Bitcoin Forum

So regarding BTC, I understand why people use it.
So you can't be tracked down, it's useful, it's fast, etc etc.

But do you remain anonymous because of blackhat related activities?
Do you just not want to be known?

I personally don't care. I just think that BTC is a great investment for me.
Is Anonymity not that important to you?

I think it used to be only important if you were doing something wrong or that you didn't want known.   As time has progressed, the surveillance that is done on the general public has gotten to the point where it is almost scary.   Day by day anonymity is becoming more and more important.

True.
So it's just the public watching you that most people are afraid of?
Because everyone can report it and social media is so easily accessible now?

And also because you just don't want some transactions to be known?

It is important to me because I would rather not a bunch of random people knowing my personal financial business.

It's not just important to me. It's the number one concern.

They can STILL see your purchases and what you've sent out if they know your BTC address can't they?
So you're still being watched.

As others have mentioned, the increasing surveillance of citizens doing nothing wrong (e.g. the NSA adding people to a watch list for merely searching privacy related terms) is unacceptable to me. This intrusion extends to financial matters where the government is overly paternalistic and have overreached their authority. For example, most reputable foreign online casinos will not accept US players due to repercussions from the US government. I don't want/need the government trying to protect me from myself, and it's not their role, or shouldn't be anyway.

Another example, if I decide to give a family member some money to help them out and it exceeds $13k, then the IRS requires they pay taxes on that money. Where in the hell does the IRS get the idea that they get a cut when family members want to help each other out? Absolutely f*#king ridiculous. So when I learned about bitcoin, I started using it as much as possible.

Imagine your best friend; someone you trust with your life asks you to show him/her all your emails, text messages, phone conversations and what you buy or sell. This person will then permanently record everything. Would you allow it?

Now imagine a faceless entity having access to all that information.

Bitcoin is hardly anonymous in itself...

I don't want some people tracking me from my activities in internet
i bought something, i purchase something, that's my personal action ;D
there's no IRS here, and tax collector (still) don't interest in bitcoin
but who knows in the future, better to prepare it

i dont mind any one tracing me.
i think alot of people want to be anonymous for no reason other than they want to be anonymous.

i remember a thread recently some one was giving tips to be anonymous and he had his bitcoin address in his signature and some one traded it to multiple exchanges. it was pretty funny. everybody is an expert here :)

If you run a business, you don't want people to figure out who your buyers and suppliers are.

In some industries *cough*porn*cough* what you are doing is perfectly legal but stalkers are crazy.

1. You buy some medication online, or post about some medical condition on Facebook.
2. Datamining
...
3. Profit! (At your expense, as your healthcare quadruples in price.)

You might think you have 'nothing to hide' but do you really want to be fleeced even more than you already are by insurance companies?

Anonymity is a human necessity. If it was not, we wouldn't need curtains in our windows. But in today's world people seem to have forgotten the importance of privacy, and they are madly exposing all their lives, all the personal and private details online, just because it is "cool": "just because my neighbour has a popular face book profile, mine must be more popular"... "I'll post my hot selfies and everyone is gonna like it", etc...

If it was just that, it would be nonsense enough... but fine, each one knows his/her own limits anyway... but it is not only that: the companies/governments will misuse all this free info. We are beeing tagged, followed, watched, controlled. It's becoming a scary Orwellian world, and I refuse to colaborate with it.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e152/AvenueTwo/dipshit.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/user/AvenueTwo/media/dipshit.jpg.html)

I am concerned that an attacker would find out how much bitcoin I have in my possession, subjecting me to a number of hacking attempted/attacks.

If the government is determine to prosecute someone, they can find any excuse to make it happen.

Having anonymity make it harder for them.

Suffer, bitch.

Depending on the country you live (for example, Brazil), if the wrong person knows your balance (in this case, BTC balance) you can be sure you or one of your loved ones will be kidnapped.

+7

It's not a matter of what you want to hide. It's a matter of what other people what to know from you.

To most people, we don't want to hide anything. Or there is no need to hide anything. But anonymous is not just for hiding, the more important, it protects you from other people who what to seek through your whole information and then make some action.

When you use the non-anonymouse coin, people can know your whole financial information. Then, they can study you and find out your weak point.
Boom~ you're doomed.

I have nothing to hide frankly, but my financial details are my business. I choose to take measures to defend my privacy. If someone really wanted to find out if I am a bitcoin holder they could but I certainly don't advertise it. The problem I have with the NSA and all of that is that we were never given a choice and there was never a requirement to prove probable cause before they stole our personal information.

Only reason you have nothing to hide is because you have a poor imagination.

My AliceWonder username - I sometimes post pictures of snakes with my real name on it.
I don't care, it's just an internet handle.

Today someone on reddit I've never met before didn't like something I said (imagine that! LOL) and said they did a background search on me, revealing my real name.

I don't give a sh*t but it is freaky that some background database has compiled that about me.

Maybe they got it from snake pics or more likely a domain registration - but even though I don't really care to keep who I am secret, it's still freaky that a publicly accessible database somewhere has it.

Oh, and I am thinking about exercising my second amendment rights and buying a gun. This guy seemed to think I am a transvestite (nope) and seemed to hate them, and well, that group has a lot of senseless violence committed against it by freaky people. So...

Yes, we all are too much vulnerable with all this online indiscriminate (mandatory) exposure which allows anyone to acquire our private info, gaining the ability to misuse it and cause us harms.

woah, thats an interesting perspective.

I should have clarified that a bit. I have nothing to hide legally. I prefer to keep my online identity online and far away from my personal life.

Everyone should exercise their 2nd amendment right. Personal security isn't something we should take lightly. If you do get one it is very much worth your time to take classes and spend some time at a range learning to use it effectively.

...

@ AliceW and Cicero above (and everyone)

We live in a time where our .gov and many others are sticking their nose into our business & wallets and taking away our rights!  Anonymity is a right, almost a duty.

So is our Second Amendment.  Yes, please do buy a gun, and learn to use it right.  The more who are armed, the harder it will for them to take our rights away.

And with learning a few techniques, you can vastly increase your privacy using BTC.  Mixing services.  A used laptop that you bought for cash there at the pawnshop.  Sending your BTC around to your wallets (at less than 10 cents, why not), and creating more...!

You almost have to think like a spy nowadays just to have some tranquility!

really?

bitcoin is anonymous... right up until the second that someone tells the world their financial life story

This is why you need to back up your wallets and protect them.

