Anonymity?

[target]

for what purpose do you want anonymity? i personally couldn't care less about it and almost everyone slips up somewhere along the line. there are too many holes for it not to leak out eventually.

They are trying to minimize how much leaks its going give. There are a number of anon coins competing each other and many of them already had succeed like monero, zcash, sdc and cloak. I do think they are the future which are needed to be developed and has to be accepted by merchants as well. I think they are going to dominate the market, Monero even catches the eyes of FBI, it must be used by people in the blackmarket.

[aardvark15]

I don't think there is any complete anonymity but some exchanges don't need a lot of personal information. The tracking may come in more when you spend Bitcoins or cash out.

[BitDane]

The problem is that an exchange that follows the law is not going to be anonymous, and an exchange that is not following the law can't really be trusted.

This   Why would someone need to hide his identity if he won't do any harm?  Same applies to services.  There is a possibility that this anon sites or services are just waiting for the right moment to run with the money.

[iram3130]

The problem is that an exchange that follows the law is not going to be anonymous, and an exchange that is not following the law can't really be trusted.

This   Why would someone need to hide his identity if he won't do any harm?  Same applies to services.  There is a possibility that this anon sites or services are just waiting for the right moment to run with the money.

They cannot run away like that. But yes, Exchanges will know who are you and how much money you have and transferred and received in the past.
But the concept of total anonymity is between sender and receiver, and that is still working properly with Bitcoin transactions.

[ikydesu]

I hear people talking about anonymity with various currencies, eg Monero, or DASH, but as most people seem to use exchanges, there really isn't any anonymity, because the exchange presumably knows each person's identity and therefore has a record of all transactions, whether they be for bitcoin, or any other "anonymous" currency. Is this right? It would seem that anonymity is a function of the exchange and not the currency (granted there are differences in currencies that impact anonymity as well).

If the above is true, are there any legitimate (I know this is subjective) exchanges that do not keep identities of their customers? I have heard of local meetups, but that does not seem very convenient and there are trust issues.

It's more likely pseudonym, not really anonymous, your address and all of your transaction can be tracked it's proof you use a "nickname" called address, unless your transaction mixing with a service which can fading your transaction.
Mostly exchange have KYC (already have a legality). You can use a decentralized exchange like bitsquare or trade in localbitcoin, but you should selective to a person who you want to deal with and use an escrow.

[ulhaq]

I did not know there were reputable mixers. What is the cost of it? Also, aren't there issues with bitcoin mixers in terms of getting coins that are less valuable? Eg, if someone stole large amounts of bitcoin, they are going to want to use the mixer to exchange it with others, and people may be less interested in accepting such stolen money, when it is in the hands of someone that had nothing to do with stealing it.

For those of you asking about why would one want privacy if not doing anything illegal, this has been hashed out and discussed ad nauseum. Do some research on privacy and societal implications, or read some papers on the subject, or watch documentaries or TED talks. But as an example, political dissidents. Also plenty of people (in some countries more than others), have been detained, arrested, or even killed based on a suspicion of doing something illegal based on misinterpretation of data obtained in indiscriminate surveillance, when it was established later that the person was innocent. I'm not talking about people who are somehow "different" than others, but everyday people that the government got into their social media and other accounts and communications. As another example, think about various times through history when there have been episodes of national paranoia and what happened then.

[BestBitcoinTrading]

I know about two exchanges if we can call them like that. First one is Whaleclub, a bit unusual exchange which accepts only BTC deposits and doesn't require any verification or other identity information. The second one is LocalBitcoins, which at times isn't so great. 

[raven7886]

I don't think there is any complete anonymity but some exchanges don't need a lot of personal information. The tracking may come in more when you spend Bitcoins or cash out.

Yes, indeed and I think poloniex and 4-5 more exchanges have high limits for monthly trading or daily trading and no one stops you from making multiple accounts and trade then.

But this might be dangerous too as the exchange can anytime catch you up and forfeit all your savings there. Rather than that it would be better if we trade on 5-6 exchanges with one account on each.

[geopolisch]

To date till now in my life I haven't given my documents or photo ID to anyone or any trading site. Because of the fact that bitcoin's main aim is to make transactions secure but ANONYMOUS and hence we all must respect that fact and never ask ID proof from anyone.

I often see that gambling sites too ask for some ID proofs and I really feel like upset because they are killing the main idea.

[stomachgrowls]

To date till now in my life I haven't given my documents or photo ID to anyone or any trading site. Because of the fact that bitcoin's main aim is to make transactions secure but ANONYMOUS and hence we all must respect that fact and never ask ID proof from anyone.

I often see that gambling sites too ask for some ID proofs and I really feel like upset because they are killing the main idea.

We cant do anything about it since they do still follow the traditional KYC back in the past which they implement too on bitcoin gambling sites and yes they are killing the idea but still you can still freely choose on which site you would like to play because there are still some gambling sites don't have strict terms or rules.If you don't like to give any documents then better choose what suits you.

[bitbunnny]

Anonimity counts, I think it's important. Not because someone would like to hide something but we all have the right to privacy. Maybe I think this way because I'm from Europe and there is privacy very valuable. Many people started using Bitcoins because it ensured them privacy and not everyone could track and monitor their transaction but in the meantime that has changed a lot and Bitcoin has lost a great deal of anonimity.

[swogerino]

Anonymity is not always to hide something bad that a person might do. In USA privacy is very valuable because if for example some bad person happens to know a few details of your life, your life may be compromised very badly. Bitcoin gave us all such freedom but it also attracted the attention of federal agencies so it is not as anonymous as it looks, don't rely too much on it's anonymity. If it is important to you , you can give a look to Monero or Zcash.

[dothebeats]

Afaik KYC and AML regulations only apply when a given cryptocurtency is traded for USD. In that case, people should really need to submit verification of identity in order for the trades to take place. However if it is for crypto pairs then there's no need to submit IDs and such. Also, anonymity is very subjective and broad. Yes, exchanges keep records of your trades but once you get your funds out of them, that is wherr your coin's anonymity features come to play.

[upsidedown75]

The problem is that an exchange that follows the law is not going to be anonymous, and an exchange that is not following the law can't really be trusted.

This   Why would someone need to hide his identity if he won't do any harm?  Same applies to services.  There is a possibility that this anon sites or services are just waiting for the right moment to run with the money.

Well giving ID proofs has a lot of problems because the government might anytime be informed that you are earning too much and you are using crypto which in some countries is now banned. And then there would be a truckload of legal issues on your head.

But yeah if crypto is allowed and you pay your taxes well then there is no need to hide your ID online.

[topesis]

Most of these exchanges don't ask for KML unless you are withdrawing huge amount of BTC, Poloniex for example we only has for more perssonal details about you if you are withdrawing more than $2000 per day.