Bitcoin Forum

I understand that no method will ever be completely anonymous, but there seems to be a complete lack of even close to anonymous options to buy bitcoin. For example, stuff like OKpay or PerfectMoney need your personal details and verification.
Things like wire transfer and Paypal mean other people and companies get to know your name.

So HOW do you do it? (don't say prepaid cards since those aren;t available everywhere.

There aren't many ways out there tbh but you can try coinmama as they allow you to purchase upto 150$ with just normal verification of email, name and stuff. Or you can use local bitcoin or just buy from xapo as they don't require any verification and you can buy upto 6000$ using bank transfer.

It's not super easy, but the quick rundown on this is that if you want to convert it anonymously your best bet is to go through a service like Bitcointalk or some site along those lines and use their services with a presumed identity. Meet someone in a public place, get them to send you Bitcoin, give them cash, and you've made the exchange. Just try to avoid meeting anywhere without police officers or other similar personnel.

Use localbitcoins CASH DEPOSIT. There are offers where you don't need to upload any form of ID. Simply deposit $ into their bank account and you are good to go. The only drawback is you must go in person, but realistically the bank has no idea what you are paying for so it really does not matter at all.

If you want to be anonymous it would be best to find people who are buying/selling bitcoin on your local area. As mentioned above, it's better to meet such people in safe place, like cafe, to avoid risks.
Also, I found this article, it may be helpful for you:
https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/kb/buy-bitcoin-without-verification-id/

Sadly agree, your best bet is localbitcoins. But its also not that perfectly anonymous.

Unless you have some sort of contacts that you can sell to or buy from, your best bet is most likely finding someone willing to trade cash for bitcoins on LocalBitcoins. Depending on where you live that may or may not be easy, for example there is no one selling where I live and I would have to travel at least 200 km to buy or sell with cash.

Yeah it's all about your area unfortunately, if you live in an urban area you could go for LocalBitcoins (https://localbitcoins.com/) which is a pretty trusted site for exchanging with cash (and PayPal etc sometimes, but be careful with that because scams are always possible and it's P2P).  If you don't, the first thing I would do is exchange with someone on the forum for PayPal (they might know your name but it's very unlikely they'll use the information), but if you use PayPal you need to choose a really good person because PayPal transactions are reversible and everyone will think you're trying to scam them.

A few credit card sites don't need your name, namely CoinMama for small amounts (under $150) and if you live in an urban area you could use a Bitcoin ATM, but them having your credit card details could make me pretty insecure as well.

yes its best to go with localbitcoiners for the complete annonymity.

After reading this, I'm interested in trading with others on this forum. Is there any payment method which does not allow the person I'm trading with to see my name? For example, perfect money or Paypal probably will.

there was a method suggested a while ago by theymos in the economy board that i found interesting although it wasn't discussed much and it was a bit complicated in my opinion but it sounded good.

i will post it here if i find it again.
Edit: that didn't take much looking, it was trading discussion actually:
Idea for a method of more privately buying/selling BTC
Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1775704.0

That was helpful but what I meant was is there any way to send cash to someone on this forum anonymously? Like a perfect money/PayPal where they can't see your name? That way I can send cash and receive bitcoins with not much worry.

Put the cash in an envelope and mail it to them?

Go to a branch office of their bank and deposit the cash into their bank account?

Purchase a money order from the U.S. Post Office and mail the money order to them?

Meet up with them (or a friend or relative of theirs) near you, and physically exchange the cash?

Localbitcoins my friend

S
So there isn't a way to transfer moeny online without the receiver knowing your name I guess? Thanks for the help so far guys.

doesn't localbitcoin requires a verified account or atleast most traders in there trades with verifie.accounts so it's not really  anonymous right?

That's WHY Bitcoin was invented.

Once you have bitcoin, you can easily send money online anywhere in the world without the receiver knowing anything about you.

Bitcoin transaction is already anonymous it already hidden your privacy you are the only one who know that you buy bitcoin from different websites or try to buy on people who offers cheap price than the market price. Im not buying bitcoin im earning it from my hard work then find way to make it grow.

