Bitcoin gives self custody and not anonymity

[Cryptohygenic]

Exchanges and brokers now need to go through strict registration, KYC, AML checks, and more compliance stuff. They say its necessary as it brings protection[[[?]]]]] and legitimacy, but at what cost? These rules slowly kill what made crypto special which is freedom and privacy.

And honestly, it really feels like the more they regulate the market, the less control we actually have over our own money, and its no longer different in banking with fiat. 

This thread and it contained articles rised my very big concerns about adaptation of bitcoin and users "privacies" which eliminations of third party was a core mechanism factor of the blockchain.
To make this short, we can not keep a 100% anonymity with our bitcoin rather, we can only keep self custody of our funds in the decentralized networks. So those with the mentality that you would own bitcoin without the awareness of the public or anyone should take note because, there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

This reason is also why scammers can not go scot free when the authorities is actually ready to fish you out where criminal believes bitcoin is a scam free monetary technology.
Non-custodial is the main thing where authority does not decide how you uses your funds while you can not keep total anonymity if you must transact on the p2p.

[Catenaccio]

Non-custodial is the main thing where authority does not decide how you uses your funds while you can not keep total anonymity if you must transact on the p2p.

You need to use non-custodial wallets for totally control your bitcoins, UTXOs, and your inputs, outputs for transactions. You need to run your Bitcoin full node, and use Tor when broadcasting your Bitcoin transactions from your Bitcoin full node.

Privacy, anonymity will depend on your practice, from wallet you use, how you choose UTXOs, inputs, outputs and whether you use a full node plus Tor for your transaction.

Privacy matters.
Anonymity matters.
However, they are not automatic, you must have knowledge and good practice to have them.

[Abu-Naim]

There is some truth in this thread because the majority of newbies and some us do acquire Bitcoin either through centralized exchanges or decentralized exchanges, the physical p2p is not more safe because of privacy, and you will hardly see people buying Bitcoin through physical p2p on my region, we all rely mostly on exchanges to purchase Bitcoin, and since we do mostly submit KYC to the exchanges, we might not be anonymous again only if we send the coins to a self custody wallet that we can control on our own.
This means that there is still self custody, but that anonymity is not as strong as it used to be in the past but since our wallets is self control wallets, we can still be anonymous especially if we use mixers to send our Bitcoin out before it gets to the next destination.

[Nathrixxx]

This thread and it contained articles rised my very big concerns about adaptation of bitcoin and users "privacies" which eliminations of third party was a core mechanism factor of the blockchain.
To make this short, we can not keep a 100% anonymity with our bitcoin rather, we can only keep self custody of our funds in the decentralized networks. So those with the mentality that you would own bitcoin without the awareness of the public or anyone should take note because, there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

Why are we talking about privacy the more if at the end everything about us will still be seen by the third party, am not saying that the blockchain technology is not transparent enough, but we can also go off-chain with our transactions and be more private about it, such as using Bitcoincore, you have self custody of your asset and still choose to be traced or anonymous or not at your discretion, but not everyone knows this.

[Despairo]

there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

There's, Face to Face trade.

You can trade without need to create an account which you submit KYC and you receive the payment in cash, so the banks didn't know it.

There's also an another way, you buy Bitcoin in no KYC P2P/DEX and then if you want to sell your coins, instead of sell the coins, you can buy gift cards and sell it. So, people would see you a gift card seller than Bitcoin investor.

[SatoPrincess]

there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

There's, Face to Face trade.

Not worth it. Remember this: 22 Years Old Robbed of $850,000 USDT at Karachi Airport (Pakistan)

The risks of face to face trading are very high. While maintaining your privacy is important, I think protecting yourself from dangerous situations is also important. There are bound to be bad actors in such space and if you’re trading coins worth over $500 you stand the chance of getting robbed.

[Cryptohygenic]

there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

There's, Face to Face trade.

Not worth it. Remember this: 22 Years Old Robbed of $850,000 USDT at Karachi Airport (Pakistan)

The risks of face to face trading are very high. While maintaining your privacy is important, I think protecting yourself from dangerous situations is also important. There are bound to be bad actors in such space and if you’re trading coins worth over $500 you stand the chance of getting robbed.

The exposure on the face to face transactions is even the worse of breaking privacy because you would be getting yourself exposed physically not just Kyc but revealing your real self and also as endangering yourself to physical risks.
Even if you have to do with a reputable dealer on the physical p2p, you are equally not keeping a 100% anonymity which is still the point of my original point of view that we can not mask our identity completely. Moreover, there could be a compromise from the other party and as we know, there is risk on trust levels.

[ColdLava40]

To make this short, we can not keep a 100% anonymity with our bitcoin rather, we can only keep self custody of our funds in the decentralized networks. So those with the mentality that you would own bitcoin without the awareness of the public or anyone should take note because, there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

Don't be ridiculous, we have reputable non kyc exchanges that you can purchase your bitcoin from, check this site Kycnot.me. Nobody said the block chain would give you full privacy, it gives you to a certain amount, but your transactions can still be traced by Blockchain data analyst because it's very much transparent.

