what about privacy?
since all transactions are public, you can just go through the blocks and trace an account to individual / groups
Bitcoin is not anonymous. It is pseudonymous. Or, as Jon Matonis describes it, Bitcoin has user-definable anonymity.
That's why no bitcoin thief has been identified from the bitcoins they've stolen -- they are using methods to protect privacy.
But there aren't many clues to tie identity to a bitcoin address unless either the sender or recipient (or both) don't care about privacy and do stuff like use a static address for receiving payments.
well really obvious ones, like for example, a account with 10,000 Bitcoin per month revenue,
The way most merchants work is that there is one Bitcoin address for each customer payment transaction.
there are only so many organizations capable of that, and through process of elimination and probably other tracing techniques, you can find out the EXACT amount of bitcoins any individual/group has.
Nope. Especially if the merchant uses a payment process (such as BitPay, or WalletBit, etc.
You might take a moment to peruse the Bitcoin wiki. Bitcoin can be a complex topic, depending on the level of detain needed, but the wiki provides some great information:
-
http://en.bitcoin.it -
http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ -
http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Introduction -
http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths -