Bitcoin Forum

What do you think, now that everyone thinks / knows the NSA can see who has significant amount of Bitcoins and so forth...

And with cash receipts you can send them to your parents trust lawyer and they match the amount ( for all those being spoon fed )

It depends what you're buying & how you initially contacted the seller to arrange a face to face meet.
For example your phone & email records are more likely to be traced than a couple of bitcoin transactions if you're using a VPN.

You can't store large volume of cash in your brain, in an email, on a piece of paper, or on a phone. You can't maintain or send large volumes of cash across borders, through airports, prison, war, etc.

If you really need to hide a large amount of Bitcoin, you will figure out a way.     ;D

If it's a face to face transaction of physical goods then the only non-anonymous aspect is the other person in the transaction seeing and remembering your face. If it's online then Bitcoin's more anonymous, apart from transactions where you have to give a delivery address. The only totally anonymous transaction would be for digital goods bought online using Bitcoin where you had taken every measure imaginable to ensure you stay anonymous online.

You can easily mix and re-mix bitcoins in that way that the NSA can't clearly identify a bitcoin holder. In some circumstances bitcoin can be more anonymous than cash, but cash will always be the most anonymous way to pay.

Of course it is. But unless it's lying around you have to pull it out of your account and if it's a large amount that's pretty tricky in a lot of countries now. Banks are often obligated to ask what you plan to do with it or can flat out refuse.

It just depends in which way you pay and what precautions you take. If you are vigilant enough, you can pay with bitcoins online and nobody would ever know who you are, or to put it better, they would know you by your address which is just a string of letters and numbers.

In the same way, paying with cash can be even more anonymous than paying with bitcoins, of course in today's day and age when they ask you why are you withdrawing more than 500€ from any bank in France for example, this endeavor of paying anonymously can be even much harder than paying with bitcoins online.

It just depends!

If you pay with cash you are likely to leave your fingerprints over it unless you wear gloves. Whoever you give it to is likely to spend it fast, so most of the time you don't have to worry. However, if someone like Satoshi tried to register another website by paying with cash the registration service might get a visit from the CIA to demand they hand the notes over for forensic analysis. He'd be more anonymous paying with mixed Bitcoins now he's famous.

Cash is more anonymous. Computers always leave traces.

The question is why would someone want to keep it anonymous unless he is doing some illegal transaction?

Absolutely it is.

I suspect that when 'the authorities' looked at the whole Bitcoin picture they said to themselves, 'hey, this isn't half bad.'  The trouble they have is that things could go South in a hurry if a zillion whack-a-mole proxies for Bitcoin emerge (read, sidechains) because suddenly the thing becomes a whole different ball-of-wax from an analysis perspective.  My guess is that some people are shitting a brick about this as we speak, and I bet it is the driving force behind the seemingly 'hail Mary' XT/BIP101 effort.

I agree, computers will too much trace now days. The best anonymous payment method will always be cash .

I don't see the logic behind that "Cash is more anonymous" , when you have to physically make an exchange when dealing with cash.
And the traces bitcoin leaves can be made in such a way that it's extremely hard to trace, if not impossible.

It's more easily to obtain cash anonymously than bitcoin. If you try to buy bitcoin now days you need a bank account, passport cop, ID copy, mobile phone verification etc.

You can buy or earn bitcoin here without disclosing your identity.Nobody ask you for  these documents here

I suppose you're not familiar with being paid under the table or having tons of dirty money hidden in your yard while paying literally everything off with cash.

I absolutely have no way to trace where the 20$ in my wallet came from. However, I can trace a satoshi all the way back to its generation.

What I understand from your post is that you're physically handling transactions, but there's no certainty when it comes to identifying a person from memory.
The blockchain is cannot be doubted.

This is like saying you need to go to bank and set up an account to buy fiat, which makes no sence as there are always options to purchase anonymously (more or less)
btw there are exchanges that don't require identification still, the first one that comes to my mind is btc-e.


1. There is a serial number on it, so i guess it's possible
2. You can trace that satoshi, but you can't prove ownership at each address in that timeframe, meaning that you cant prove anything really.

If you're careful with how you buy and spend your bitcoins, nobody should ever know how much you have.

Of course. I'm always surprised when I read that some people want to use BTC to buy a soda. I always use cash for all my shopping. Also I don't want to pollute the blockchain with small transactions.

Can't trace a trac phone nor can you trace various emails if you know what you're dong ;)

I can see the allure for using bitcoin to buy a soda, and hopefully if we raise the block size limit you won't have to worry about polluting the blockchain.

Well that's the whole point of btc idea - to replace fiat with it, regardless of the amount. If bitcoin becomes something that is used only on bigger transactions, then it has lost it's purpuse imho.
btw you're not polluting blockchain with small transactions, every transaction is welcome, as long as it isn't used to intentionally spam it with 0 fee transactions.

Your small transactions actually contribute in a positive way believe it or not!

1. There is a serial number on it, so i guess it's possible
2. You can trace that satoshi, but you can't prove ownership at each address in that timeframe, meaning that you cant prove anything really.
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How can you tell from serial number who gave you that $ ??? Serial numbers served the different purpose you cant trace the owner from it

How can you tell from serial number who gave you that $ ??? Serial numbers served the different purpose you cant trace the owner from it
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Exactly. With bitcoins, you can tell which address (or wallet) the satoshi was in throughout its life, but with a serial number... I believe you can only find out when it was created.

I don't think the reason for Bitcoin is to replace fiat. I think it's more about having freedom in the currency world.
But you're right, if not all the transactions are welcomed, it impairs that freedom.