What is meant by the anonymity the Blockchain provides is the fact that if you purchase your bitcoin without going through centralized platforms, you are rest assured not to be linked with your real life identity. It's that Simple.

The only problem we have today is that people prefer purchasing bitcoin from centralized systems which from the very beginning take away any form of privacy bitcoin was supposed to offer.

[un_rank]

Even if you have to do with a reputable dealer on the physical p2p, you are equally not keeping a 100% anonymity which is still the point of my original point of view that we can not mask our identity completely. Moreover, there could be a compromise from the other party and as we know, there is risk on trust levels.

It has always been that way, to make a purchase or a sale you will need a currency to give in exchange. If this is something decentralized you can still maintain our anonymity, but if you have to use fiat digitally you will be giving away some sort of info. This is not a serious risk however and limits your exposure to the bare minimum.

In this case the other party is likely not keeping logs of your details, so you are not at risk of a compromise from that end.

- Jay -

[Cryptohygenic]

To make this short, we can not keep a 100% anonymity with our bitcoin rather, we can only keep self custody of our funds in the decentralized networks. So those with the mentality that you would own bitcoin without the awareness of the public or anyone should take note because, there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

Don't be ridiculous, we have reputable non kyc exchanges that you can purchase your bitcoin from, check this site Kycnot.me. Nobody said the block chain would give you full privacy, it gives you to a certain amount, but your transactions can still be traced by Blockchain data analyst because it's very much transparent.

What is actually bugging you in the entire context? If you have reputable non kyc platforms that allows you to sell and buys bitcoins, is it not like an uneasy task on how you can facilitate on the payment on the p2p before the bitcoin can be released to your non-custodial wallet? And yet, we are talking about extreme Privacies.
If you don't get me clearly, I will put it other way round, what method do you use to make payments to the vendor in the platform before receiving the bitcoin to your wallet?

[ZAINmalik75]

Bitcoin gives both, self-custody and anonymity, but only if people can use them the right way. Of course, if you are using centralized platforms where you have completed identity verification, you can't say that you are private or anonymous, because they are basically able to see whatever you do on their platform and since your name is written on the profile, they know it's you. So if you want to stay anonymous and private, you should only use decentralized platforms and services.

It's not true that you can't buy Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies without revealing your identity, because there are platforms that allow you to do that, and even if you have to use a bank account or something initially, the wallet you use to receive your coins won't have any traces of your name or identity, and that's how you stay anonymous and private, unless you make a mistake again by sending or receiving coins from a centralized platform to that wallet.

[Obim34]

To make this short, we can not keep a 100% anonymity with our bitcoin rather, we can only keep self custody of our funds in the decentralized networks. So those with the mentality that you would own bitcoin without the awareness of the public or anyone should take note because, there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

Are we to make peace with a part of centralization (exchanges), yes we have no other choice than to accept, using an exchange won't matter most if your process of acquiring Bitcoin is legit, only those with bad coins will have problem using exchanges, knowing they can be traced from KYC submitted.

Bitcoin gives you self custody and keeps you pseudonymous, your wallet address becomes your identity when spending with traces on the blockchain that can't lead to a real identity, due to multitude of people that already accepted exchanges makes it less of a big deal at this stage.

[coolcoinz]

there is absolutely no way you can purchase bitcoin without atleast minimal revealing of your identity or kyc.

There's, Face to Face trade.

You can trade without need to create an account which you submit KYC and you receive the payment in cash, so the banks didn't know it.

There's also an another way, you buy Bitcoin in no KYC P2P/DEX and then if you want to sell your coins, instead of sell the coins, you can buy gift cards and sell it. So, people would see you a gift card seller than Bitcoin investor.

That's how I've been trading for years.

Bitcoin ATMs that operate with no KYC up to a certain cash limit.
P2P transactions
Gift cards
Payments in places that accept bitcoin

I'm pretty sure I maintain a decent level of anonymity.

Also, any amount of anonymity over what the banks is good because what alse do we have? Not many people want to carry around heaps of cash, especially in countries with weak currencies where you need spend 10+ bills to buy basic groceries.

[Satofan44]

I've never registered on an exchange, I have never done any KYC. All my Bitcoin is anonymous. You are wrong. Bitcoin provides you with the option to choose. Don't blame Bitcoin if you choose to use it in a non anonymous way.

Are we to make peace with a part of centralization (exchanges), yes we have no other choice than to accept, using an exchange won't matter most if your process of acquiring Bitcoin is legit, only those with bad coins will have problem using exchanges, knowing they can be traced from KYC submitted.

Utter stupidity by a brain damaged mongrel. If you are an uneducated and undeveloped person who is not capable of high level thinking, that does not mean that your world view reflects reality. There are countless reasons for which someone does not want to provide KYC. There is no good reason to do KYC at all. If you bow down to there draconian laws and support them, you are just an idiot. There is no argument here to be had.

