Anonymous ways to purchase Bitcoins?

[Cheshire]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem the only truly anonymous way to purchase Bitcoins would be offline in some form or another, be it cash or trade. Are there no prominent cash-by-mail for Bitcoin services left? It seems most of those that offered that service have stopped it. Is it that unpopular or misused?

[escap0x]

If you want to be anonymous while buying Bitcoins, this is most likely the only way. However, if you want to get those Bitcoins to be anonymized, you can easily send it to another of your addresses which are anonymous.

[Oldsport]

They're out there you just have to look around. FastCash4Bitcoins offers cash in mail and they are one of many.

[eveisk]

This is the reason why i'm probably going to start a f2f btc trading operation in the near future. I'm in an area where there is great local bitcoin acceptance (due to a bunch of geeks) and it would be great to let them sidestep mtgox etc.

[DannyHamilton]

I offer a completely anonymous dead drop mailing address that provides bitcoins for cash.  Basically you include cash and a bitcoin address in an envelope/package and mail it to my dead drop PO BOX. I keep a 10% fee and send the rest at the current MtGox rate.  Unfortunately I'll be traveling for he next few weeks so the service will be unavailable until the last week of March.  Se the link in my signature for the details.

If you don't need complete anonymity, or you plan to be a regular customer (weekly? monthly?) send me a PM and we can work out a better exchange rate and/or safer payment methods.

[cindelle]

am i missing something? fastcash4bitcoins appears to be a site that buys bitcoins from people is that right? you cant purchase bitcoins from them?

[DannyHamilton]

am i missing something? fastcash4bitcoins appears to be a site that buys bitcoins from people is that right? you cant purchase bitcoins from them?

Literally?  No.  You can only sell bitcoins to FastCash4Bitcoins.

However, the operators of FastCash4Bitcoins, Tangible Cryptography, also operate Bitcoins Direct which is a service where you can purchase bulk bitcoins (minimum $500, maximum $250,000) with either wire transfer or cash deposit (cash deposit limited to a maximum of $3000).  They are selective about who they transact with.  You have to have a working knowledge of PGP encryption and signatures, and they only occasionally accept new customers.

So when you sell your bitcoins to FastCash4Bitcoins, I'm pretty sure that the funds that that are being used to pay you are coming from money that Bitcoins Direct collects when they sell those bitcoins in bulk.

[LeTanque]

Hey I didn't carefully read the previous posts but I skimmed for any mention of OTC and didn't find any. I've had a lot of experiece with localbitcoins.com, an over-the-counter (OTC) service, and highly recommend it for both buying and selling anonymously. 

Localbitcoins has no identifying information. The email can be fake. The btc address you'll use is on their site, so wherever you send the coins could be anonymous (laundered). The phone number you can optionally provide can be a burner. It's the ultimate, imo.

When you meet up, most transactions go super quick in a public area. They can also be conducted in private, really, wherever the fuck you want. Essentially, no personal information needs to be given up when you buy bitcoins with cash.

There have been some explorative papers on OTCs importance to the validity of btc but I don't currently have the links. Check out this interview with nanotube, however, who talks a bit about one of the first OTC listings, the channel #bitcoin-otc:
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2012/03/interview-with-nanotube-founder-of-the-bitcoin-otc-ircs-marketplace-on-bitcoin-multisigs-and-security/


DISCLAIMER: I'm solo, no affiliation with any of the companies I talked about. Enthusiast like yourself.

[rpietila]

localbitcoins.com

[NEO2012]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem the only truly anonymous way to purchase Bitcoins would be offline in some form or another, be it cash or trade. Are there no prominent cash-by-mail for Bitcoin services left? It seems most of those that offered that service have stopped it. Is it that unpopular or misused?

PLU STHE ATM BTC MACHINE  COMING UP

[icey]

localbitcoins is good.

I sometimes buy some through blockchain.info aswell (~5% juice on top of mtgox price though here) Transaction usually done withing 2-3 minutes.

[pajarator]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem the only truly anonymous way to purchase Bitcoins would be offline in some form or another, be it cash or trade. Are there no prominent cash-by-mail for Bitcoin services left? It seems most of those that offered that service have stopped it. Is it that unpopular or misused?

seems to be faster to go to a walmart and use bitinstant...

[eveisk]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem the only truly anonymous way to purchase Bitcoins would be offline in some form or another, be it cash or trade. Are there no prominent cash-by-mail for Bitcoin services left? It seems most of those that offered that service have stopped it. Is it that unpopular or misused?

seems to be faster to go to a walmart and use bitinstant...

Only problem with this is you have to trust Walmart  They could stop selling them at any time though, due to 'internal/regulatory/government' pressures.

[DannyHamilton]

- snip -
When you meet up, most transactions go super quick
- snip -

Doesn't match my definition of anonymous if you have to meet up with someone who can later identify you.

localbitcoins.com

Anonymous as long as you always use TOR when connecting to them, provide a fake email address when you register, always use TOR when connecting to that fake email address, and use a dead drop for the exchange.

- snip -
seems to be faster to go to a walmart and use bitinstant...

Anonymous as long as you always connect to blockchain.info and BitInstant with TOR, and are not recorded on security camera in the store while making the purchase and nobody in the store at the time can identify you.

[cindelle]

i would imagine that reputable bc vendors who accept cash in the mail may be a more anonymous method? or those who accept moneygram or some sort of reloadble card. that requires that you purchase and load the card however. aquiring coins has imo always been the largest hurdle.

[SIGNW]

I bought a few hundred dollars worth from BlueSkyTraders and the transaction went super-smooth with no additional fees besides their exchange rate (slightly higher to account for abusers of a "free" call option if you decide to not finish the transaction if you see BTCs increase by the deposit time, and their processing). I guess as a newb, my feedback isn't weighted that much, but oh well.

Then again, this was in days of the low 20s with minimal vol/demand. Some days, you'll see rates that are only 1.5-2.5% over Gox.

I actually got an email notifying that they were processing my purchase before I got back from the walk to the bank.

The process is you tell them how many dollars you want to buy at their rate, they confirm, then give you an exact amount to deliver (I guess to prevent mixing up with someone else's order if you had around the same purchase size in mind). You go to a Bank of America and deposit the exact amount (as someone with minimal in-person banking experience, it was immensely easy), and you watch the confirmations pile up.

Highly recommended, and anonymous (although, you will get captured on security cameras, but there's really no evidence of what those BTCs were used for after you start moving your coins around). I used Tormail, communication was PGP encrypted, etc.

The service is hosted on the Onion network here:

http://ok2yri46aaptiu2d.onion/index.htm
moderator note: Use TOR services at your own risk as there is absolutely no way of holding them accountable if they scam you.

(Oh, I guess they're closed all the way until Tuesday. Oh well.)

[Bullbear]

If you mine your bitcoins solo you'll be anonymous

[NEO2012]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem the only truly anonymous way to purchase Bitcoins would be offline in some form or another, be it cash or trade. Are there no prominent cash-by-mail for Bitcoin services left? It seems most of those that offered that service have stopped it. Is it that unpopular or misused?

YAH WAIT FOR THE BTC ATM BUY WITH CASH SCAN PAPER ADRESS

WEAR MASK

[jvkuz]

localbitcoins.com is good but it aint in my area

[yanowman]

i always used bitinstant.. if BsT is open tomorrow might try them next