Sure, but how long will these 50 btc block remain stale. If the currency takes of some of the initial transactions will be mostly anonymous (I doubt this, because I know of dbs that have been tracking ip address of connections etc.), but as they get used (is that what they're for) slowly we'll be able to track a btc and it's journey through the btc economy.
I don't follow...
When the DEA kicks in the door for a major drug bust, they get a list of btc addresses used for drug transactions. They can now go into the blockchain and look at every address that sent money to these accounts, and possibly track down the users.
They can see addresses, but that does not necessarily help them turn those addresses into identities.
Let's say the drug dealers used address A. They could see a transaction from B to A, and C to B, and D to C, but unless there is some link between a person's identity and one of those addresses, the transaction history is no help.
If the DEA found cash.... well.... unless your fingerprints, or the bill was marked, they aren't going to tie the cash back to the users.
Federal reserve notes have serial numbers, which may be recorded when placed into an ATM. Perhaps they then look at which bills with withdrawn by which account and/or retrieve ATM video footage. Or maybe I've been watching too many police shows.
Anyway, I agree that bitcoins
may be easier to track sometimes, but that is not necessarily true in all cases. If a person knows what they're doing, they can fairly easily obfuscate or completely erase their financial tracks.
