Anonymity with bitcoin

[puresoul108]

[Yes I have already done a lot of research (and youtubed and googled for hours).]


1.) I am trying to make a payment to an online business that accepts bitcoin but want it so that my personal identity is totally untraceable.

I was told that to do this I need something like instawallet but now instawallet is not there anymore.

Can someone please clear this up for me on how exactly to do this.



2.) I am also wondering what the plusses and negatives are of using a wallet located on my own computer, as opposed to an online wallet.

Please also recommend the best ones


3.) I hear the mtGox is the biggest place to buy and sell bitcoin is there any drawbacks to using them? Can anyone recommend a better one and if so tell me why they are better.

Thanks

[gmak]

i'm new here aswell but i think that you can go to blockchain.info and create a wallet there to be untraced.

note,, create an email not including your real details? i think sounds right,, look in this direction and you will find that its very hard.

i suggest you buy a netbook to be used exclusivley for bitcoin activity.

i would create that email and access it from wifi not at home or office...

think in this direction

[balistick]

1.) I am trying to make a payment to an online business that accepts bitcoin but want it so that my personal identity is totally untraceable.

I was told that to do this I need something like instawallet but now instawallet is not there anymore.

Can someone please clear this up for me on how exactly to do this.

You can pay with a bitcoin address, wich is a random string, therefore anonymous. The problem is : can someone discover that this address belongs to you ? In example, if you are signing for an online wallet from your own computer, and someone can access the logs, he may be able to discover your identity through your ip.

Same goes for the transaction : if your doing the transaction from your home pc, then your ip wil be logged and bound to the transaction.

If you want to be anonymous one has to :
- use anonymous vpn while doing your things online
- use TOR

2.) I am also wondering what the plusses and negatives are of using a wallet located on my own computer, as opposed to an online wallet.

Please also recommend the best ones

Well in both cases the main risk is that an intruder steal the wallet. In case of your desktop you can "cold store" your wallet on a usb stick for example, and delete it from your pc, thus nobody can hack your desktop to get it. But if you lose your usb stick, you are doomed.

3.) I hear the mtGox is the biggest place to buy and sell bitcoin is there any drawbacks to using them? Can anyone recommend a better one and if so tell me why they are better.

Thanks

Interested in that question too.

[John (John K.)]

[Yes I have already done a lot of research (and youtubed and googled for hours).]


1.) I am trying to make a payment to an online business that accepts bitcoin but want it so that my personal identity is totally untraceable.

I was told that to do this I need something like instawallet but now instawallet is not there anymore.

Can someone please clear this up for me on how exactly to do this.



2.) I am also wondering what the plusses and negatives are of using a wallet located on my own computer, as opposed to an online wallet.

Please also recommend the best ones


3.) I hear the mtGox is the biggest place to buy and sell bitcoin is there any drawbacks to using them? Can anyone recommend a better one and if so tell me why they are better.

Thanks

1. Use blockchain.info, or even Electrum if you seek to do this fast. You can buy the coins via Bitinstant at Walmarts if you're at the US. Please provide your country for a specific service.

2. The security, of course. Electrum or Multibit if you're a casual user, but Electrum is the easiest so far to get you off. You may use bitcoin-QT too as that's the original client most people use, but you'll need to wait for it to initialize for some time.

3. Only drawback is the time needed to get the funds in. They only accept a few payment types like wire and etc. As I said before, this largely depends on your country. Bitstamp, for example is good for European users.

[John (John K.)]

1.) I am trying to make a payment to an online business that accepts bitcoin but want it so that my personal identity is totally untraceable.

I was told that to do this I need something like instawallet but now instawallet is not there anymore.

Can someone please clear this up for me on how exactly to do this.

You can pay with a bitcoin address, wich is a random string, therefore anonymous. The problem is : can someone discover that this address belongs to you ? In example, if you are signing for an online wallet from your own computer, and someone can access the logs, he may be able to discover your identity through your ip.

Same goes for the transaction : if your doing the transaction from your home pc, then your ip wil be logged and bound to the transaction.

If you want to be anonymous one has to :
- use anonymous vpn while doing your things online
- use TOR

...

You're correct for the first clause, where the logs in an online wallet could be traced to you. AFAIK blockchain.info only keeps hashed IP addresses though. If you're using a client based wallet like Bitcoin-QT, the transaction is never bound to your IP.

[puresoul108]

OK I am still confused.

If I use tor or some proxy IP thing then wont my Bitcoin payment still be traceable back to my real identity?

Also I am trying to start a new wallet at https://blockchain.info using TOR's browser  and every time I enter the captcha it will not accept it and the captcha refreshes and I am still on the same page 

I tried several other IP proxy services and the captcha does not even show up! At least in the TOR browser the captcha shows up but when I enter the correct captcha code it just refreshes and does not accept.....

very frustrated....

I hear that they log the IP you initially set up the wallet with.

 

[puresoul108]

If you want to be anonymous one has to :
- use anonymous vpn while doing your things online
- use TOR

what is "anonymous vpn" ?

[puresoul108]

Is this truly anonymous?

https://blockchain.info/wallet/send-shared