the corner bitcoin guy?

[deezn9]

So there's a guy on Black Market: Dispatches, Dark Web, who takes cash from people, and on his phone transfers bitcoin into people's accounts, while taking a 15 % cut. All this in an effort to add another degree of anonymity for his customers who you would assume are planning to use the bitcoin for nefarious reasons. This episode was filmed just about a year ago. So is this happening in larger cities, the emergence of the street corner bitcoin guy? Or did I just see places on the net already offering bitcoin anonymization services that do the same thing for much cheaper?

[Kakmakr]

Yes, it happens with person to person trade via services like Localbitcoin. It is a risky option, because you never know who would be waiting on the other end. < Thief / Robber / Government Agency > You need to do this in the correct manner for it to be legal in some countries.

I just meet people at Bitcoin Meetups and build a trustworthy relationship to make sure they are not scammers or robbers or cops and then we trade Bitcoin for cash and the other way around. We are not running a business, but just trading informally between two people in small quantities as needed. ^smile^

[altcoinhosting]

This is one way of anonimizing bitcoins, but like you say, a pretty risky one (i wouldn't want to buy a couple thousand dollars worth of BTC from some guy at the corner of the street).

If you really want to anonimize your BTC, it might be better to buy it trough an exchange and then put it trough a couple mixers, some gambling sites, maybe even exchange it for an altcoin with built-in anonimity, send it to yourself and then exchange it back to BTC at a different exchange.
If you do this over tor, a proxy and/or a trusted VPN, it's next to impossible to trace back to you.

[Dudeperfect]

Yes there is higher possibility of such incident and I am afraid of something which could lead bitcoin to be a currency of criminals and in such case government will definitely ban bitcoin because that is lot easier than preventing those corner guys. Anonymity is amazing feature but there is vulnerability too and we should really find a solution for this issue. I am not a hard core programmer but still I think we can somehow prevent misuse of bitcoin.

[OmegaStarScream]

for me , trading Bitcoin face to face kinda defeats the whole purpose of bitcoin or crypto currencies in general which is staying pseudonymous .
Trading with individuals in the currency exchange section (here) with the known payment methods sounds fine to me , If you want to stay untracable all you need to do is use HD wallets (as they generate new address each time you want to receive Bitcoins) or receive bitcoins directly to exchanges and then withdraw (It could be considered as a Mixer , but a free one )

[altcoinhosting]

for me , trading Bitcoin face to face kinda defeats the whole purpose of bitcoin or crypto currencies in general which is staying pseudonymous .
Trading with individuals in the currency exchange section (here) with the known payment methods sounds fine to me , If you want to stay untracable all you need to do is use HD wallets (as they generate new address each time you want to receive Bitcoins) or receive bitcoins directly to exchanges and then withdraw (It could be considered as a Mixer , but a free one )

HD wallets might make it a bit more difficult to trace you, but not impossible... You can still follow the inputs/outputs, see which addresses combined inputs to create an output, guess change addresses,...
You even have tools like https://www.walletexplorer.com to do a lot of the grunt work for you... It's pretty accurate.

Also, i wouldn't recommand to use an exchange as sole anonimizing tool. An exchange can keep logs since it isn't really meanth for mixing coins.
If using exchanges as the only way to mix your coins, i would connect to exchange A using tor, deposit my dirty BTC, exchange my BTC for a more anonymous coin (like Dash, or monero,... Don't know wich coin is best since i don't usually mix my coins). After the exchange, i would withdraw my monero from exchange A to the deposit address on exchange B. I would use a trusted VPN  to connect to exchange B. Once the monero is in exchange B, i would exchange it back to BTC and withdraw to my mixed address... I think this would work.

Just my 2 satoshi's tough

[OROBTC]

...

The problem I see with the rather low level of anonymity currently possible with Bitcoin (easy ways to get anonymity) is that to finally BUY anything with your BTC makes it easily traceable again (I exclude merchants hidden by TOR).  Also, buying the BTC in the first place means a transaction cost (14% at some BTC ATMs!), can be low at Circle (etc.), but then you no longer have anonymity...

The only purchases I have made w/ BTC are for gold, but that gold had to be shipped to me, no anonymity there.

"The Corner Bitcoin Guy" would be an excellent service to have were the above personal security issues resolved correctly.  But, the BTC would still have to re-appear in a trackable manner...

[altcoinhosting]

...

The problem I see with the rather low level of anonymity currently possible with Bitcoin (easy ways to get anonymity) is that to finally BUY anything with your BTC makes it easily traceable again (I exclude merchants hidden by TOR).  Also, buying the BTC in the first place means a transaction cost (14% at some BTC ATMs!), can be low at Circle (etc.), but then you no longer have anonymity...

The only purchases I have made w/ BTC are for gold, but that gold had to be shipped to me, no anonymity there.

"The Corner Bitcoin Guy" would be an excellent service to have were the above personal security issues resolved correctly.  But, the BTC would still have to re-appear in a trackable manner...

