[SilasX]

Thanks for the explanation!

I think the benefit of this cycling, though, is in the size, not the obscurity. That is, if 60% of the users (and 99% of the addresses) are cycling money to obscure connection to a person, then either:

- You have to accept that "Joe spent a bitcoin that was once in a crime" is insufficient evidence Joe had any connection whatsoever to it, since "most users have touched that bitcoin too"; or

- You have to make it a crime to be a part of such a cycler altogether, which would effectively require an outright ban on Bitcoin.

These conclusions follow no matter how much structure to the trades you can detect.