Comment Based on misunderstanding how transactions work (Score 1) 438
This paper is based on a misunderstanding of how Bitcoin transactions work. If I receive 10BTC, then send 7BTC to someone using the usual software, then 7BTC will go to them and the other 3 will be sent as "change" to a newly-created Bitcoin address that's added to my wallet. It's also common practice for websites that accept Bitcoins as deposits or payment to generate a new address for every customer to send coins to, so that when they send coins they can tell who sent them using the destination address alone. The authors of the study don't seem to know this, so they completely misinterpret the patterns they're finding in the blockchain. If everyone followed the suggested practices of generating a new address for every incoming transaction, then every address would be either empty, or have never had an outgoing transaction.
And speaking of websites that accept Bitcoins as deposits, the recommended security practice is to divide coins into a "hot wallet", kept on the server and used for day-to-day transactions, and a "cold wallet" that's kept off-line for security. A cold wallet should almost never be involved in transactions - but it backs peoples' deposits which are used in transactions, so it's not like it's out of circulation.