Anyone with "bad coins" who is not a complete amateur will be able to bypass any AML detection. You don't have a single valid sentence in your reply. Lastly, bad actors can buy KYC anonymously for cheap and use it to launder the coins. They won't be traced to anything, only the dumbest amateurs get traced.

[Findingnemo]

It is still possible to a certain level, and to do that you need to,

1. Stop using KYC exchanges to buy Bitcoin.
2. Don't reuse your addresses.
3. Only buy Bitcoin from Bisq or any other possible means where you no need to provide any kind of identification.

You can avoid anyone linking your name with your bitcoin transactions, which is enough to say that I am private for an average user.

[Satofan44]

It is still possible to a certain level, and to do that you need to,

1. Stop using KYC exchanges to buy Bitcoin.
2. Don't reuse your addresses.
3. Only buy Bitcoin from Bisq or any other possible means where you no need to provide any kind of identification.

You can avoid anyone linking your name with your bitcoin transactions, which is enough to say that I am private for an average user.

To state that it is possible to a certain level is incorrect. It is possible to use Bitcoin in a completely anonymous way in isolated or specific scenarios. It is very difficult to do this consistently and over long periods of time, but it is possible. What you can't have is private transactions though. The data of the transactions will be always publicly visible, even if the public can't be certain on what exactly is going on in the transactions. If one needs anonymity and privacy then one must use Monero.

Whether this is practical for the average person or not does not diminish its possibility. For the best results, the average person can simply have completely separate wallets and balances. Once is KYC'd and the other is completely anonymous. Use each where it is needed or where it is more appropriate.

[Churchillvv]

Anonymity is declining in bitcoin, I’m sure years back it used to be one of the most anonymous means of receiving payment and one would able to find you but I still believe there are ways to do it regardless of how it has become so public information that someone just bought bitcoin but however your right that decentralization is the core ground of bitcoin right now than privacy or anonymity, the only currency fully anonymous now is monero which is being fought against by governments by all means but bitcoin still give you the highest level of freedom in spending and transacting which would never be compared to fiat or cash.

[Zaguru12]

To state that it is possible to a certain level is incorrect. It is possible to use Bitcoin in a completely anonymous way. It is very difficult to do this consistently and over long periods of time, but it is possible. What you can't have is private transactions though. The data of the transactions will be always publicly visible, even if the public can't be certain on what exactly is going on in the transactions. If one needs anonymity and privacy then one must use Monero.
 

Why are we saying we cannot actually have total privacy with bitcoin, I still think even if the process is actually a lot more complicated or requires you to be careful there is technically a chance of been anonymous with bitcoin, the transactions you still think are public are definitely nothing as long as it is not linked to a specific person or linked to some addresses, this is easily common by using new addresses for every new bitcoin transactions and never to actually link them together, this way the public’s sees bitcoin but never knows who it belongs to. This to me is anonymity and still privacy.

[Satofan44]

To state that it is possible to a certain level is incorrect. It is possible to use Bitcoin in a completely anonymous way. It is very difficult to do this consistently and over long periods of time, but it is possible. What you can't have is private transactions though. The data of the transactions will be always publicly visible, even if the public can't be certain on what exactly is going on in the transactions. If one needs anonymity and privacy then one must use Monero.

Why are we saying we cannot actually have total privacy with bitcoin, I still think even if the process is actually a lot more complicated or requires you to be careful there is technically a chance of been anonymous with bitcoin, the transactions you still think are public are definitely nothing as long as it is not linked to a specific person or linked to some addresses, this is easily common by using new addresses for every new bitcoin transactions and never to actually link them together, this way the public’s sees bitcoin but never knows who it belongs to.

This is because you don't understand the definitions of privacy and anonymity. They are entirely different things. A very simplified and shortened version:

• Transaction Privacy: Hiding the contents of the transaction.
• Transaction Anonymity: Hiding the (real) participants of the transactions.

You can have privacy without anonymity, you can have anonymity without privacy, and you can have both privacy and anonymity. All these combinations are possible. With Bitcoin you can have anonymity if you use it correctly, but you an never have privacy. All information is always public, even if it is subject to interpretation.

This to me is anonymity and still privacy.

What it is to you is meaningless, that is an uneducated approach to life. It is as if I said to me the sun is a giant snowball. Do you see how retarded that sounds? Transaction privacy and transaction anonymity have their own definitions in scientific literature, and these are the definitions that must be followed. You can't define them however you want.
This is a good learning opportunity for you, I suggest that you take it. This way you can avoid ending up like many clowns here who write whatever they want with a tone of certainty even though they are writing complete misinformation. Asking questions is always better.

[Potato Chips]

Some scammers go scot-free unfortunately, because authorities won't work to solve each and every case especially those that are in smaller scale. Investigating also doesn't lead to the outcome they want.

In addition, buying and selling of verified crypto accounts are rampant, some also offer after-sales in case the particular account gets flagged. Loads of bad actors resort to this. Meanwhile, law abiding folks bears the risk of having their personal information leaked lol. 10/10 i feel protected everytime I kyc.  /s