Bitcoin Forum

I have a question that why people scare to show their identity if they are doing legal? Why people do not use real identity??? It makes here a more trustable market!!

Because most people like the relative anonymity of crypto.

If you are concerned about a seller/buyer being trustworthy, just use escrow.

-Fuse

Just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean you want to show everything.

I'd like to stay anon even if it's legal, I have some better feeling about it.

protect their privacy from unscrupulous marketers and identity thieves.
protect their communications from irresponsible corporations.
protect their children online.
research sensitive topics.
skirt surveillance
circumvent censorship

see https://www.torproject.org/about/torusers.html.en (https://www.torproject.org/about/torusers.html.en)

We aren't scared. We just don't want to share details with people we don't know, and who may use those details against us. Haven't you ever heard of identity theft? We have to be careful.

Do you want the government to monitor you while you sleep too?

ok, show me all your credit card transcations and bank statements. i bet you wouldn't want us to see that right? same reason bitcoiners don't want people all up in their business. i dont understand ur question exactly, but u wouldn't going around telling your friends you had thousands of dollars on you would you? some of them might rob you or be tempted or someone else might overhear and rob u later. never talk openly or brag about money.

Who doesn't like privacy?  You want your co-workers to know what you bought at Macy's?  It's a nice thing to have, privacy.  Recognized by the Supreme Court even.

 You are under the mistaken impression that by not hiding one's identity that one would tend toward honesty.  Our real names wouldn't give you much more information than you have with a nickname.  If I told you my name was John Williams would you you trust me then?

   I have two more words for you - Bernie Madoff

In crypto world, you want to share as less identity is possible to reduce hacker and scam :)

It would depend on person.  Some will pay a premium on sites like localbitcoin to stay not known.

I think most don't hide they just don't advertise. 

I hate giving out information, even to companies like paypal, who knows that they do with that information, if a rogue employee gets ahold of it than many bad things can happen. The only party that should have complete ownership of your information is you, thats why bitcoin is needed, you should be the only person with access to your own money.

It is very simple, because we like privacy.

Similarly, while I haven't done anything illegal, I wouldn't enjoy having a random person reading all my emails and text messages.

I just don't want someone use my identity in the future to do something not right
privacy is number one for me

Because bad things can happen if unknown people have your identity. Identity thieft and other frauds, mad people appearing in your home because of some discussion in the forum(we have some really crazy peope here), people trying to blackmail you, people making voodos and hiring deep web assassins to kill you, and stuff

Why do you not do this? I don't think you've thought this through which is ironic given your username, and further irony is why isn't your username your real name? What have you got to hide? As already stated, people have a right to privacy and sharing personal information can be dangerous in numerous ways.

Because government is evil and want to tax you into poverty.

And for those already in poverty, the government still borrowing insane amount of money and stripe the country resources without giving any back to the population.

Thanks from all your responses, like all of you, I like to keep my privacy  and asking somebody identity does not mean to ask transaction history or... but when it comes to buy a digital good, say an amazon gift card or... that has the risk of being stolen then it is not complicated to ask more identity.

I think if bitcoin become a tool for anonymously doing crimes and illegal trades countries will simply bad the servers, like what happened for many download and torrent hosts.

Because you gain nothing from showing ur identity. Do you tell your name to random people in the street?  ::)

You know it's funny.  A thousand years ago when I was but a youth our privacy used to be a God given right rather than a reason to assume people are trying to do ill.  Looks like the powers that be are quite effective at shifting overall global perspective on something so baseline as a person's basic privacy?

By the same token of the OP, why would you not simply allow your entire life to become the next reality TV show?  I mean, if your not doing anything wrong what do you have to hide right?

I hate how a lot of exchanges ask for your ID. Whats the point of btc then?

I think showing identity has some levels, if u give a name or an email or a phone for a high rate deal, it may not be that much attacking privacy.

Even some legal stuff tend to be taxed by the government

edit: actually only legal things do, illegal is the 'ban list'  ::)

Because if you became really successful, anonymity can save you lot of troubles.
Sure, there are some ppl who needs to flaunt their success, but then they have to deal with annoying spammers,  beggars etc.
personally, if I would ever be a millionaire, I'd be much happier when nobody knows. But this depends on personality.

You  are completely correct, furthermore there are some robbers,... that may disturb you but when you want to deal values under say 100$ this means that you are not a millionaire and there must be other reasons. I am a regular user of bitcoin but I am really concerned if some scams continue to cheat and also because of tax matters, governments may ban bitcoin! Although there is a weak probability that all countries ban it but many of them may do it in near future, definitely.