This is true, but apart from digital purchases, i think this would be the case for any crypto currency. I don't think it's thereoretically possible to make a digital currency that solves the problem of needing a shipping address when buying physical goods.

[Kprawn]

Someone actually suggested an idea, where you pay people to courier and deliver cash for you, as a intermediary between the person

wanting the bitcoins, and the person wanting the cash. A Uber service for cash to bitcoin conversion. In this way, you stay anonymous,

because you do not deal directly with the people accepting the cash. I have many problems with that idea, but it could be a option if there

are people, who wants to avoid dark alley deals. Like a "queue4You" service. 

[piloder]

So there's a guy on Black Market: Dispatches, Dark Web, who takes cash from people, and on his phone transfers bitcoin into people's accounts, while taking a 15 % cut. All this in an effort to add another degree of anonymity for his customers who you would assume are planning to use the bitcoin for nefarious reasons. This episode was filmed just about a year ago. So is this happening in larger cities, the emergence of the street corner bitcoin guy? Or did I just see places on the net already offering bitcoin anonymization services that do the same thing for much cheaper?

I think we can say this as P2P exchange however % cut seem high just like when you like to buy bitcoin from localbitcoins where price remain always high however even with face 2 face deal there is risk of getting robbed while trying to exchange bitcoin, also have heard about similar attacks in news few times.

[pedrog]

So there's a guy on Black Market: Dispatches, Dark Web, who takes cash from people, and on his phone transfers bitcoin into people's accounts, while taking a 15 % cut. All this in an effort to add another degree of anonymity for his customers who you would assume are planning to use the bitcoin for nefarious reasons. This episode was filmed just about a year ago. So is this happening in larger cities, the emergence of the street corner bitcoin guy? Or did I just see places on the net already offering bitcoin anonymization services that do the same thing for much cheaper?

It's a trap.

[BiTZeD]

for me , trading Bitcoin face to face kinda defeats the whole purpose of bitcoin or crypto currencies in general which is staying pseudonymous .
Trading with individuals in the currency exchange section (here) with the known payment methods sounds fine to me , If you want to stay untracable all you need to do is use HD wallets (as they generate new address each time you want to receive Bitcoins) or receive bitcoins directly to exchanges and then withdraw (It could be considered as a Mixer , but a free one )

I didn't knew that those wallets were generating a new address each time. I'll reconsider how I see them thanks to you.

[OmegaStarScream]

for me , trading Bitcoin face to face kinda defeats the whole purpose of bitcoin or crypto currencies in general which is staying pseudonymous .
Trading with individuals in the currency exchange section (here) with the known payment methods sounds fine to me , If you want to stay untracable all you need to do is use HD wallets (as they generate new address each time you want to receive Bitcoins) or receive bitcoins directly to exchanges and then withdraw (It could be considered as a Mixer , but a free one )

I didn't knew that those wallets were generating a new address each time. I'll reconsider how I see them thanks to you.

Almost every wallet offer this nowadays (Bitcoin Core 0.13.1) , Multibit HD , Blockchain.info (the new version) , Btc.com , I'm pretty sure there is others that I'm not aware of.

[bitbunnny]

Face to face trading could be risky but you could take some precausions. Always meet in the public place with other people and don't trade large amount. Don't reval more of you and your personal data then you need to. I don't see much sense in engaging some midleman, to me that would be a risk too.

[Milkduds]

OP are you talking about the Vice episode when you reference Blackmarket,will read it that way for my response.

In the early days of the first bitcoin ATM there was a guy sitting right next to the ATM with a sign and it stated he would do it for cheaper and keep the tracking of identity out of the transaction. Sales at the ATM dropped till the store figured out what was going on and kicked the guy out.
There are lots of people that do this over Localbitcoin and then there is a tier of people you can only contact through the right channels. I know the bitcoin scene is quite active here and can meet people that can cover quite large amounts if needed.
Just presumed people where doing this in all Countries,but I also presumed the ATM scene was also just handing lip service to the KYC rules. Why would people not be doing this is the interesting part to me.

[streazight]

So there's a guy on Black Market: Dispatches, Dark Web, who takes cash from people, and on his phone transfers bitcoin into people's accounts, while taking a 15 % cut. All this in an effort to add another degree of anonymity for his customers who you would assume are planning to use the bitcoin for nefarious reasons. This episode was filmed just about a year ago. So is this happening in larger cities, the emergence of the street corner bitcoin guy? Or did I just see places on the net already offering bitcoin anonymization services that do the same thing for much cheaper?

I think the guy is trying to save them from been dectected no matter what for of good or evil they may be trying to take by the use of bitcoin in the transaction. Of course thee tons of services out there that can help you get bitcoin with your privacy been protected by them, they offer privacy service that makes you almost 100% anonymous.

[rapazev]

you described localbitcoin my friend, that's how it works.
i think the main reason is the nefarious reasons like you said, but dont forget about the taxes.... in my country is pretty common to do this things simple to run from IRS.