I never actually thought of it that way.
Now that you say that, BTC can still be traced by your IP can't it?

Until someone discover your real identity and trying to scam you.

Anonymity is important because it is our right. It's especially more important now with all this blanket survialance that is goin on. Bitcoin can be a tool to help fight this.

In my case I just think it's nobody's business if I just want to buy a book, a bicycle or a condo without any middlemen getting involved. Sure the anonymous nature of Bitcoin is going to attract the black market types, but then, any new technology is going to attract criminal elements that think they can get away with using it in an illegal or unethical fashion. (And I say "think" because so many of the bad actors in the Bitcoin world have gotten caught.) For me, it's not about having anything to hide. It's about having a reasonable expectation that I can go above my business without anybody else sticking their nose into it.

Ever heard of proxies?

Your identity can be discovered even with a proxy. If an attacker can figure out the IP address of the proxy that transmitted the TX then the attacker could go to the proxy and find out the IP address that was connected to the proxy

That's why you use elite fully aonymous proxies through a VPS which you only access through another set of elite anonymous proxies and then never from your home or office location.

TRACK THAT!

Well if the government gets involved they can track you down regardless if you have a vpn or not.
Pretty sure a lot of people got caught for a black hat program even if they paid with btc.

Bitcoin offers a private transaction free from bank accounts or the need for fraud prevention identification services. No social security number is needed. No address or phone number is required. Nobody you do business with has any information about you worth sharing or any common identification means to do so. What more do you want and why?

I don't wand people to know that I own a metric crapton of BTC. I can barely store them, they just take up too much space. If people are aware of you BTC holdings, you may become the target of people intending to steal them. Also I guess a lot of people may want to hide their BTC from tax authorities.

There is a small chance BTC becomes "the weapon of terrorism" and anyone that has ever owned it is to be executed.  I'd prefer it not to be known I owned BTC at that point.  Lets be honest though.. the gov already knows I own btc lol.

because nobody accepts dollars for drugs.  only bitcoins

even walmart doesn't sell meth )(Beznadzdrex)

It's important to me. 

See: https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/19

If you believe that more emphasis should be given to funding basic bitcoin development, and also to anonymity projects, please check out this open issue, and leave your remarks on Github or here (and please share).

Well if I do get one, as I am not allowed to drive (Epilepsy) and California does not allow either open or concealed carry, it would be kind of hard for me to go to a range...

Your problems are not shared by most people. There are ways to mix bitcoins in your situation. As far as tax authorities, I don't know why they would care about your bitcoins unless you owe them money.

guess there are several reasons, bad and good ones. if you are interested in this, visit:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.msg3878992#msg3878992

I just don't need the government all up in my business! :-*

it's important to me because we are living in the times where privacy is disappearing. having your own space to be yourself is where a lot of creative people create. and more importantly, taking everyone's privacy away is key to establishing a totalitarian society.

Anonymity?? just another illusion....

I like the idea of being anonymous. But I don't pretend it's the reality. :)

Currently the US can't tax btc.

I feel like this is just a way to avoid taxes placed on us by the IRS.

If the anonymity trick proves to be stable, then there is no doubt it will be forked into Bitcoin. This is about technology development over social morality. Society will have to adjust to lawlessness as they did in the stone age. It will absolutely force people to use coin validation for their own personal safety and for exactly the same reasons that you cannot buy enriched uranium at Walmart.

Anonymous money will allow enriched Uranium sellers to sell their material with no risk of getting caught. It will allow kidnappers to snatch your children or wife with no risk of getting caught. There have already been attempts of extortion and plenty of drug sales because of Bitcoin's pseudonymity. Be careful what you wish for. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

I personally think there's no possible way to TAX BTC.
I mean we have transfer fees but they're virtually non existent.

Walmart charges sales tax. If they accepted Bitcoin, they would continue to do so. Many people work for cash and don't pay taxes on their income because there is no possible way to TAX CASH.

Why is privacy so important for you? Why is personal space so important for you? Why can't I fuck your wife? Sharing is caring

Right on the mark!

+1

It wouldn't be that bitcoin could become a weapon that terrorists use, but it is rather that bitcoin could potentially allow terrorists to move money around without anyone knowing.

It's important to me and not only for btc but in general because it isn't anyones business
how much gas I purchase a month. Or How much coffee I consume in a month. as examples
It has nothing to do with illegalities but in knowing that someone knows how boring my life is better than me.
Which is why I pay cash for my groceries and gas and use other peoples loyalty cards.

Non-Sequitur. Do you fuck every wife that tells you her name?

It's much easier to take your picture from a hidden camera and positively ID you even if you use cash.

I would rather nit a bunch if strangers knowing my personal info. Nor do I want coworkers knowing how much I make.

Nothing is free, anonymity also comes with a price. Maybe bitcoin 2.0 will address that problem.

Then don't tell them.

it's not that important. most of what matters has KYC.

Horseshit.

Anonymity is important to me because no one needs to know what I'm doing. Im not saying I'm involved in criminal activities but, I like my privacy.

1. I don't have to report anything
2. I don't have to pay tax on it. Just the small transaction fee.
3. It finally gives people(in my opinion)some financial freedom.
4. No one knows how much money I have.
5. I don't have to pay a bank $15 a month for an account. The days of getting interest from banks is gone.
6. No one knows what I do with my money or how I spend it.
7. I have no limit on how much I can deposit or withdrawal

I could go on and on. Some of these reasons aren't necessarily for anonymity, but more so reasons to use bitcoin.  

Sorry to burst the bubble but bitcoin is not anonymous as it currently stands.

Although I don;t think Bitcoin is all that anonymous. With all the prying eyes in the NSA I prefer my transactions to be private. They have no business knowing what I do with my money. I also have the freedom of not having to answer any questions about where I got my money, did I pay tax, how much I deposit or withdraw. Almost no fees to move around money. Bitcoin to me is freedom to won wealth without having to explain it.

because i don't want tax collector chase me in he future
if my government decide to tax bitcoin

Hello AliceWonder,

I perked up when I saw your post.  

I also have epilepsy (almost my entire life).

Like you I presently live in California (hard to say how long that will still be the case, but at present, that's where I am).

