How can I make payments on the Internet without leaving a money trail? The 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results Are InWhat are the pros and cons of a VPN for privacyWhat are darknets, and how can they be used to provide security and anonymity in network communication?When connecting to internet through VPN what precautions should be taken?What are the privacy pros and cons of using a public DNS server vs. your own?How can you be caught using Private VPN when there's no logs about who you are?When do honest people need privacy or anonymity? (e.g. they have nothing to hide)How to increase anonymity of TorHow can mom monitor my internet history from a distance?How to keep web traffic private with a satellite intenet connectionReceiving lots of spam after registering a new domain on GoDaddy

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How can I make payments on the Internet without leaving a money trail?



The 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results Are InWhat are the pros and cons of a VPN for privacyWhat are darknets, and how can they be used to provide security and anonymity in network communication?When connecting to internet through VPN what precautions should be taken?What are the privacy pros and cons of using a public DNS server vs. your own?How can you be caught using Private VPN when there's no logs about who you are?When do honest people need privacy or anonymity? (e.g. they have nothing to hide)How to increase anonymity of TorHow can mom monitor my internet history from a distance?How to keep web traffic private with a satellite intenet connectionReceiving lots of spam after registering a new domain on GoDaddy



.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;








48















For someone who values anonymity and privacy, what is the recommended way to pay on the Internet?



Example: To buy a domain or a VPN or another service



I know that we can use cryptocurrencies, but at some point, you need to buy cryptocurrency using a traditional currency.










share|improve this question









New contributor




DxTx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.















  • 4





    If you don't want a domain for a service you're hosting for others but just for yourself to contact your own server, you can go for a free subdomain. There are several of these free services. Apart from saving a small amount of money, the advantages are that your name doesn't appear in some DNS registrar's database and that you don't leave identifying information in a money trail because there is no money trail.

    – UTF-8
    2 days ago






  • 13





    I personally defend the valuable topic of right to anonymity. But I shall also point out that regardless of any legitimate reason, the sole ability to transfer money anonymously opens the gate to money laundering and funding to either terrorist groups, mafia, Wikileaks etc. So there will always be forces trying to prevent each of us from transacting (truly) anonymously.

    – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
    yesterday






  • 3





    @zakinster, private domain registration where the name of a proxy company is listed rather than your info is super common when registering domain names and most (all?) registrars provide that service. If you register with your real info, you will get spammed to death.

    – JPhi1618
    yesterday






  • 1





    Some services, such as “posteo.de”, go to great lengths to protect your privacy by not collecting your name or (other) email address during sign up, allowing for anonymous payments, not logging your IP address, etc. But specifically for those reasons, they don’t support custom domains for your email address, either. Another example is “gandi.net”, which accepts payments in Bitcoin. Anyway, you may leak information otherwise and may have to trust your provider nevertheless.

    – caw
    yesterday






  • 1





    You do know that you can wash cryptocurrencies easily right? Just buy them with your name and send it through coin tumbler, preferably with a delay above 3 days

    – Hobbamok
    22 hours ago

















48















For someone who values anonymity and privacy, what is the recommended way to pay on the Internet?



Example: To buy a domain or a VPN or another service



I know that we can use cryptocurrencies, but at some point, you need to buy cryptocurrency using a traditional currency.










share|improve this question









New contributor




DxTx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.















  • 4





    If you don't want a domain for a service you're hosting for others but just for yourself to contact your own server, you can go for a free subdomain. There are several of these free services. Apart from saving a small amount of money, the advantages are that your name doesn't appear in some DNS registrar's database and that you don't leave identifying information in a money trail because there is no money trail.

    – UTF-8
    2 days ago






  • 13





    I personally defend the valuable topic of right to anonymity. But I shall also point out that regardless of any legitimate reason, the sole ability to transfer money anonymously opens the gate to money laundering and funding to either terrorist groups, mafia, Wikileaks etc. So there will always be forces trying to prevent each of us from transacting (truly) anonymously.

    – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
    yesterday






  • 3





    @zakinster, private domain registration where the name of a proxy company is listed rather than your info is super common when registering domain names and most (all?) registrars provide that service. If you register with your real info, you will get spammed to death.

    – JPhi1618
    yesterday






  • 1





    Some services, such as “posteo.de”, go to great lengths to protect your privacy by not collecting your name or (other) email address during sign up, allowing for anonymous payments, not logging your IP address, etc. But specifically for those reasons, they don’t support custom domains for your email address, either. Another example is “gandi.net”, which accepts payments in Bitcoin. Anyway, you may leak information otherwise and may have to trust your provider nevertheless.

    – caw
    yesterday






  • 1





    You do know that you can wash cryptocurrencies easily right? Just buy them with your name and send it through coin tumbler, preferably with a delay above 3 days

    – Hobbamok
    22 hours ago













48












48








48


14






For someone who values anonymity and privacy, what is the recommended way to pay on the Internet?



