Since its birth, the most common misconception of bitcoin is that it is a tool tailored for criminals and terrorist activities. Many media articles have published unconfirmed statements, claiming that terrorists or gangsters use bitcoin for economic support. Although many of these articles have been falsified, they leave the wrong impression in many people's minds, and even mislead some criminals.

The fact is that bitcoin books are available all over the world, and they can't be tampered with. As long as the bitcoin network is still running, every transaction will be recorded in the ledger. Bitcoin is not so anonymous as pseudoanonymous (or pseudonym or pseudonym). Although not necessarily, it is possible to establish a connection between a bitcoin address and a person's real identity. Once the connection is established, all transactions related to the address can be tracked.

When it comes to anonymity, it's interesting to compare the anonymity of bitcoin with the anonymity of the Internet: it all depends on how well you hide it and how serious the person you're looking for is. However, it is more difficult to be invisible on bitcoin than on the Internet. It's easy to get rid of a hardware device, an email address, or an IP address and never use it again, but it's hard to completely erase the traces of money from a bitcoin address. In essence, bitcoin's blockchain architecture is not suitable for stealth.

This means that it is unwise for criminals to use bitcoin for any crime with victims. The nature of pseudo anonymity in bitcoin means that addresses can be linked to real-world identities, and there will be no ultimate security no matter how many years the crime has passed. Even years later, it is possible for the police, the victims or any investigators to find a connection between that address and a real person. The clues left by bitcoin payment have become the reason why many online drug traffickers have been identified. It can be said that it is the legend of complete anonymity of bitcoin that makes them fail.

(2021-4-7)