember very well, but was bitcoin ever considered anonymous with its public transaction ledger? Or it's obvious here only retroactively, and at the time nobody knew it?

Bitcoin proponents still sell it, TODAY, as "anonymous" and not pseudononymous

I am a big fan & advocate for Bitcoin and don't know anyone in the space who claims Bitcoin is anonymous. In fact everyone talks about how it's not and ways to fix that.

I'll continue to stay away from it. I had figured when I can walk into most grocery stories and buy some freshly baked bread or potatoes with bitcoin I might finally give it a try.

this looks like it is print publicity for a new book.. the 2013 slides for "Men with No Name" had five other UC San Diego researchers, not just this one person.

This is an ad for a book. The writeup is very compelling.

dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39041206

which is a dupe of: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39026970 .. seems like the dupe detector is taking the day off (although 4 points/0 comments, 6 points/3 comments, 18 points/17 comments isn't much engagement)

The article has a great picture showing all the things she bought with Bitcoin and was able to track

you mean the coin that was never intended to provide anonymity? gasp :eyeroll:

Reply on news.ycombinator.com