The situation is same in "real world" too. Sharing your identity is just stupid.

that's right,
if we deploy our identity in people we do not know,
they could use our identity to do something make us in trouble  :-\

Because the governments and central banks aren't happy when they have no control of bitcoin transactions. So the best they can do now is to control the btc/fiat money transaction.

Imagine the situation Satoshi has to face now if he did show his identity.
He will probably find countless crazy fans, beggars, journalists, special agents, kidnappers outside his house lol. :D

I completely agree. You should share only as much as information as is truly necessary.

Lol

but this is true, thinking on the coins he own

there are potentially dangerous people on these forums,

and you may not want them to know who you are

Isn't the right to privacy a human right and is protected by the law?  ;)

I guess some people would just rather keep their privacy than let everyone know. I understand that it could make it a lot safer and such but in most cases you may always get someone who may use your information for other purposes if you choose to expose it which could result in a lot of problems. I myself would rather keep my identity a secret if I can and I am always doing things legally.

Nothing's completely anonymous, you know. Except probably Satoshi Nakamoto's real identity.  ;D

No, but the people who you aren't anonymous towards don't care about your puny internet businesses. They're not private persons anyways, and won't use the information against you.

I wouldn't wanna share my real information on this forum even if I was running a legitimate business.

people have a right to keep their identity to there selves if they are speaking to people on the internet they don't know or trust.

Some folks just value financial anonymity
A preference for anonymity is by no means an admission to guilt or wrongdoing of any kind

there is no require to use your real identity unless required even though you are going legally.I believe most people over internet doesn't give out there real info unless required.Privacy is a prior thing over internet and there are many identity thieves as well of whom we should be aware of

He's absolutely not completely anonymous, although the authorities
who possibly knows who it is has no use of that information.

Why people hate to come under the sun while they know it's not gonna kill them?The answer lies within,they doesn't wanna get exposed directly until needed.

It is because some ppl don't want others know they have business and they are rich.
Being rich is good, while at the same time causes a lot of trouble

1. Many enjoy privacy. You don't want your ID misused or leaked.
2. It is not see to verify if the others are using real identities, and if they are, it only makes the market slightly more trustable.

Well, it's not a question of doing legal or illegal stuff, it's merely a question whether you think it's anybody's business what you're doing! That's called freedom! Also, if you're giving away your personal data, they may get stolen. People are fed up with that happening!

Do you go to the bathroom with the door open? Come on...

There's a thing called privacy, i think Op don't understand the concept of it.

This hits the mark very well. If you share your identity with what you are doing then anyone can potentially trace any/most transactions that you do to your identity and potentially the transactions of people that are not you to your identity as figuring out who sent a TX is not an exact science.

CryptoCurrency is anonymous, so does the seller want to be. Anonymous.

It's not so much that I'm afraid to show my identity as I'd rather just be able to do business without complicating things by having a lot of third parties involved. I'd like to sell a few of these sorta-cute stun guns (http://ablogaboutnothinginparticular.com/?product=lady-lightning-rod-2500000-volt-rechargeable-stun-pen-pink) that support breast cancer research to people who live in areas where it's legal to carry one, for instance. Anyway, I know this has already been mentioned, but I'm sick of hearing about cases where some hacker made off with millions of credit card numbers because he got into the systems of a major retailer. That won't happen so much when you use Bitcoin.

People just dont like tax or getting tax to death thats all.  :)

I mean I sure dont, imagine you worked your ass off and then uncle sam takes 50% of what you made.

It's because we all have a right to privacy, too much of our private lives are already given out to governments and corporations.

Don't think we should associate being anonymous with illegal activity

I am not so sure. Major exchanges like bitstamp has collected lots of personal info such as your bank accounts, driver licenses, home addresses, etc. If bitstamp doesn't store it right with encryption and is hacked, all those info will be in the hands of hackers.

because all people are concern about their own privacy.
another thing most people cared about is safety,what if some bad guys use your public info to do some illegal things ?

I think you do not understand english or my question well, the case is related to time when you want to deal something and pay high amount of  money to a guy, you need to know a minimum of identity to ensure for example if you want to buy a device, it is not stolen or it works well and it is the case.

A real name identifier in internet is not at all times connected to the real human being currently present at the machine.  
How can one be sure that "John Travolta" in the forum is the real "John Travolta" ?  
An account (such as virtualx) may be used by anywhere from one person to a large group of persons.
A person may not be involved with an account at all (a Turing machine).
This is the case in both real name system and pseudonym systems.  
Thus, sadly the "more trustable market" is a false conclusion.

Some people don't like the fact that everyone in the world knows exactly what they've purchased.  I mean, maybe I don't want someone to know what kind of music I listen to, what medications I need to take, etc.  There are legit reasons.