Bitcoin Forum

Just considering bitcoin businesses, and wondering if people would make purchases online just the same, if their identity was ultimately known to the company they purchased from or through.

1.) Do you care one way or the other, and just use it as an alternate to the current central banking system?
2.) Do you like to have that option sometimes, to be anonymous in your purchases?
3.) Do you anticipate making the majority or all of your purchases online using bitcoins to be anonymous?

It should probably be considered before you vote, that one can generally not receive goods in the mail without anyone knowing who you are.

Thanks everyone for reading, and voting. Maybe it will help the community to better develop businesses around bitcoins that are favorable to the actual users of bitcoins.

If you receive something in the mail the shop obviously knows who you are, but being able to send bitcoins without revealing your real address stps the shop or anyone else from linking you to your original address and that address remains anonymous, which is always interesting.

What I really don't like is having to remember the goddamn zipcode of the house I rented the last time I changed my debit card bank info in order to buy a pair of fucking socks.

I want to: Pay, give the address I want the thing (if it's a thing) shipped to.

1-2-3: I like having the possibility to make an near anonymous purchase (shipping address an the issue). The obstacle I see is the current consumer business; purchases nowadays imply or guarantee satisfaction - they saw this as an appeal to consumers, to keep an edge on competition - which requires more info from the consumer, or awareness of store policies specific to the store (reciepts, amount of days, exchanges). That is the biggest issue on a practical side. I personally understand bitcoin, so I know that if I send a payment and forgot to include the address or contact information, I have only the hope and good grace of the business to explain the problem and hopefully see the amount as a payment I sent. Stores should offer varying levels, but state the risk in not including some information; perhaps I forgot to pickup the package at the sent address, or no name on the package is against the shipper's policy, etc. In Other Words: Make it clear to the consumer that these transactions are different than what we are used to (policies, risks, delay for confirmations of payments).

MAIN POINT: its very nice to get rid of the billing info of a transaction, that streamlines one step. Just make it obvious what the circumstances are, and whether or not refunds or other occurrences are handled in the same way as our everyday situations.


That's the frustration of the current credit payment system. Remember, when it first came out, swiping an imprint unto duplicate, calling up the merchant to verify amount, handing the phone over to the carholder for him to answer questions? Probably not, but for awhile that was the norm. Then it became reimbursements on false purchases, checking the signature. Now, we have security codes, PINs. Billing zipcode are now common, to verify the identity of the cardholder, who would know the billing address.

The systems in place came about in responses to problems. Fraud, whether anonymous or back in the days by lending a card to a friend, having it signed on the back, a note from the cardholder giving permission.

What I love is the customers who scribble out the numbers except for the last four, on our merchant copy. Does nothing. You agree to this purchase, then we can get quite a bit of info if circumstances warrant. That use to be a thing against dumpster diving, back when fraud had to be a physical act of acquiring it. The waiter or cashier has that info too. But people don't realize such things.

This last part is with banks, though I'm quoting a reliable friend. Apparently you can easily find out routing and tracking numbers (one being your account). I'm pretty sure you could call up a phone order and pay with that info, or at least use to. He also told me the IRS can take owed dues straight from your account, whether you agree or know about it. He owed money to them, and I'm never looked up specifics to double check his story; But I know the beginnings of checks had all sorts of things that seem strange nowadays, but they never reworked the system, just appended it.

Yes, anonymity is what attracted many people here in the first place. Unfortunately, bitcoin is not as anonymous as many people think. If you want to help make bitcoin more anonymous please see the following thread:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=6354.msg347433#msg347433

+1

Identity verification for using credit cards is a never ending escalation.  Used to be all that was needed was the number.  The very information merchants have to collect to verify identity is what the criminals need to steal it.  It's insecure by nature.  Bitcoin solves this problem quite elegantly and you can always add back all the trusted third party or escrow type features that you need for the particular situation.  Merchants only need to collect the information they require to conduct their business (there's no need to collect information used solely to verify a customer's identity).

I prefer cash in the grocery store, because neither is my banking information the grocery's business nor is my choice of food my banks business.

Bitcoin will make that easier, because the main problem of cash is that you can't perfectly distinguish counterfeit bills from real ones. And with Bitcoin you can have that also shopping online.

exactly.

anonymity is a function of trust.  merchants don't need to know anything at all about you, if they can be absolutely certain they've actually received payment.  all the bullshit we go through to make online payments with credit cards and PayPal is about establishing trust.  Bitcoin is trust.

Once you strip away the desire for anonymity, bitcoin loses it's purpose.  And considering how the poll is going...well, is anyone surprised?

no.

"Once you strip away the desire for anonymity..." you begin to understand what the real purpose of Bitcoin is.

Bitcoin is one world currency.

Nonsense. Bitcoin is not anonymous to begin with. The important feature is that Bitcoin is decentralized. Nobody can stop or revert transactions.

The possibility of privacy is necessary for people to accept Bitcoin, because all transactions are in the big public logfile.

Yes, the most important feature is the fact that it's decentralized. Not the anonymity factor.

Ahh sorry guys I thought the huge push into bitcoins was spurred on by an article about an anonymous drug market only accessible by TOR that was accepting bitcoins.  I guess I imagined all that.  My bad.

That was just a bad dream. Nobody does anything illegal.