<blockquote>
  <p>Robber A now knows the address of the vendor. Robber A can sit and wait until someone (Victim A) purchases something from this address and has a very large Bitcoin balance.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Most vendors would generate a new receiving address for each customer, as is recommended, which would stop this from happening. It is likely Victim A would also have generated multiple addresses rather than owning all his BTC on one address.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Robber B goes to random persons house with a gun and demands a Bitcoin transfer equal to Victim B's full wallet.
  Am I missing something because it seems incredible easy for people to do? Today cash, credit, and debit robberies have preventions/limitations in place to thwart very large robberies.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>How can a cash robbery of exactly the same type be prevented? Although as above, it is unlikely the robber would know their entire amount of BTC owned, so they could not know if the victim had sent everything or not. In general you could keep large amounts of BTC stored on encrypted cold wallets off-site which any robber should not know anything about.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-17T11:51:08.893Z
Scenario 1 sounds like a good prevention. For Scenario 2, cash robbery would be limited to cash on hand. For most, that would be minimal. But the prevention here seems somewhat limited. We’d have to walk around with our mobile wallets being limited to a certain amount and top up occasionally from the offsite or third party. Right?
Ryan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-17T11:55:07.087Z
Yes, and that is suggested anyway, just like having a savings bank account. You would not carry around your life savings in your wallet or store it on your eftpos card :)
meshcollider
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-17T11:45:30.667Z
2017-11-17T11:45:30.667Z
meshcollider
<p>What prevents the following real-life robberies from happening in the future where Bitcoin or similar cryptocurrency is widely used? </p>

<ul>
<li><code>Robber A</code> goes to an infrequently-visited street vendor and buys a pack of gum with Bitcoin.  <code>Robber A</code> now knows the address of the vendor.  <code>Robber A</code> can sit and wait until someone (<code>Victim A</code>) purchases something from this address and has a very large Bitcoin balance.  <code>Robber A</code> can follow and rob <code>Victim A</code> for their entire Bitcoin wallet. </li>
<li>More generally, <code>Robber B</code> goes to random persons house with a gun and demands a Bitcoin transfer equal to <code>Victim B's</code> full wallet.  </li>
</ul>

<p>Am I missing something because it seems incredible easy for people to do?  Today cash, credit, and debit robberies have preventions/limitations in place to thwart very large robberies.  I'm not seeing the same preventions for Bitcoin.  </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-17T23:07:47.490Z
You may be interested in doing some research on `confidential transactions`. There are some videos from the bitcoin core developers this year explaining how they improve privacy, specifically for transaction amounts, on the Bitcoin blockchain.
bvpx
<wallet-security><theft>
What prevents real-life robberies in the hypothetical future where Bitcoin is widely used?
Ryan
# What prevents real-life robberies in the hypothetical future where Bitcoin is widely used?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-17)

What prevents the following real-life robberies from happening in the future where Bitcoin or similar cryptocurrency is widely used?

* `Robber A` goes to an infrequently-visited street vendor and buys a pack of gum with Bitcoin. `Robber A` now knows the address of the vendor. `Robber A` can sit and wait until someone (`Victim A`) purchases something from this address and has a very large Bitcoin balance. `Robber A` can follow and rob `Victim A` for their entire Bitcoin wallet.
* More generally, `Robber B` goes to random persons house with a gun and demands a Bitcoin transfer equal to `Victim B's` full wallet.

Am I missing something because it seems incredible easy for people to do? Today cash, credit, and debit robberies have preventions/limitations in place to thwart very large robberies. I'm not seeing the same preventions for Bitcoin.

**Tags:** wallet-security, theft

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: You may be interested in doing some research on `confidential transactions`. There are some videos from the bitcoin core developers this year explaining how they improve privacy, specifically for transaction amounts, on the Bitcoin blockchain.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-11-17. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

> Robber A now knows the address of the vendor. Robber A can sit and wait until someone (Victim A) purchases something from this address and has a very large Bitcoin balance.

Most vendors would generate a new receiving address for each customer, as is recommended, which would stop this from happening. It is likely Victim A would also have generated multiple addresses rather than owning all his BTC on one address.

> Robber B goes to random persons house with a gun and demands a Bitcoin transfer equal to Victim B's full wallet.
> Am I missing something because it seems incredible easy for people to do? Today cash, credit, and debit robberies have preventions/limitations in place to thwart very large robberies.

How can a cash robbery of exactly the same type be prevented? Although as above, it is unlikely the robber would know their entire amount of BTC owned, so they could not know if the victim had sent everything or not. In general you could keep large amounts of BTC stored on encrypted cold wallets off-site which any robber should not know anything about.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Scenario 1 sounds like a good prevention. For Scenario 2, cash robbery would be limited to cash on hand. For most, that would be minimal. But the prevention here seems somewhat limited. We’d have to walk around with our mobile wallets being limited to a certain amount and top up occasionally from the offsite or third party. Right?  
> **username_2**: Yes, and that is suggested anyway, just like having a savings bank account. You would not carry around your life savings in your wallet or store it on your eftpos card :)  

---

