What happened to all of the anonymity exchanges?

[ElvisWu]

So i have been working with bitcoin since it started, i sold off all my holdings at 6k before the rise to the moon, but recently ive came back to buy some and all of the otc markets are gone, local traders require ID, the big exchanges either dont accept fiat or require your soul and mothers baby pictures.

So can somebody help me understand what happened? did the 2017 bubble kill off the anonymity or am i missing something? I understand the importance of a trust-circle but i am asking solely on the basis of send payment, get bitcoin using WU, cash deposit, Moneypak, etc.. without an in-group. It seems there isnt even a way anymore to find private sellers efficiently, just oceans full of buyers trying to pawn off paypal and itunes giftcards, OTC sellers requiring ID, and corporate exchanges that are even worse than mtgox.

I dont remember it being this "centralized". Shame.

So what actually caused this? Regulations shouldnt have effected the OTC market IMO.

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[AGD]

https://bisq.network/

[kelz1]

Go for decentralised exchanges like bisq mentioned above. But don't expect much variety as they mostly trade privacy altcoins, in addition to bitcoin of course

[don_ricci]

Currently, there are several anonymous exchanges. But almost all of them are unreliable in some way. I would not expect anonymity when you use exchanges. Because if something goes wrong, and your account is blocked, your passport details and so on will be required to insure you against fraudsters.

[ElvisWu]

I will check out bisq, Thanks for the recommendation! privacy altcoins are fine, they can be converted easily.

don, that is the problem i am talking about, there should be no problem that requires blocking of funds. When BTC is deposited it stays as btc and that is your money regardless of where it originated or who it used to belong to. The exchanges job is not to protect us from fraud, it is our job, Use long unique passwords, encrypt your data, dont talk about having bitcoin, use dedicated machines if financially viable, Dont get phished.

But its a problem ill have to solve myself i guess, Id love to see bitcoin get back to its roots. I think we should all expect some level of anonymity if we choose to have it. Pseudo-anonymity is key to security in my opinion.

But im just ranting now, thanks for the info guys!

[veleten]

So i have been working with bitcoin since it started, i sold off all my holdings at 6k before the rise to the moon, but recently ive came back to buy some and all of the otc markets are gone, local traders require ID, the big exchanges either dont accept fiat or require your soul and mothers baby pictures.

So can somebody help me understand what happened? did the 2017 bubble kill off the anonymity or am i missing something? I understand the importance of a trust-circle but i am asking solely on the basis of send payment, get bitcoin using WU, cash deposit, Moneypak, etc.. without an in-group. It seems there isnt even a way anymore to find private sellers efficiently, just oceans full of buyers trying to pawn off paypal and itunes giftcards, OTC sellers requiring ID, and corporate exchanges that are even worse than mtgox.

I dont remember it being this "centralized". Shame.

So what actually caused this? Regulations shouldnt have effected the OTC market IMO.

what did you expect?
the banking cartels will be losing profit and Central Banks will be losing control
if people are allowed to trade currencies anonymously
there will be all kind of excuses , sponsoring terrorism, crime, money laundering and what not
in reality it is all about your anonymity and privacy
and money

[clrpod]

So i have been working with bitcoin since it started, i sold off all my holdings at 6k before the rise to the moon, but recently ive came back to buy some and all of the otc markets are gone, local traders require ID, the big exchanges either dont accept fiat or require your soul and mothers baby pictures.

So can somebody help me understand what happened? did the 2017 bubble kill off the anonymity or am i missing something? I understand the importance of a trust-circle but i am asking solely on the basis of send payment, get bitcoin using WU, cash deposit, Moneypak, etc.. without an in-group. It seems there isnt even a way anymore to find private sellers efficiently, just oceans full of buyers trying to pawn off paypal and itunes giftcards, OTC sellers requiring ID, and corporate exchanges that are even worse than mtgox.

I dont remember it being this "centralized". Shame.

