How would I purchase Bitcoin anonymously? I can't, because there is no way to exchange my cash for (significant) amount of Bitcoin. If I can't get Bitcoin anonymously, how is the promise of crypto still valid for newcomers?
> If I can't get Bitcoin anonymously, how is the promise of crypto still valid for newcomers
The promise of Bitcoin was never "You are able to be anonymous" since one of the core features of it is a distributed public ledger of all transactions on the network. It goes against the fundamental idea of Bitcoin, that everything is public.
Other cryptocurrencies have made "You are able to be anonymous" a core feature in their protocols, see zCash or Monero for example. But most cryptocurrencies go with how Bitcoin implemented things, meaning everything is public.
One of the core value propositions of Bitcoin (and most cryptocurrencies) has always been "If you own the keys and can connect to the network, no one can stop you from making a transaction".
In order to broadcast a transaction, you need to be connected to the network, which requires a IP, which I'd consider part of identity.
If that identity belongs to your ISP or a VPN or something else is irrelevant, as that would be anonymity on the IP level rather than the level of the Bitcoin protocol.
You do not need an IP to broadcast a transaction, you could feasibly do it on paper, or broadcast through a remote node or overlay network gateway through TOR, I2P etc.
Have you done this? You know of anyone who have done this? I know in theory it's possible to do, but claiming it's "feasible" I'm not sure is accurate.
> broadcast through a remote node
Which requires you to connect to the remote node, again using the traditional TCP/IP stack.
> overlay network gateway through TOR, I2P
Yeah, that would mask your IP, but IP still required, meaning your anonymous on the IP level, just like I argued in my previous comment.
Calm down sport I'm just trying to supply some options just in case someone else is in a bind. There are always options. Borrow an ethernet port at a hospital or something and use a VPN if you're super worried.
Sorry, I'm already calm, my bad if you got the impression I'm not.
While the context might have been lost these deep in the thread, I was simply trying to rebut "If I can't get Bitcoin anonymously, how is the promise of crypto still valid?" which WA wrote earlier.
Practically, there are a ton of ways to turn 500,000 EUR into "anonymous" crypto, depending on what you mean by "anonymous".
You can use an exchange (KYC or non-KYC) that lets you trade USDT/XMR pairs. Wire 500,000 EUR and convert to USDT. Buy the full amount worth of XMR and send it to your own XMR hardware wallet. You now have anonymous XMR (assuming you trust their math).
You can do something similar with ZEC shielded transactions. Many KYC exchanges support ZEC (but without shielded transactions). You can get your ZEC this way and then shield it.
If you're interested in anonymous crypto, XMR or ZEC is probably what you'd want to have anyway instead of BTC.
Also, LTC recently adopted a new privacy-enabling feature. It's not functional yet as far as I know, but it did cause LTC to be delisted from several korean exchanges last week. This one is interesting because of the widespread adoption of litecoin before it added privacy features.
Or if you'd rather use the ETH ecosystem, you can use https://tornado.cash/. Buy your KYC'd ETH, send to tornado.cash, wait, withdraw a partial amount to a fresh anonymous ethereum address.
There are even privacy-oriented wallets like https://unstoppable.money/ that can use tor to further improve anonymity while doing wallet actions.
But let's say you really do want bitcoin only. Take your 500,000 EUR and wire it to a KYC exchange. Buy your bitcoin and send it to your wallet. Send that BTC into renVM pools, wait, send your renBTC to a new address, release renBTC back to BTC on the new address: https://bridge.renproject.io/.
In other words, your point does not hold at all. There are probably a dozen different ways to get anonymous crypto right now. In the near future, many common coins will have privacy features anyway, maybe even by default.
You have to think about what level of anonymity you want and what premium you're willing to pay, but there's a wide spectrum of options.
And if you think it's not easy enough yet, just wait. The math works, it's just not wrapped up into a convenient user experience yet.
"Just follow these 17 arcane steps and boom! Problem solved!" isn't a great flex.
That goes waayyy beyond "not wrapped up in a convenient user experience". Talking of finances is not so trivial a proposition as... Well, anything else that might have started our complicated on the internet.
Same holds true for Gold or Cash in some (most EU) countries. In my jurisdiction, commercial gold traders are required to KYC process above a certain amount (15.000€ here), in other countries this is limited to 1.000€ (IIRC Spain). In Italy, two completely private entities can not deal in Cash for any amounts over 1.000€ without comiting a felony (maybe misdemenour) - electronic transfers requirement with KYC.
Funny thing is, as a EU foreigner in Spain I can legally withdraw/buy up to 10.000€ per day in BTC anonymously, while a spanish citizen is limited to 1.000€ (I've used BTC ATMs on occasions in Spain, which is completely anonymous below that threshold).
Who told you "Crypto" was supposed to be anonymous and that every cryptocurrency has the same properties? BTC != XMR and at best BTC is pseudo-anonymous.
I suppose if you really want to have 500k in anonymous crypto (one way to do it):
1. Buy it in BTC.
2. Exchange it for XMR.
3. ...
4. Profit!
There’s a place near my house that can exchange in/out of Bitcoin roughly $200k USD at a time without an appointment and they don’t ask for ID. They can do more if you schedule in advance.
I don’t live in a lawless third-world country. It’s very modern and safe here. Statistically safer than the US and other superpower countries.
It’s not fair to count your own country’s unfair regulations as a negative against Bitcoin itself.
At least in my country (Argentina) it's quite easy to purchase fairly large amounts of crypto face to face.
Of course it's probably easier here than other places because we already have an extremely strong culture of purchasing US Dollars bills face to face under the table.
The main (and probably naive) idea of bitcoin is that you don't have to purchase it. Did you purchase the fiat money that you have on your bank account? No, you did something useful for someone and they paid you. Same for bitcoin – do something, or sell something for bitcoin, or do something useful for the network itself (mine your 6 coins per block), and boom you have coins.
make some artwork or music, mint as nft via a gasless minting service. sell your nft work for eth. tornado cash eth. swap eth for wbtc, claim wbtc over bridge.
its clunky but i actually think this is a pretty fun on ramp. im all for people getting paid crypto as a way in rather than buying it.