I am allowed to drive being as my epilepsy is controlled by medication.  I am fortunate in that respect, I suppose.  I just got done with a medical review that cleared me again, although the doctors can technically order my license revoked if ever they have a concern.  At one time some years ago my license was revoked for medical reasons, but after a very long time of review and an appeals process, I was able to secure the license to drive again.  I know, though, that most people with epilepsy can not be cleared to drive after their medical review.    

Most of the time if I am going on a long journey then someone else drives or I'll take a bus, but it's good to be cleared to drive.

When it comes to CCW licensing, not being able to drive may be an issue, or it may not.  Check with your doctor.  For many people with a disability, you're not limited in that regard unless you feel your health conditions make it an issue.  I'm part of Disabled Americans for Firearm Rights.  You can see that here: http://www.dafr.org/

You mentioned that California doesn't allow open or concealed carry.  That's not exactly the case.  It's true that in California there is no open carry (they revoked it some years back, including revoking the open carry provision that used to allow people to carry rifles freely around, now the rifle has to be in the case all the time until you get to your range position or are within an area where hunting is allowed).  

However, concealed carry is allowed in California.  The requirements differ broadly from county to county, but it recently got easier to concealed carry, so it probably makes sense to get your training and get a concealed carry license - even if you don't concealed carry, the training that comes with the license process is worth it.  I don't like all the checks that come with it and the questions they ask of everyone as part of the review process, but if you are into getting a good level of training, it's worth it.  I am a TKD brown belt and until recently volunteered as an assistant instructor for a local studio, part of what we practiced constantly was gun and knife defense, to be able to disarm attackers with our hands under certain opportune conditions.  Training is really important for everyone ~ even if you don't own or carry, get some.  Knowledge helps you to survive.

If you are interested in non-lethal carry training check out:  The Defenders http://www.pdws.biz/ (yes, the same as used in "Men Who Stare At Goats") You can get certified to train others in that here:  http://www.pdws.biz/Become_an_Instructor.html
I can personally attest to the effectiveness of the The Defender tools.  In a variety of situations and environments, it is more advantageous than a firearm or a blade.  But as with all things, if you do not receive training and engage in regular practice, you will not be prepared to utilize it when you need to.

CAL-FFL is a partner with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in a lawsuit against the NSA -- for details on this, see:
https://www.eff.org/cases/first-unitarian-church-los-angeles-v-nsa

CAL-FFL and Calguns have a guide for those who are interested in training or license for CCW (concealed carry) in California.  You need not actually own to be trained, but you can get familiarity with a variety of pistols, which is way, way better than being unfamiliar and untrained.  For those, like me, who are in California, I recommend you not only get your CA CCW (which is likely to be specific just to your county), but as well, get the AZ permit which covers a lot of states.
That page is at:  http://www.calgunsfoundation.org/carry/
Background: http://www.calgunsfoundation.org/2014/03/cgf-publishes-new-carry-license-application-resources-faqs/

So now to the issue that is more particularly the topic of this thread:  bitcoin, and anonymity.

1) Bitcoin.  Not like it matters what the law says about it as we'll use it anyway, but it's a relief to know that in California, all decentralized virtual currencies / decentralized virtual currency users don't have to worry about California trying to prosecute us.
Note the passage of AB 129, recently signed by the Governor, which basically was just a law to repeal the State's prior prohibitions on alternativer currences:
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB129


2) Anonymity.  Do you support bitcoin development, and support anonymity?  I do.  Anonymity is absolutely vital especially if you live in places like NY State, China, or the Russian Federation - all places that have in the recent passed launched legal assaults on the bitcoin community.  
Presently bitcoin is not anonymous.  However, you can find out how to use it while masking your IP address, at:
https://twitter.com/BFEduComm/status/491291754055094272
And if you want to help encourage both more funding for bitcoin development generally _and_ help support anonymity, weigh in here and let the Foundation know:

https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/19

(If you don't already have a github account, it's easy to sign up for one.)

Thank you

Oceans, yes!

I would love to see you weigh in here:
https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/19

Thanks, if you can.

Regarding number 4.
If they have your wallet...
Can't they track how much wallet you're receiving and sending?
Or is that JUST for certain online wallets?

Anonymity is protection and defence from abuse.

When a system is corrupt and under monopoly control, such as the US dollar, most new regulations brought it are brought it to limit competition and increase control over resources by those that have it.

I'm not sure what the prevailing opinion is. But I'm under the opinion that money should be issued by a government but not controlled by a government, money should be controlled only by those who own it. Bitcoin is just a more logical and simply better system. An anonymous coin such as Darkcoin appeals to me. Regulation is control is protection coming from the haves against the have-nots.

Generally speaking, any website-based wallet (what you called an online wallet) or any website-based exchange can readily and does track how much you are spending, some request a great deal of info from you,  others not as much.  But as website-based business models (your information, your keys, your data, through their website and on their server), they can be required (and are vulnerable to) requests to give up information about you to whatever silly state or federal government requests it.  While website-based businesses that retain your information on their servers could mitigate this problem through use of zero-knowledge proofs and stealth transaction implementation, most choose not to (or simply don't have the technical skill to do so).

Hence the reasoning for decentralized software and full (Bitcoin Core) or lighter (Electrum) wallets, and usage of those wallets with Tor (( see https://twitter.com/BFEduComm/status/491291754055094272 )), as well as the advantage of using decentralized markets (BitXBay, Mastercoin Decentralized Exchange, Cloakcoin (Onemarket), NightTrader / BlackHalo, others) instead of centralized, website based exchanges.

If you own your keys and manage your own data in a decentralized, peer to peer framework, that is a functional solution to avoid censorship of what you are doing, but depending on how you choose to manage your behavior online, you may not be anonymous when you do so.

With that said, the need for anonymity (at the very least as an option) is obvious, so go here and weigh in if you dare:

https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/19

Anonymity important to some because they aren't wanting to get "market data" targeted ad's constantly.  If you think it isn't coming to bitcoin soon just wait and see!

It is not important to normal people who use bitcoin, but only important to some people who....

Anonymity?
Seriously?
You wouldn't like everyone here know how much money you have would you?
Anonymity is the best feature of bitcoin.
Bitcoin wouldn't be as popular as it currently is without anonymity!!!  8) 8) 8)

It is very much relevant, you would expect a 13 year old child to already understand why privacy and/or anonymity are important yet you find manchildren in their 30s asking this question.