Cannot speak for "we" but yours truly here ... simply does not. I am focusing on the cheapest purchasing way. Most sorts of "anonymity" come with a premium which is totally exaggerated.

Trying to "control" Bitcoin is futile. There are mixing services that will fog up every oh so sophisticated surveilance method from any fascist state.
The trouble begins when state powers (northkorean, iran) start hunting down any known Bitcoin users. Then I will have to eat my words having neglected privacy during purchase phases.

I realized that but if you want a significant amount of Bitcoin any time soon you probably need to buy some, and anonymously as possible.

Well you have to pay a hefty fee for that anonymity that’s for sure.

My advice for you is to go to Localbitcoins or Paxful, depending on which site you are most comfortable using, go to “Cash” listings, and meet the guy in person. I mean yeah, that’s not anonymous but i think you don’t want the government or big companies to know your personal identity, not individuals.

Or you could get gift cards, but these sell for a hefty discount which could result in a really really bad deal. If you get amazon GCs you’ll get 70-75% even with receipts, max.

I think that the best way to purchase bitcoin without people knowing your identity is doing a cash in mail transaction on Localbitcoins or Paxful like others suggested.

The process might take some time but there is no way to track that letter containing cash back to you if you do it correctly and use some stealth in your packaging.

However, make sure that the cash doesn’t get noticed and stolen by some dishonest mailman.

And don’t be stupid and write a return address. You want anonymity, so you’ll have to take a risk of the mail being lost forever.

The easiest way?

You buy a bitcoin miner off ebay or craigslist or wherever for cash.

You then plug it into your wall and pay the electrical company for bitcoins at a hopefully reduced rate  :)

Tada...

No paper trail connected to your bitcoins this way.

It requires a bit of patience but is the best $ to BTC rate if you can figure out a good setup.

Would gift cards exchanged on Paxful be anonymous?
Can for example Amazon gift cards be traced for where they were bought?

Well, i should tell you about how i convert cash to bitcoin i just buy bitcoin from my friend or to someone who sell bitcoin i know its a risky move to buy bitcoin from who you don't know yet but i just buy bitcoin for a little amount first before i get into the big amount of buying bitcoin so i just visit the guy who sells bitcoin or trace him before i buy bitcoin so that it would be secure in buying bitcoin.. you should try it i don't really apply that details thing its so hassle in my view >.<

Anonymous way of buying and selling is possible but it is risky. One could make anonymous transaction only through the forum, can buy or sell bitcoin in exchange for gift cards which can be used later. Here the buyer and seller identity won't get revealed.

The IP adress of the wallet solving the block would be recognizeable. Hence the 12.5 BTC got a resolveable name attached to them.

From public internet place you can order Bitcoin Debit Card for fake name and surname and for Box mail. Lifetime limit is 2500 euro.

Any questions?

Edit: I think, I don't have to add that for any order we can change name and Box mail.

But how it is possible. If you move the btc traders in online or in you city. You have to pass the bank details to complete the trade right. If you buy a btc debit card also. You need to provide a proper details to order a card right. There is nothing gonna happen simply the bitcoin, but always use an escrow in your trade while buying or selling bitcoin because scammers are everywhere.
As you said exchanging Gift cards to buy the bitcoin would not reveal your information.

Bitcoin debit card is good since we can use false information when we try to order online from those site which gives this service.It make you anonymous on making transactions but instances of emergencies related to your card would really be a big problem later on.

Find a friend who owns Bitcoins and buy directly with cash.  :)

That would become common bussiness practices on retail stores, if the debit information supplied are smelling of bitcoin. At first attempt the store just keeps billing the money, but is not delivering any packages at all. Easy money.
If a customer in reclamations phase one can prove to be real, packaging and delivery would begin otherwise.

What I like to do is to buy a pre paid Visa gift card and use it online to buy bitcoins. Completely anonymous.

I'm not converting my cash to bitcoin anonymously, because I'm using my real name in my account in exchange site in my country. I can't convert my money to bitcoin if I don't use my real name and I.d Verification. But If you want to convert your cash to bitcoin anonymously try to find a trusted person who owns bitcoin and buy some bitcoin to him/her.