So what actually caused this? Regulations shouldnt have effected the OTC market IMO.

what did you expect?
the banking cartels will be losing profit and Central Banks will be losing control
if people are allowed to trade currencies anonymously
there will be all kind of excuses , sponsoring terrorism, crime, money laundering and what not
in reality it is all about your anonymity and privacy
and money

I'm sure it's a bit of both, sponsoring terrorism, money laundering etc are definitely easier with bitcoin than with fiat, but that doesn't mean they don't happen with fiat. Couple that with all of their banker buddies pressuring them to cramp down on bitcoin and you get to the regulators decision to push hard on everything. I'm not sure we've even seen the worst of it yet.

[ChangeNOW]

There's currently a ton of pressure from regulators and the overall market. Lots of businesses that used to be anonymous have been forced to implement KYC checks.

[gentlemand]

The exchanges and sites we grew to know and love had a need to stay alive hence the KYC bonkersdom. That's the price of increased growth and visibility. It's only going to go in one direction.

Back in the day you could buy inside the blockchain.info wallet with Paypal. That's the luxury of being obscure. As soon as that goes out the window it's time to man up.

Hopefully proper p2p stuff is going to get more robust and easier to use. Right now it's on the painfully clunky side.

And it turns out the one true anon exchange, btc-e, was probably a giant money laundering machine.

[ABCbits]

Most of cryptocurrency exchange (such as LocalBitcoin & BTC-e) has always been centralized, but the difference are they didn't comply with KYC/AML, didn't ask personal information and allowed user with private connection. All anonymous (and centralized) exchange these days are scam or simply will be removed by the government soon.

don, that is the problem i am talking about, there should be no problem that requires blocking of funds. When BTC is deposited it stays as btc and that is your money regardless of where it originated or who it used to belong to.

If you don't own the private key of your Bitcoin, then you don't own it

Hopefully proper p2p stuff is going to get more robust and easier to use. Right now it's on the painfully clunky side.

And some DEX even require lock small amount of Bitcoin as insurance, but it should be more user-friendly if more people use DEX and atomic swap can be used securely

[LeGaulois]

That's the result of the regulations, the same regulations people here were saying "regulations are great for Bitcoin!"
See the result now. People are considering Bitcoin as an investment so the framework comes with. There are still ways to buy bitcoins as you want but not via the centralized exchanges.

[AGD]

Most of cryptocurrency exchange (such as LocalBitcoin & BTC-e) has always been centralized, but the difference are they didn't comply with KYC/AML, didn't ask personal information and allowed user with private connection. All anonymous (and centralized) exchange these days are scam or simply will be removed by the government soon.

don, that is the problem i am talking about, there should be no problem that requires blocking of funds. When BTC is deposited it stays as btc and that is your money regardless of where it originated or who it used to belong to.

If you don't own the private key of your Bitcoin, then you don't own it

...

The result will be:



While owning the private keys will make you happy:

[Indrawan77]

That's the result of the regulations, the same regulations people here were saying "regulations are great for Bitcoin!"
See the result now. People are considering Bitcoin as an investment so the framework comes with. There are still ways to buy bitcoins as you want but not via the centralized exchanges.

There is nothing can be done when the government force the exchanges to apply kyc for the customers, if the exchanges not following the rules then the site will be blocked, nobody like crypto being regulated but crypto need the permit from government, if the government ban crypto then we can lose the chance to grow

[LeGaulois]

That's the result of the regulations, the same regulations people here were saying "regulations are great for Bitcoin!"
See the result now. People are considering Bitcoin as an investment so the framework comes with. There are still ways to buy bitcoins as you want but not via the centralized exchanges.

There is nothing can be done when the government force the exchanges to apply kyc for the customers, if the exchanges not following the rules then the site will be blocked, nobody like crypto being regulated but crypto need the permit from government, if the government ban crypto then we can lose the chance to grow

Blame all people considering cryptos an investment. Exchanges would probably never need to follow the KYC/AML policies if people started to use cryptos as a currency instead.  nobody like crypto being related? Are you serious, even all the shitposters here say regulations are great! I read tons of them daily.
The same people considering cryptos their investments are killing the cryptos world (more than a ban from govt.), and no, we don't need government permissions, we don't need regulations, one of the purposes of Bitcoin was to avoid governments, banks, regulations and so on.