Blockchain analysis techniques have totally removed Bitcoins anonymity, It is just a case of how many resources the forensic analysis team have at their disposal.
If you are talking of an individual Bitcoin users anonymity against aggressive government agencies then even employing mixers and 1 shot addresses is going to be ineffective.

There are some newer Cryptocoins that tout anonymity using various methods of blockchain obfuscation ,of these Darkcoin has the most promise IMO as the development team has been the most transparent and have come up with several unique inovations that other coins were quick to clone.
Darkcoins unique Darksend+  blockchain obfuscation system is currently undergoing an independent code and feature review from noted Crypographer and Crypto coin expert Kristov Atlas, the results of Kristov's analysis are due in about a week

I like anonymity for the same reason one the above quote excelt one thing, I will pay my tax though and give Zakkath but now I didn't reach the any limit. I don't like cheating my own country. :)
Kindly,
         MZ

There are actually a couple of altcoins which put anonymity as their most important feature,
they won't substitute bitcoin but can introduce some interesting ideas to develope a complete anonimous coin.

Good points.  If people choose to use a coin, that is an exercise of their democratic freedoms. If people find a coin unfair, they can choose to use an alternative coin. That looks to me like the ultimate form of democracy: direct voting on the preferred currency, which is superior to representative democracy, IMHO.

Yes but this system ultimately suffers from the same drawbacks or trade-offs than democracy has in the political system: People are forced to live with the strongest faction. If many of the altcoins don't succeed, people will have to use bitcoin. But I agree, that it is still the best system we can apply.

Anonymity is not important to me at all.
I don't care.
I just think that BTC is useful.

I think it is important, if there is any personal information included it will cause much trouble

No one would be forced to use bitcoin as fiat will likely always be a viable option in the developed world.

It seems most people don't know the difference between private and anonymous. They are listing reasons why they want privacy, not anonymity.

Why do I need to tell a bunch of strangers on the internet who I am, what I do?    That is usually walking down a slippery rope if I must say so.

Plus if you do end up getting a good profit off of your coins...well, people seem to be able to find a way to be your long lost cousin who just needs 10 dollars and it will be okay, or will sue you because he slipped near your house...

Kind of true.
I for one like my privacy.
But being anonymous is kind of strange to me.

Anonymity is very important. It's not only for those who have something to hide, but for people who merely value their privacy. Just because we arent doing anything wrong doesnt mean it's ok for the government to therefor peer into our lives. This blanket surveilance they have has got to stop.

It is important for me. My financial position or personal information is known by third parties who may abuse all the information. Other parties intends to push advertisement to us based on the info they get.It is so annoying.

I think it's great to be able to buy stuff online without using your credit card or giving them the ability to steal your identity. Why would someone need to know what I'm buying online, maan?

As I understand it, Darkcoin just uses CoinJoin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279249.0) transactions that you can already do with Bitcoin. The unrelated darkwallet (https://darkwallet.is/) should let you do the same thing with stock Bitcoin.

I think that Crypotnote-based (https://cryptonote.org/) currencies show the most promise for privacy. They use "ring signatures" to obfuscate who spent specific coins. Double spending is stopped by something they call a "key image" that is somehow tied to your private key. They also split up the denominations of transactions like darksend+ apparently does.

Although the Darksend functionality of Darkcoin was originally based on coinjoin it has undergone at least 3 major rewrites since it was implemented and is now far more versatile and effective as a method of trustless blockchain obfuscation.

The main advantages over Ring sigs are the lack of any blockchain bloating ( Darkcoin blockchain = 300mb ish) and the fact that the API is unchanged from Bitcoins so merchant adoption is straightforward and proven whereas  all the Cryptonote/Ring Signature based coins will require a complete API rewrite from the merchant side before they will be able to process payments.

Bitcoin has no privacy (all transactions are public). If you want to reclaim some privacy, you need to be anonymous. Unfortunately, Bitcoin only supports pseudo-annonymity: meaning any anonymity (and resulting privacy) is fragile.

I don't want to spam this tread with tons of darkcoin related info but as there seems to be some interest in Cryptocoins that can provide the kind of blockchain privacy lacking from bitcoin ATM.
So I willl post this illustration from darkcointalk showing how the current implementation protects the end user from unwanted identification via blockchain analysis .

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah34/mystik_al/darkcoin_zps23c84d99.jpeg

Precisely my point.
It's pretty much impossible for the common person to be using BTC.
There's another thread on here where it's said that your IP address will always be associated with your wallet.

Elite private proxies anyone?

Well I guess.
To the common person that's plausible.
What about the black hats.
How are they going to be anonymous with exhanges when the gov comes and busts them down?

Oh, Probecito!

I AM the "Blackhat" to whom you refer.

LOL!

You don't think we can get around all of that?

Think again.

Have a nice whitehat day while the government fucks you to death.

You are a good example. The air you breathe is public too. Does that threaten your privacy?

There are so many things going wrong these days. Databases leak on a weekly basis. You just buy something at Target and suddenly it appears that your Credit Card information got stolen. If you can't trust people to handle your data responsibly you just have to take care of that yourself!

Yup. Also, if i were to buy something ilegal (not that i've ever bought anything ilegal) but if someone wants to go to say SilkRoad, why would they use Bitcoin if something like XMR exists tho? Like why would you want to leave traces on the blockchain or whatnot? I don't know.
Isn't all of this solved if you just create a diffrent recieving address each time tho? It's a bit of a pain in the ass but should do the job.

Yeah well, until you - at some point - forward the BTC in those addresses to some address on an exchange or pool them all in one address. It only remains anonymous as long as it isn't connected to some known entity (address)

Also this.
Why not use ltc of dark coin or what not?

There is no personal or IP information in the blockchain. Data mining is futile. The NSA is overwhelmed. This is a typical tinfoil hat argument.

I want a digital version of cash. I cant buy into a poker game with a check, paypal, or a VISA card

It's not important to me as i'm not doing anything i should be afraid of, but, i do understand that there are many LEGAL situations where ppl need anonimity and it's cool to know that if i eve need to "dissapear" for some time, BTC in combination with other tools can help.

It is for privacy reasons. If you dont value that then ok

Same reasons i like to use cash.

There are mixers that are near free that would solve this problem

When protecting one's privacy including financial details. I think anonymity is important.

Anonymity is very important if we want to preserve the freedom of speech. Recently, a lot of anti-Drug cartel bloggers were murdered in Mexico, after the cartels traced back their identity through sophisticated tracking tools. I don't want criminals to target net users.