Buying/Cashing out anonymously, that's always a tricky thing to do. Your best would be to do a P2P trade; try friends, Local Bitcoins, or the currency conversion section of this forum. Good luck :]

You first need to cast a magic spell to convert the bitcoin into money ^^
No I'm joking. You trade it like you would any other commodity. Online or offline to whoever has the demand for it. Just as anything else you can buy or sell. It's just digital this time that is all. Not too hard to understand since the money in your bank is digital too.
There many places and traders online have a look in the exchange threads. Have fun ! :)

I know there are debit cards that allow, anonymously, to convert Bitcoin to fiat. But I do not know of any service that allows the reverse operation.

Well AFAIK, Paxful hasn't asked me for any ID yet and I've been buying in their
marketplace for approximately 9 months.

So, yeah, please try it if anonymity is Important to you.

bitcoin is more or less anonymous if you use tor,

but exchangers are not anonymous and there are even sooo crazy exchangers they can record you with a hidden camera  ::)

beside it, when you sell bitcoins, you can get the fake money and later is too late because you gave already 2-3 bitcoins and the criminal is gone.  it happens usually in big cities in germany, etc.

I don't like localbitcoin because they prefer to publish big exchangers, if you are new, they hide your offer, so, people can see only those predators exchangers who verified their ID and they turn 1000 BTC per month and they steal from you 10% "fee/commision". beside it, localbitcoin pushes you to upload some amount of bitcoin.

debit cards are not good any more, I just checked yesterday, most of them are companies registered in London by Lithuanians who demand from you your phone, ID and utility bill, that's enough for them to make an offshore company on your name without your knowledge and they can get a bank account and make financial crimes on your name, or they can simply sell IDs.
lithuanians register 1000 offshore companies and they use it for different types of criminality, even drugs and export of arms to africa.
remember always simple thing: why they need more than your ID when your local bank demands only ID? even paypal demands only ID, but they demand and your phone and utility bill. because they need copy of your passport and the proof of your address to make offshore companies in Belize, Seychelles, etc.

That's why I always say that Bitcoin is pseudo anonymous. Whenever you want to convert it to fiat or want to buy Bitcoins with Fiat then your identity will be known.
I have a personal group of local whom I trust and wherever I want fiat I just exchange with them. Otherwise localbitcoins is the best.

I've been trading, buying and selling bitcoins on Paxful for quite some time now
and I have yet to surrender any kind of Identification.

There are a two main ways to do this.
1. Use Bitcoin ATMs (limited amount you can transfer from fiat to BTC and also has terrible exchange rate)
2. Localbitcoin (Transfer your cash for bitcoin with another person, which can be risky so be careful)

Exchanges have to adhere to AML and KYC procedures, so it is very hard to circumvent this, understandably. This is to catch people money laundering or any other doing illegal activities.

I hope this helped. Good luck!

I love bitcoin, and I love earning airline points with my cards. But how do you trade your fiats for bitcoins using a card? I read that you can do so with Bitstamp. But who wants to submit all their info and take the chance of a Bitstamp snafu in the process?

Both options are not 100% anonymous. Most of the ATMs in my place are having cameras installed. The chance that you may be identified from the camera footage is quite remote, but the risk is still there.

And regarding LBC, most of the buyers will only deposit the amount to your bank account through online transactions. It can be traced. Even if you deal with them in physical cash, setting up an LBC account requires ID verification (or at least a phone number).

I prefer local bitcoins :)

maybe https://changelly.com ?

No in fact, I don't see how you can do that on the web.
You will have to use a bank account or your card.
So the best would be to trade phisycally, using ATMs with cash or LocalBitcoin.

You can meet someone and get paper cash for bitcoins. If you use banking it will be traced. You can go on localbitcoin.
The rate is reduced but you can get cash.

I don't know where are you from, but for example in Romania we have zebrapay (https://zebrapay.ro/Locations). You just have to go to the terminal, enter your address, put the money in, tap ok then you're done.