[trashman43]

Looking at the current state of crypto exchanges, there is nothing like anonymity. Before you can buy or trade on these exchanges, they require you to fill kyc forms before you will be grant assess to either trade your coin or buy cryptocurrency.  Some don't ask for kyc during your initial start but after you are done trading your coin and you want to withdraw your funds, then kyc pops up.

[HeRetiK]

There's currently a ton of pressure from regulators and the overall market. Lots of businesses that used to be anonymous have been forced to implement KYC checks.

Pretty much this. There's been an increased push for KYC / AML for all sorts of financial services and against consumer-citizen privacy in general, so it's not just crypto.

Blame all people considering cryptos an investment. Exchanges would probably never need to follow the KYC/AML policies if people started to use cryptos as a currency instead.  nobody like crypto being related? Are you serious, even all the shitposters here say regulations are great! I read tons of them daily.
The same people considering cryptos their investments are killing the cryptos world (more than a ban from govt.), and no, we don't need government permissions, we don't need regulations, one of the purposes of Bitcoin was to avoid governments, banks, regulations and so on.

KYC / AML became inevitable as soon as people exchanged to fiat on a regular basis and crypto grew large enough. Used within a closed economic loop you're still fine and hopefully always will be. It's using crypto as a mere transport layer for fiat currencies where the trouble begins.

[Irvinn]

So i have been working with bitcoin since it started, i sold off all my holdings at 6k before the rise to the moon, but recently ive came back to buy some and all of the otc markets are gone, local traders require ID, the big exchanges either dont accept fiat or require your soul and mothers baby pictures.

So can somebody help me understand what happened? did the 2017 bubble kill off the anonymity or am i missing something? I understand the importance of a trust-circle but i am asking solely on the basis of send payment, get bitcoin using WU, cash deposit, Moneypak, etc.. without an in-group. It seems there isnt even a way anymore to find private sellers efficiently, just oceans full of buyers trying to pawn off paypal and itunes giftcards, OTC sellers requiring ID, and corporate exchanges that are even worse than mtgox.

I dont remember it being this "centralized". Shame.

So what actually caused this? Regulations shouldnt have effected the OTC market IMO.

what did you expect?
the banking cartels will be losing profit and Central Banks will be losing control
if people are allowed to trade currencies anonymously
there will be all kind of excuses , sponsoring terrorism, crime, money laundering and what not
in reality it is all about your anonymity and privacy
and money

However, in this case, the cryptocurrency will lose its appeal. Then it will not make much sense to engage in cryptocurrency, if we always leave our data. As a result, we will simply increase the number of problems, as the number of misunderstandings and abuses with our data and copies of our documents will increase.
Yes, it seems that the golden time of cryptocurrency is leaving. Or we are on the verge of something new.

[maman567]

I am not sure some exchange could be hacked, maybe just their drama to make your asset lost, how come real exchange have billion member could be hacked, why their security too low and could not protect their account.

[Kakmakr]

In the early days "anonymity" was more important, because most countries/governments were against Bitcoin. People had to use these services to buy & sell bitcoins to circumvent government controls. There was also a large influence from the Cypherpunk community back then.

Lately Bitcoin was infiltrated by loads of speculators that wants to trade in a legal framework and the services acknowledged that need, so they adapted their offerings to also serve that group.

Centralized services analyse changing trends and demands and they adapt to it, to maximize their profits. 

[kingpin4321]

Well to keep trading safer the anonymity era is gone because unlike the good old time where there was little scam issues cryptocurrency has grown and attracted so many and that's includes scammers and also some countries are restricted from trading so exchanges now requires some prove of identity