That question is like asking why you wear clothes. The simple answer is privacy.

The reason why it is so important to me is because the governments are kicking up a fuss about censoring this, censoring that, because of "fear of terrorism and public safety" and stuff. I find it outrageous that they use such a pathetic excuse to cover up what blatantly is just to sensor each and every single person and be able to have access to be able to transfer funds from MY and YOUR bank accounts without premission, internet history logs, they already have blocked some websites on my router. I could sit here and list all day long but I think you all get my drift.

Fuck the government.

Anonymity is not a problem for me as I have not completed any kind of transactions that could cause me problems if I was found out to be the person who made the transaction. I do like having that option to be able to show as anonymous when making transactions as it's privacy which I feel we are all entitled to.

Bitcoin is not anonymous, at all. Simply put, there are programs out there and in the making, that track every address associated to a designated Bitcoin address, and can interlock transactions between other known addresses of exchanges etc, to find the identity of the user if she/he cashes out via subpoena.

There goes Bitcoin's pseudo-anonymity.

Anonymity isn't important to me but its a plus. Having an Anonymity is a good thing because a user not publicly known
to have enormous amount in the wallet will be a target of scammers.

I won't be doing something illegal anyway so I'm sure people who will transact with me will know my real name since it skype Id is my real name.

Yeah I really dont care either, it needs to be slightly anonymous though since it is a public ledger so i agree on that at least.

Maybe you wouldn't get in trouble, but would you want everyone that you ever meet to get to see how much you make and what you spend your money on? I don't know about you but I certainly do not want this.

Because not one single banker in the entire world has gone to prison for manipulating markets. Not one. And the banking industry knows what everyone spends on their credit cards.

Think of the internet like a mall....

You don't go to the mall, talk to every person there, tell them your name, where your live, and your work schedule.....

You don't give your credit card to a stranger and tell them to hold it and you will be right back


Poor examples...but why would you want people to know who you are on the internet?

Imagine criminals being able to track all your transactions and identify you. That's scarier than having the NSA tracking your transactions.

Right.

Best way to avoid getting robbed is not showing your wealth.

"When the government is restrained, the people are free. When the government is free, the people are enslaved."
-Stefan Molyneux

Liberty is why anonymity is important to me.

The fact that you fear the word "criminal" more than you fear unconstitutional state monitoring agencies is a sign of the success of state propaganda.

The NSA is a criminal organization. It has no legitimacy whatsoever, much like the Federal Reserve.

Its not, but still I dont mind being private :)

Put it this way its harder to track than Direct Debit, Credit Card... And then using Dark Wallet and there will be other programs that will be created just as there are programs that are created to track. And If bitcoin becomes more widely adopted, as in --- you can buy your grocery with Bitcoin, Rent , Bills, Etc etc.... This means people will start accepting it and not needing to change into dollars also.. so as adoption takes place and the less likely we have to exchange how beloved BTC to dam Fiat.... this will make it even more hard to track as all they see is an address no name linked or ID.

Its the On-ramp & Off-ramps from Fiat To BTC and back again, that eventually make our identities known

Me personally? I really don't care for most things that I buy if people know what I am buying.

If it's not important to you please post your full name and address here please.

https://github.com/ABISprotocol/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/commit/f8890546d64ebeb08253cb500981c490482db405 (pull request, responsive to issue #19 ("Anonymity and Funding"), for Bitcoin Foundation Bylaws).

I also can add to this point.
After all of that happens, your IP address can be connected to your BTC address.
That's why I also think BTC isn't anonymous at all. Well, anymore.

It never was fully anonymous. It's a misconception spread by MSM.

Bitcoin is as anonymous as you want it to be.

By default transactions can be tracked. If you use mixers, multiple wallets and don't tie your real ID to any of the address it's basically anonymous.

IP to address is a whole different matter, but it's easy to defend against. (use your brain)

Your comment reflects that bitcoin was anonym once and it's being destroyed which is not the case at all.

Privacy is essential in maintaining the balance of power between the people and the state. Anonymity is necessary as well when nearly everything online is tracked.

To me the littLe bit of anonimity is a bonus and not priority.. my no 1 is the future deflation and the technology as whole is genious

If people see how much money you have, they will follow you home...

To my mind, anonymity is not so important as a possibility of it

You can choose to be relatively anonymous. If I had 30 different addresses in 30 different wallets filled with BTC mined through p2pool, how would you even know those addresses belonged to me?

Anyway, the reason anonymity is important is because my financial transactions are nobody's business.

Its not essential but its a nice benefit.

For me it doesn't really matter, as for most people I play mostly on the right side of the law.

Common law > Legislation

I have kids etc. I want them to realise the importance of self protection / preservation in an increasingly wired up world.

If Anonymity was so important to the people here who claim it is. Then they would have surely moved to Bytecoin since that would mean, being anonymous is worth more than speculating on BTC price. Since they haven't they are lying for some sort of moral superiority.

Though it is possible to be truly anonymous in BTC instead of begging and crying and whining to have the developers implement it in the code base for you if you just don't expect everything to be silver spoon fed to you and you go out and practice anonymous habits in the bitcoin space.

Exactly. Nobody promised anonymity with Bitcoin. That is just wishful thinking by libertarians. They can always use gold.

That's true^, but for the average bitcoin user, they believe that it is already anonymous, and they wouldn't think to do something like that(30 diff mining wallets)

True. We're never promised full anonymity. Our internet packets are always sent to our isp.
Also, gold would obviously never be used practically for the average joe. Lol.
Even new services like stellar won't be all about anonymity. Just convenience.

Real world business application for anonymity.  I have a source that never changes his address.  So, I can see how much he sells to other clients and how much BTC he has incoming.  Using that info, I can usually ask a fair price and know I'm not getting over charged.  This is why generating a new address is important. 

Would you want your competition to know for how much you purchase your inventory?

How often and when?

From what sources?

At what prices you sell among different customers?

How much you earn per year?

BItcoin shouldnt have to be anonymous, I mean it was intended for it like that long ago, but Im sure that not what Satoshi true intentions was, im sure he knew that was going to major role in making business for the bitcoin.

There has never been true financial anonymity before. If it is possible, it should be regulated until we know the sociological consequences. I'm not concerned about the tax or privacy issues, those have other means to be addressed. I'm concerned about complete lawlessness and it's impact on families. The Old West was not a place for genteel folks.

