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It's not that easy to be anonymous with Bitcoin. Eventually you have to pay for Bitcoin, and that going to involve cash or trust, neither is simple.


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You can use Bitcoin anonymously, but it's like using the web anonymously i.e. it takes a lot of effort and a single mistake screws it up.

Bitcoin isn't anonymous, its pseudonymous. Unless one is extremely careful and takes a number of secondary steps, bitcoin won't protect your identity.

Bitcoin is not anonymous, true. But with skilled and careful use, it can be made perfectly anonymous.

Bitcoin is not anonymous your link doesn't say it is. It's easier to hide your identity than a credit card but it's more) not anonymous and there is a big focus on fixing this.

I wish people would emphasize this more. Bitcoin isn't anonymous, and with the legal requirements for reporting transactions, much of what happens on there can be corellated to real-world identities. Far as privacy goes, it's probably a step backwards even from bank accounts and credit cards since there's no warrant needed to access it.

Isn't the point of bitcoin to stay anonymous? It's nice to be able to purchase it instantly, but it seems to be going against the purpose of bitcoin.

Just remember, Bitcoin is far from anonymous. In fact, it's pretty easy to track, unless you can source the coins anonymously.

Bitcoin is not designed to be anonymous. From bitcoin.org: "While the Bitcoin technology can support strong anonymity, the current implementation is usually not very anonymous."

This statement is a bit hyperbolic. Bitcoin isn't as anonymous as say cash, but it's a lot more anonymous than most online payment methods (excluding a few altcoins which can really just be seen as innovations in the bitcoin/blockchain space).

That's not anonymous. Anonymity is one of the benefits of bitcoin, but it's tricky to do.

Bitcoin isn't anonymous unless you're putting it through a tumbler or transferring it to monero/zcash.

Bitcoin in particular however is not anonymous. It's exceedingly public.

Except that Bitcoin isn't actually anonymous. If you have a wallet address, you can trace the blockchain, and most (if not all) exchanges that transfer BTC to dollars, or vice versa, require a lot of personal information that can be tied to that wallet.

I'm not too sure where the "bitcoin is anonymous" misinformation comes from, sadly.


Bitcoin is not much of an anonymous platform. And anyone using it expecting anonymity is bound to end up disappointed.

TL;DR: Bitcoin is not inherently anonymous. It may be possible to conduct transactions in such a way so as to obscure your identity, but, in many cases, users and their transactions can be identified.

Bitcoin was never meant to be anonymous. It was designed to be stateful. The only information that is visible is the wallet address. And if you work at it long enough you can tie that back to the owner. It’s more anonymous through obscurity.

Now, there true anonymous cryptocurrency but bitcoin isn’t one of them.


Bitcoin is harder to use anonymously than cash. Transactions are between pseudonyms and there is a huge amount of information one can get from that. From some view points, it is worse than credit cards since all of the data is public. Now, that might be fixable, but as of right now it is a problem. see :

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5535321


Interesting point how bitcoin is only anonymous up to a point. Thinking about privacy instead is maybe a good angle.

But but but. Bitcoin is anonymous! /s
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