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Ask HN: Is there a place to buy Bitcoin almost anonymously?

9 points by antocv ↗ HN
So with the recent surge in bitcoin I went and wanted to buy some.

I havent yet found a market place which doesnt require me to have an email address, a phone number with SMS validation and to tell them my real name. bitcoin.de WTF? Might as well give them a blood and DNA sample?

Why is this so? Isnt bitcoin supposed to be pseudonomous?

9 comments

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27182818284
I would love to here Coinbase (YCS12) talk about this.

I honestly feel the same way. I want to play around by, say, buying $100 in Litecoin but I find all of the different avenues pretty invasive. The closest I found was buying Litecoin in person, but none of the listed sources were anywhere close to me geographically.

MarkPNeyer
the markets that can take credit card or do bank withdrawal require that id to protect themselves from fraudelent buyers.

if you're going to buy bitcoins anonymously, you'll probably have to do it locally with cash.

mynewwork
> Isnt bitcoin supposed to be pseudonomous?

Yes, but the rest of the world isn't. Financial companies still must comply with laws (tax evasion, money laundering, etc) regardless if they're going dollars to euros or dollars to bitcoins. Much of the current hype around bitcoins comes specifically from recent comments regarding regulation of bitcoin transactions.

Also, you want to buy because the price recently spiked? That's rarely a good idea (whether in stocks, real estate or bitcoins).

antocv
So basically there is no good way to get bitcoins without revealing ones identity right now? Since mining is not quite possible?
lSiWsPmgNeXEXOZ
Yes and no. Unless it is illegal to buy Bitcoins in your country/state/city/area/etc. then buying Bitcoins is fine. Coinbase and the like are more or less established businesses now. If you intend on using them for things that you wouldn't want traced back to you, there are quite a few Bitcoin tumblers/launderies/what-have-you. Once they come out the other side, you have plausible deniablity.
larosh
After you've got some bitcoins in your wallet you can use a special bitcoin laundry service, which completely destroys connection between you and your coins.
wmf
You just need to venture further into the dark alleys of the Internet where stuff like MoneyPaks are used.
javis
It may seem backwards, but the only real way to buy Bitcoins anonymously is to buy them in person using cash.

Check out: http://localbitcoins.com

But you can just buy them through somewhere like Coinbase, then use Bitcoin Fog to make them anonymous.

http://bitcoinfog.com/

If you leave them in Bitcoin Fog for a couple of days / weeks, there is very little chance they'll be traced back to you.

_n6th
Whoever runs bitcoinfog might want to revise this statement on their gateway page:

> And once again, running through Tor makes it not likely for us to be shut down under pressure from the authorities. When in doubt about this, consider Silk Road.

When I consider Silk Road, it makes me less confident that this service won't be shut down.