That's exactly the point. It's not about "I'm not doing anything forbidden, why would I have to worry?" It is the simple fact that such things are nobody's business to even begin with! That's why we need Bitcoin!

Well I'm not sure what satoshis true intentions were.
He's not into btc anymore i believe and he refuses to talk about it, seeing as he has denied countless interviews.

You are discussing privacy, not anonymity.

Anonymity is for me some kind of online protections because I don't want that my financial info become public info, available to hackers but also to financial institutions in my county.
''Big brother'' doesn't need to know everything :)

We have 8 billion people on this planet.
Why should we be a suspect of crimes even if we did nothing wrong?  ???

Its like a warm blanket...

Anonymity is a Unicorn. It's beauty lives in the imagination only.

Yeah, but privacy is a difficult thing to achieve. And one of the ways to achieve exactly that goal is anonymity or pseudonymity. It is a mere tool to achieve or protect you privacy.

Privacy is much easier to achieve than you think. Pseudonymity is temporary privacy. True anonymity is likely impossible.

Yeah you're right. But you can just try and do your best to avoid being snooped on every occasion. I don't need companies to manufacture some profile of my shopping habits or where I'm buying my stuff.

Deterministic wallets with coin control will do this. Armory, Blockchain.info, and Electrum come to mind.

I dont care about anonymity at all, its global unified currency. No more currency exchanges needed, all this hasle. Thats main advantage for me.

I think this day and age the question should be why is anonymity not so important to you.  With all these devices on the open market that have the ability to surveil people without their knowing.  Does privacy concerns mean you have something bad to hide?  For me it is only something I like to have as an option if I find my privacy is not being respected.  Consider it preparation for an uncertain future.

yes at any time we will definitely need anonymity
because of online transactions also do not have the law, since the occult stuff.
so anonymity is important if at any time it happens it is not in want right

Security and convenience are a never ending war of trade-offs. I would rather spend a little extra effort mixing my coins that keep in an alt that doesn't have even a fraction of the hashing power behind it.

True.
The governmet wants to tax everything they can and they want to watch every currency.
Even currencies that don't 'belong' to them.
I don't tend to mix my coins either.
I have nothing to hide.

This is not true if you think for the long term. Over short periods it takes a little bit longer to setup security, however you generally will only need to do this a limited number of times.

Very true. Even google changed their ToA, to state that they have the right to see user's emails/inbox etc.

Yeah, they will. I didn't say that Bitcoin doesn't allow you to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. I think the way Electrum does this is a very nice thing. The seed is very easy to remember (or better: keep offline in a safe place) and you can easily reconstruct all the addresses you've used with it!

Google uses this so they can provide advertisements to your inbox effectively, so they can charge more for adsense and make more money.

they don't want to pay taxes i think, i can't see other reasons, beside the normal illegal activity

from other topic:



Because there are dickkers that will make everything to associate you with criminals activities if you are known for you bitoin envolvemtns, and this can be a pain and cause you trouble.

It may get easier over time to keep yourself secure, however it will always take more time to secure your money and identity then for them to not be secure. Being secure however does eliminate a lot of risks associated with holding even small amounts of bitcoin.

See NSA prism program.

No need to mix yourself soon, check darkcoin on testnet:

https://darkcointalk.org/threads/rc4-testing.1830/page-80 win and mac binaries part way down that page.

Testnet faucet: https://drkipn.com/test/faucet/

Because people don't want every aspect of their lives open for everyone to see.

It isn't important to me as you can see I'm using my real name on a forum but I can see why it's important to others, these days the smallest pieces of information can reveal so much about a person, what your interests are, where you live, what you bought, where you're going etc

You will never be individualized until you need to be.

in a time where everyone clamors to be seen and or famous, it's made everyone numb to the fact that they're giving away their freedom... we take our anonymity more and more for granted and makes it so much easier for "them" to track us.

anonymous is the new famous.

I think that statement is quite contradictory.
I see where you're going with that though.
I think the US is just afraid of the people creating an uprising.
Might just be me though.

With a system like the blockchain where it is essentially a large public ledger, if you get rid of the anonymity of the addresses, it becomes the ledger from hell. Allowing anyone to know exactly where you spend every dime, how often, on what dates and your total net wealth. That's simply....to much.

Anonymity is important because it's a fundamental right. If I'm not doing anything bad or havent been suspected of doing anything bad and without good evidence nobody has the legal right to spy or check up on me on the off chance that I might be doing something they don't like, which could later be used against me in some way.

If bitcoin were really truly anonymous in 100% It would be great, but there are ways i.e blockchain to track your coins. While it does not show you directly your location or name it can be tracked. But it is still better that credit cards or other online payments method...

I don't think bitcoin ever claimed to be truly anonymous, but you can use it without tying your account to your real world identity. I or others don't know anything about you just because you have a bitcoin address or send and recieve payments.

I don't think satoshi ever said that it was supposed to be anonymous
But people are saying its used for anonymous purposes.
But it depends on the situation i guess

I think people tend to go with what the media says and they seem to peddle it as a 'anoymous currency', which it's not really, but can be used in such a way if you're careful, but it's more of an 'unregulated' currency or one with less bureaucracy and that you're free to use whatever your situation.

Listen to how the Stasi functioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWjzT2l5C34
Remind you of anyone?

Since people have a right to privacy and an expected right to it without interference from another party
Although in a court case that gets overruled by a warrant or interacting with others  ;)
Still in general freedom to access information and to form opinions independently is why anonymity is important.

Also to purchase some goods that might seem embarrassing if others knew about it ^^.
Or medication etc in the future those type of private use cases where you wouldn't want others to know.

We do have a right to those privacies. We also need them. But the NSA and the government just want everything. Ugh. >.>

The worst thing is, if they try to convince people that they need to do that because of TERRORISM, and righteous people who do nothing wrong have nothing to fear. lol

Ohhh. That clears up a bunch of things. So MSM spread this misconception about it being anonymous.
But you can tie your address to real life things also such as coinbase.
I understand more now.
Thanks.

I am not so sure about this. I think there are a lot of people who value their privacy a lot. I think the reason many people were so willing to give up privacy after 9/11 was because a major act of terrorism had just occurred and people saw the threat as being very real. I think a 9/11 type of event is really a very rare type of event, and the damage that occurred really could not happen again due to change in policies (not allowing even small knives on planes, not assuming that a hijacking is intended to get a ransom) and there have been a couple of failed hijackings over the years.

