Bitcoin wallet transaction history / Dogecoin hashrate wallet

With 12.3 million bitcoins mined to date, the total value of bitcoins has reached $9.975 billion US dollars. While this may pale in comparison to the $1.23 trillion US dollars in circulation, the use of bitcoins in commerce is gaining traction. With this traction the potential exists to link users’ identities with their public bitcoin wallet addresses and commercial transaction histories.

Earlier this year Overstock.com announced that it would begin accepting bitcoins as payment for consumer purchases. The company’s announcement makes Overstock.com the first major US online retailer to accept bitcoins, albeit via a third-party payment processor. Prior to this announcement, a patchwork of smaller online vendors and brick-and-mortar stores had already begun accepting bitcoins. Using bitcoins, individuals are now able to order food for delivery, engage in online dating, and purchase everything from babyfood to videogame consoles.

As bitcoins enter the stream of commerce, we should all consider the privacy implications associated with the use of bitcoins in commercial transactions. Every bitcoin and bitcoin transaction is recorded on a public ledger, commonly referred to a block chain. While each bitcoin and bitcoin wallet address is only identified by a string of characters, anyone with knowledge of a particular bitcoin string or wallet address can trace the entire transaction history of that particular bitcoin or wallet address. In fact, we now have a number of real world examples where bitcoins have been traced their ultimate owner, most famously, the FBI’s identification and arrest of Silk Road’s “Dread Pirate Roberts.”

In the context of privacy and commerce, unique bitcoin address identifiers and unique ad network identifiers share many of the qualities that purport to offer an anonymous user experience. Analytics companies operate by aggregating visitor information across websites, via unique identifiers. Therefore, if an individual visits Company Websites 1, 2, and 3 –assuming each website has a contractual relationship with the analytics company– the analytics company might tag each consumer visit with the same unique ID number. Without the unique ID number, the analytics company might not be able to determine that the same individual visited each of the three websites. In exchange for access to uniquely tag users on a company’s website, an analytics company might offer each website information about their users. In this manner both the analytics company and the websites gain insight about people as they browse the internet.