Bitcoin Forum

I have been wanting to buy some Bitcoins for years but I have always questioned the anonymity of it all.

I recently signed up for Shadow Wallet but in reading reviews of exchanges to buy Bitcoins to move into my Shadow Wallet, they don't seem to have very good privacy reviews.

Which exchange takes their user privacy the most serious? I'd like to buy from one in a country where law enforcement can't just walk in with a court order and obtain information.

I plan on moving the coins through Shadow Wallet and keeping them in an offline wallet, the portions I plan to save anyway.

Thanks!

I believe that none does. All of them are forced to cooperate with some government, since they are a company that involves real money exchange.

If you want full privacy, you will need to buy P2P with a local trader or by using a local ATM machine.

That's the truth I thought I was going to hear, I just wanted to be sure.

A local ATM huh? I'll have to look into that. Thanks!

EDIT: Ha! There is 1 Bitcoin ATM in my entire city, owned by National Bitcoin ATM. Seems legit. Machine takes cash, I just verify with an SMS to my pre-paid (which is not under my name) and into whatever digital wallet I give it a QR code for, so I can do it straight into my Shadow Wallet. Awesome!

Now BTC-e is gone there isn't one, but even they asked for some ridiculously intense verification sometimes.

Anyone running an exchange now will be far too terrified to buck the system. There are degrees of it though. Coinbase, which is regarded as the most establishment of them all, fought off an attempt by the IRS to access their records recently.

Bitcoin isn't anonymous anyway. You'd have to be extremely diligent not to link an identity to your coins somewhere along the line.

You could look into Bitsquare.io as a fully decentralised exchange. It's fully P2P so there's no one to hand over any records. Volume isn't too high though.

I'd trade with individuals If I were you, you can do that through the forums or LocalBitcoins/Paxful. ATMs could ask you for ID, phone number verification and a picture of yourself even, exchanges overall will always ask you for ID when fiat is involved.
Back to Shadow wallet, I believe Its a wallet that you can only access through Tor? I have never tested it myself but If its an online wallet, I wouldn't go with it. If you are afraid that someone will be able to track the bought bitcoins back to you then use mixing services like ChipMixer.

Shadow Wallet is a mixer. I plan on putting my coins in it, buying a few things thru it, then putting the rest into an offline wallet for savings (Bitkey w/Electrum).

If the ATM has a camera I'll hide my face and cover the camera. According to the step by step instructions with pics on their site, it asks for no ID.

I'll check and see if there is anyone from LocalBitcoins in my area tho.

EDIT: Hahaha, as expected, not even anyone in my part of the state listed for cash transactions with no ID.

This is because the government (any government for that matter) is always afraid of something they don't have any control of. As far as monetary system is concern, the government has had been exercising control on this matter and if ever there is a revolutionary system that somehow diminishes this control then there is a big possibility of opposition from then. This may not be true with all governments but even with countries already opening their markets with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, there are regulations in place in exchange for that. In other words, anonymity is not anymore the same as it was when Bitcoin started because the government has already intervened and there are already many compromises. Anyway, we live in a world full of compromises as it can be the bargaining stick we can use.