Isn't this generally called brainwashing? People were told that they are in immediate threat (they weren't statistically) and thus would have to do this to save their lives.

How would Bitcoin work without the Blockchain? I don't think you 'got' the basic idea or principle of Bitcoin. It is important that every transaction is visible and accountable for by the whole network and everyone participating in Bitcoin!!!

How many 9/11 were there in the last 10 years? How many traffic accidents?
9/11 is being used as reason to remove freedom, its brainwashing indeed. Statistically you have a much higher risk of being killed in a traffic accident than in a terror attack. Despite capturing 80% of the internet traffic worldwide it didn't help to prevent the Boston killings, none of these surveillance tools actually make us more secure - it makes us more vulnerable.

Exactly. Still people are cool with all the added security following 9/11 even today. It is really sad that a nation of >300m people can't stand up for themselves.

Bitcoin could do this too with a DAC ontop of it that mixes the coins while removing the taint. This will come sooner or later.

A DAC could pool all BTC in one address and let you have a "balance" that you can withdraw whenever you want. In such a system there would literally be no taint. But first there needs to be a good DAC implementation ontop of BTC.

I disagree with this. The fact that transactions are visible to everyone is the easiest way to confirm that a coin has not been counterfeited. if there is a hole/bug in the protocol then if all the TX are not public then it would be a long time before it would be discovered that the bug is being exploited. Additionally since most people are not technically inclined enough to audit open source code, being able to view all of the TX is the easiest way to connivence the public that coins are not being counterfeited.

I don't use it because it's difficult to trace, but because 1) it's a promising investment and 2) I directly control my money.

Anonymity isn't important to me because I have no intentions of doing anything illegal, and I don't have a wife to hide any 'interesting' purchases from :)

Why Anonymity so important to you?
Well, I believe in financial freedom and don't want to pay any taxes to my local tax office for something what is my investment and financial future :)

Anonymity is important to avoid getting robbed from people and government.

Anonymity is important if you want to kidnap or assassinate someone and get paid without consequence.

I never thought about that, cryptocurrency is really awesome for ransom!

I discover a new way to use BTC each day. Amazing.

So far, BTC is not anonymous. You'll need to use something else.

Still, if you provide a single empty deposit address, you are in complete possesion of the ransom money and they have no way of finding out who you are through that wallet. Your next steps need to be very careful, but I bet if you play it right, you can mix/flip those BTC without ever getting caught.

For me, it's everything. If I want to do illegal things, I shouldn't have to worry. If I want to do normal activities, I shouldn't have to worry about being watched either.

I see I see.
Especially since if you do something wrong while famous the media wi just blow up all over your face. While being anonymous is just being the everyday joe. I guess. Since you need your space

If you were to ever spend the coins that are deposited into the "ransom" address then you could potentially be subjected to a number of potential timing attacks, especially if attackers have somewhat of an idea of who the kidnapper is (a simi-small pool of people)

What was wrong with darkcoin?
I thought it was doing well.
Even couple of my friends were mining it with their rigs and were making a good profit off of it.
o.o?

I think that government will find any way to control bitcoin or any different cryptocurrency that would become very popular imho

I think it's pretty anonymous. You don't know who I am and I don't know who you are except for a username.

It's not truly anonymous, but the people behind it or using it can be if they're careful. IF you look at the transactions happening on the blockchain it'll be hard to trace them to a real world identity, but you could find some into out about them if they were sloppy.

I would like to think that I don't need anonymity. I am good guy, I never did anything wrong. But the way government and other big companies are collecting info on people now I think that anonymity is the only way to live. I don't want to be catalogued, and I want to keep my thoughts and views to myself.

Of course you need it. It's not about being a good guy or doing anything wrong. The government shouldnt be allowed into your property to hassle you without any evidence or wrong doing just to see if there might be a random chance you have been doing something wrong. Even people on the street shouldnt be able to know your details if you don't want them to.

Annonymity is important to hide from criminals (including governements) that want to do things they shouldn't do.
If they can't see you, then you are not on their radar.

Governments will love it then.

Yes, governments love anonymity. That's why we have elections.  ::)

Personally I don't care much about my anonymity, probably because I own almost nothing in cryptos.

Dick and Bush did.  :-X

Here you go: http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-law/news-media-and-law-summer-2007/cheney-and-secrecy

This actually is a very good point. If you are known to have a lot of money or something else that criminals might want (information or a security clearance for example) then you would be subject to a lot of attacks. However if this is not public information then criminals would be much less likely to attempt an attack.

So essence, you want to be treated like and individual by the government instead of being filed into labels.
Am I wrong?
I din't think thats possible with the gov doing all of this mumbo jumbo

Hey, meet your government: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/dick-cheney-bp-spill

My name is cbeast, and I'm a bitcoinaholic.

Of course the government shouldn't be allowed into your property to hassle you without any evidence or wrong doing. In fact, in many countries doing so would be illegal. In modern democratic countries, the government (or police) need evidence and warrants before they hassle you.

In practice of course, such governments do hassle people, but its usually marginalized people such as ethnic minorities, the mentally ill, former criminals, etc.

The government does not just keep turning up at random houses.

While I don't mean to defend Cheney (such being indefensible), I find it curious that you did not link to something about the administration that has set the record in regards to secrecy:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-secrecy-up-under-obama-administration/

fud away!



pump it up!

But the government ignores that with the NSA thing. They have access to everything that belongs to us. It's the government. The NsA is just doing their 'job'
They're really invading our privacy.

What's wrong with it is that he didn't.



Except that that's not how Darkcoin works.

Sure, nothing against Dick and Bush per se, this was the top ranked google link when searching Secrecy Obama Administration: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/09/press-groups-call-on-obama-administration-to-end-pervasive-secrecy-practices/

Also, second ranked: http://freebeacon.com/issues/press-groups-call-on-obama-admin-to-end-pervasive-secrecy-practices/

I just want to buy a gift for my girlfriend without being tracked  8) 8)

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2305863

That's really exciting thing to see because governments have had classic
trouble fighting tax haven jurisdictions, but recently have been gaining
more success by instead of fighting the jurisdictions, instead giving
more power to banks yet turning them into agents of the state. So the
banks serve the tax authorities and are given more power because
governments centralise the financial infrastructure.

