Re: [Tails-dev] Fw: Electrum doc wrt. SPV security

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Author: Minoru
Date:  
To: sajolida, tails-dev
Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] Fw: Electrum doc wrt. SPV security
> To make sure I understand the consequences of this correctly, if I
> change my receiving address is there no way of linking it to the
> previous one?


If someone used a single address for every transaction, anyone looking
at the blockchain could link multiple payments to one identity.
Electrum is a deterministic wallet that can generate an almost
unlimited number of addresses. Simply stated, there is no way to link
addresses generated from a seed. Electrum addresses look exactly the
same as any other randomly generated address on the blockchain.
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Electrum's implementation of
deterministic wallets, so I cannot reference specifics. Electrum
delayed implementing the standard of hierarchical deterministic wallets
(BIP 32) until version 2.0, but I am sure that it is similar.


On Wed, 18 Feb 2015 11:58:54 +0000
sajolida <sajolida@???> wrote:

> Minoru:
> > Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2015 23:19:43 +0000
> > From: Minoru <minoru@???>
> > To: intrigeri <intrigeri@???>
> > Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] Electrum doc wrt. SPV security
> >
> > Here is what I would write in the Electrum documentation:
> > "Do not blindly trust the bitcoin balance that Electrum displays.
> > Electrum connects to remote servers that can withhold transactions
> > from the client. Read more about the vulnerabilities of SPV in the
> > Bitcoin Developer Guide
> > [https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-guide#simplified-payment-verification-spv]."
>
> Great, thanks a lot for your patches. I added them the our Git branch,
> see
> https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature/6739-install-electrum.
>
> I still want to rephase them a bit but I'll do that later.
>
> > In addition, I saw that the Electrum documentation stated that
> > bitcoin is not anonymous. This statement is absolutely true, but I
> > would remind the user of a method to increase privacy. After
> > “bitcoin is not anonymous,” I would write:
> > “To increase privacy, remember to use a separate receiving address
> > for each transaction.”
>
> To make sure I understand the consequences of this correctly, if I
> change my receiving address is there no way of linking it to the
> previous one? For example, do my bitcoins have some kind of "serial
> number" for example? In that case, can the bitcoins I received on
> address A, be identified as the bitcoins I sent later on through
> address B?
>
> > If you ever need someone to write more bitcoin related
> > documentation, I would be happy to contribute my knowledge and time.
>
> Well noted, thanks!
>