We have a situation currently where people are taxed both from normal
taxes and inflation. Paper money contributes massively to state power,
not only by profits from inflation, but by giving leverage over who can
accumulate wealth.

Hence "captialism for the rich, socialism for the poor". Corporations
either stay competitive and evade tax through offshores, or go bust, all
while servicing state law, regulations and institutional power structures.

Now with Bitcoin though everyone can have a super tax-haven with no
requirements to report income and no liabilities. We already have
decentralised money laundering. The technology is improving fast and
this will only get much better too. Especially once we have the tools
for issuing securities to anonymous investors.

I just don't want to be tracked simple as that.  Last I remember that is called stalking which is illegal.  It's like Bitcoin but in it's own creepy way.  The practice of infringing on peoples privacy has become perversely accepted to the point that the victim being tracked feels they owe an explanation or proof they aren't guilty of something without even have committed any crime.

Anonymity feature has advantages and disadvantages. We can freely use our bitcoin without any one can easily trace it but, anonymity also makes it difficult when there are people who steal our bitcoin.  :-\

http://youtu.be/uwAXWnpCqjM?t=18m4s

Starting at 18:04.

You can mix your coins and use multible addresses to keep your financial infomation secret from the world, lets face it nobody really needs to know what you do with your bitcoins.

But the NSA peeves into our private lives. Even if they are part of the government, it's against our rights as human beings

This is illegal in the US as well. The 4th amendment protects us from unreasonable search and seizure. Law Enforcement must present probable cause to a neutral judge to get a search warrant in order to enter your house to look for evidence (or look through any of your other private property).

I do not think BTC was specifically designed to be Anonymous.

You cannot have transparency on the blockchain, without having a degree of anonymity. So transactions can be traced, and the owner of the BTC is protected.

Your bank, do not reveal your information or your transactions, and they can make transfers between accounts, without us knowing it. {So with BTC you would see the corruption and you would be able to follow it} But your identification details are hidden.

And I think that is important. {Question is, is BTC totally anonymous --> Answer - No}

Do we need Anonymity - Yes {I need to have my money matters, kept secret} Nothing different than, what you wanted from banks and fiat.

Once you are on a list and cross referenced, public authorities feel they can come up with new and inventive ways to extract money and freedom from you.

You become a target for their excuse and validation to have a job and a pension plan.

You lose the ability to sit and relax after a hard day at work, because you worry that you have not done your paperwork properly and on time. The fear comes from emails and letters informing you that you are late, you will be fined, you will go to jail, because you didn't fill in the form correctly.

You become a target for those who don't like the fact you missed a box and they need to send a letter letting you know you missed ticking a box.

You become a target for those who consider your spending is against social norms. You must be hunted through the blockchain. You are fair game for the police and the courts. You have no defense because you bought something that is legal in one state or country, but illegal where you live.

You become a target because some rich guys bribed some officials to make laws to protect their wealth against competition.

You lose, you to the State... the State controlled by those that know how to work the system to protect themselves and those that fund them.

Even if you do no harm to anyone, you are not allowed to have freedom.

Fuck'em.

I thought it wasn't important, until I realized that every online company is making a profile of you, your habits, and what you buy.  What if my grocery store sells my snack food habits to my insurance company?  This is coming soon. 

Anonymous transactions will help protect people from the huge amount of online profiling and thus manipulation of regularly people.

The question isn't why anonymity so important to me, but why is intrusion into my personal life so important to you?

Anonymity is very important to me because if i bought something for someone or purchase something for my financial business, that's my personal matter..I don't want anyone tracing me..

If you harm me, I want your anonymity forfeited so I can intrude all over you.

Well the NSA will probably say something along the lines of
'It is because we need to protect the nation from terrorists!'
Or something like that. They need an excuse.

If you want to live with some semblance of freedom, at some point you'd have to stop giving up your rights and just take the chance of getting blown up by a terrorist.

Privacy is important because it stop malicious users from targeting you for scam, thievery and robbery.

for full anonymity you have to wait on Zerocash:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.msg3878992#msg3878992

In my opinion anonymity is a right. Why should other people have knowledge of my transactions? Do politicians post their credit card statements online for the world to see? Why should we?

Think of it this way. Banks share their information on you with whomever they consider a partner. An insurance company partners with your bank and you do business with that insurance company. You now proceed to pay for an addition on your house using money in your bank account. A transaction for "Richard's Roofing and Repairs" posts to your account and now your insurance company knows that you got a new roof. The roof is part of the addition you're paying for, but it could also be seen as a repair job as well. Well, the insurance company sends out an insurance adjuster and you get a knock at the door. "Hi, I'm with your insurance company and I need to assess the value of your home as we got word that you had a new roof installed. Now your bill goes up by $5 every month. Brilliant...

Anonymity isn't just about being a blackhat. It's about not being taken advantage of by unethical companies.

Which is precisely why the NSA is 'protecting us'
I don't see why they have to get EVERY SINGLE transaction that we make.
If we wanted to buy bomb parts or something then we would do it with cold hard cash or something of the sorts.

There are so many things going wrong these days. Databases leak on a weekly basis. You just buy something at Target and suddenly it appears that your Credit Card information got stolen. If you can't trust people to handle your data responsibly you just have to take care of that yourself!

Well,
there are many reasons why Anonymity / Privacy should be important to everyone.
Many people will still be thinking that it's a matter a doing illegal things.
But everyone has the right to privacy. Everyone should have the right to protect his "assets".
Being "anonym" does not mean necessary doing illegal things, but you are protecting your privacy from attacks, from spam, from data leak etc, you don't everyone know about your private life, and that does not just apply "online".

It's just like you are walking in the street and someone is asking for your email address to send you some ads. If you are not interested, would you really give your real most valuable Email? Does it mean you are doing anything illegal? Not really.

But Yes, some people will abuse of it, just like some people will abuse of the the anonymity of Bitcoin.

Have a look at this animation  ;D #joke

https://i.imgur.com/xB2ax3x.gif

I think people who use anonymous names must be aware of scammers and illegal activity. If you are making blackhat methods, then it is compulsory to use anonymous names.

Hackers always targets to people those who are making good amount and they also see the activity in other forums or sites to hack their accounts. This is the main reason for hiding our information.

I also forgot to use anonymous name instead of mine.