Example: To buy a domain or a VPN or another service



I know that we can use cryptocurrencies, but at some point, you need to buy cryptocurrency using a traditional currency.










share|improve this question









New contributor




DxTx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












For someone who values anonymity and privacy, what is the recommended way to pay on the Internet?



Example: To buy a domain or a VPN or another service



I know that we can use cryptocurrencies, but at some point, you need to buy cryptocurrency using a traditional currency.







privacy anonymity money






share|improve this question









New contributor




DxTx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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share|improve this question









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share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 40 mins ago









Peter Mortensen

71249




71249






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asked 2 days ago









DxTxDxTx

3461213




3461213




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New contributor





DxTx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






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Check out our Code of Conduct.







  • 4





    If you don't want a domain for a service you're hosting for others but just for yourself to contact your own server, you can go for a free subdomain. There are several of these free services. Apart from saving a small amount of money, the advantages are that your name doesn't appear in some DNS registrar's database and that you don't leave identifying information in a money trail because there is no money trail.

    – UTF-8
    2 days ago






  • 13





    I personally defend the valuable topic of right to anonymity. But I shall also point out that regardless of any legitimate reason, the sole ability to transfer money anonymously opens the gate to money laundering and funding to either terrorist groups, mafia, Wikileaks etc. So there will always be forces trying to prevent each of us from transacting (truly) anonymously.

    – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
    yesterday






  • 3





    @zakinster, private domain registration where the name of a proxy company is listed rather than your info is super common when registering domain names and most (all?) registrars provide that service. If you register with your real info, you will get spammed to death.

    – JPhi1618
    yesterday






  • 1





    Some services, such as “posteo.de”, go to great lengths to protect your privacy by not collecting your name or (other) email address during sign up, allowing for anonymous payments, not logging your IP address, etc. But specifically for those reasons, they don’t support custom domains for your email address, either. Another example is “gandi.net”, which accepts payments in Bitcoin. Anyway, you may leak information otherwise and may have to trust your provider nevertheless.

    – caw
    yesterday






  • 1





    You do know that you can wash cryptocurrencies easily right? Just buy them with your name and send it through coin tumbler, preferably with a delay above 3 days

    – Hobbamok
    22 hours ago












  • 4





    If you don't want a domain for a service you're hosting for others but just for yourself to contact your own server, you can go for a free subdomain. There are several of these free services. Apart from saving a small amount of money, the advantages are that your name doesn't appear in some DNS registrar's database and that you don't leave identifying information in a money trail because there is no money trail.

    – UTF-8
    2 days ago






  • 13





    I personally defend the valuable topic of right to anonymity. But I shall also point out that regardless of any legitimate reason, the sole ability to transfer money anonymously opens the gate to money laundering and funding to either terrorist groups, mafia, Wikileaks etc. So there will always be forces trying to prevent each of us from transacting (truly) anonymously.

    – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
    yesterday






  • 3





    @zakinster, private domain registration where the name of a proxy company is listed rather than your info is super common when registering domain names and most (all?) registrars provide that service. If you register with your real info, you will get spammed to death.

    – JPhi1618
    yesterday






  • 1





    Some services, such as “posteo.de”, go to great lengths to protect your privacy by not collecting your name or (other) email address during sign up, allowing for anonymous payments, not logging your IP address, etc. But specifically for those reasons, they don’t support custom domains for your email address, either. Another example is “gandi.net”, which accepts payments in Bitcoin. Anyway, you may leak information otherwise and may have to trust your provider nevertheless.

    – caw
    yesterday






  • 1





    You do know that you can wash cryptocurrencies easily right? Just buy them with your name and send it through coin tumbler, preferably with a delay above 3 days

    – Hobbamok
    22 hours ago







4




4





If you don't want a domain for a service you're hosting for others but just for yourself to contact your own server, you can go for a free subdomain. There are several of these free services. Apart from saving a small amount of money, the advantages are that your name doesn't appear in some DNS registrar's database and that you don't leave identifying information in a money trail because there is no money trail.

– UTF-8
2 days ago





If you don't want a domain for a service you're hosting for others but just for yourself to contact your own server, you can go for a free subdomain. There are several of these free services. Apart from saving a small amount of money, the advantages are that your name doesn't appear in some DNS registrar's database and that you don't leave identifying information in a money trail because there is no money trail.

– UTF-8
2 days ago




13




13





I personally defend the valuable topic of right to anonymity. But I shall also point out that regardless of any legitimate reason, the sole ability to transfer money anonymously opens the gate to money laundering and funding to either terrorist groups, mafia, Wikileaks etc. So there will always be forces trying to prevent each of us from transacting (truly) anonymously.

– usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
yesterday





I personally defend the valuable topic of right to anonymity. But I shall also point out that regardless of any legitimate reason, the sole ability to transfer money anonymously opens the gate to money laundering and funding to either terrorist groups, mafia, Wikileaks etc. So there will always be forces trying to prevent each of us from transacting (truly) anonymously.

– usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
yesterday




3




3





@zakinster, private domain registration where the name of a proxy company is listed rather than your info is super common when registering domain names and most (all?) registrars provide that service. If you register with your real info, you will get spammed to death.

– JPhi1618
yesterday





@zakinster, private domain registration where the name of a proxy company is listed rather than your info is super common when registering domain names and most (all?) registrars provide that service. If you register with your real info, you will get spammed to death.

– JPhi1618
yesterday




1




1





Some services, such as “posteo.de”, go to great lengths to protect your privacy by not collecting your name or (other) email address during sign up, allowing for anonymous payments, not logging your IP address, etc. But specifically for those reasons, they don’t support custom domains for your email address, either. Another example is “gandi.net”, which accepts payments in Bitcoin. Anyway, you may leak information otherwise and may have to trust your provider nevertheless.

– caw
yesterday





Some services, such as “posteo.de”, go to great lengths to protect your privacy by not collecting your name or (other) email address during sign up, allowing for anonymous payments, not logging your IP address, etc. But specifically for those reasons, they don’t support custom domains for your email address, either. Another example is “gandi.net”, which accepts payments in Bitcoin. Anyway, you may leak information otherwise and may have to trust your provider nevertheless.

– caw
yesterday




1




1





You do know that you can wash cryptocurrencies easily right? Just buy them with your name and send it through coin tumbler, preferably with a delay above 3 days

– Hobbamok
22 hours ago





You do know that you can wash cryptocurrencies easily right? Just buy them with your name and send it through coin tumbler, preferably with a delay above 3 days

– Hobbamok
22 hours ago










8 Answers
8






active

oldest

votes


















55














To protect your privacy and avoid tracking, nothing beats cash.



There are various services that let you purchase credits in cash at a brick and mortar store, which you can then later use to purchase goods and services online.



One example is paysafecard (I haven't tried it, but you should also be able to buy bitcoin with cash). There are a number of VPN providers which accept these payments.



Alternatively, you could simply purchase your VPN access directly offline at a store.



There are also domain registrars which accept these payment methods, but most will ask for identifying information (name, address, etc) when registering a domain. So if you want to conform with registrars TOS, registering a domain anonymously wouldn't be possible. You can hide your information from third parties by requesting that your registrar doesn't disclose the information, violate the TOS by providing false information (not recommended), or find a registrar or third party service that does not request this information.






share|improve this answer




















  • 26





    Some stores also offer prepaid debit cards that you can buy with cash and use anywhere online, I believe.

    – Ave
    2 days ago







  • 5





    @Keatinge - That is possible - in order to activate anything like that, whoever is issuing it needs to know who sold it, so they know that it's a valid activation (and not fraud). From that, it's certainly possible to work backwards to the specific transaction. But I'm fairly sure that most CCTV in stores is on a rewriting loop. If you let your cards sit long enough (which could be anywhere from a week to a year, at least), then the video will get overwritten and there won't be any useful records left.

    – Bobson
    2 days ago






  • 6





    @Keatinge: CCTV is the outdated threat model there. You have cell phone position records kept by towers, license plate readers, etc. etc. etc. whose data will likely never get overwritten, and which will tie the buyer to the time and location of the sale, if any of them apply to the buyer.

    – R..
    yesterday






  • 5





    @Tom Cash is only anonymous by convention and not really by any inherent property. People have been recording serial numbers and marking bills as long as cash has existed. It is definitely within modern technology to use high speed scanners to record serial numbers every time cash moves through a bank, and you can imagine ATMs recording serial numbers as they dispense cash.

    – user71659
    yesterday






  • 2





    @R.. When you are worried about anonymity, you could just leave your phone at home.

    – tim
    21 hours ago


















23














Using a VPN won't make you anonymous.



The owner of the VPN service will still knows who you are from the origin IP address.



In the past several VPN providers that stated that everything was anonymous in fact released all the information they had to the FBI and US Department of Justice. It makes sense that they are not private; if you commit a crime using their systems and they cannot point to the perpetrator of the crime then they might be held liable.



For the crypto currencies, you do not need to buy them; you can mine them.
Also some crypto-currencies have a higher level of privacy than others.



At the moment the best possible way to make you private in some of the internet traffic is still Tor as long you follow their best practice.



The other way to be private in the internet is if you steal someonelse's digital identity. This is the most common means used by thieves.






share|improve this answer




















  • 1





    You should also be careful to mine them anonymously, i.e. put your mining node behind Tor anyways

    – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
    yesterday






  • 3





    @usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ Lots of tor exit nodes are controlled by intelligence organizations. There's always a limit to security.

    – Tomáš Zato
    yesterday











  • Some VPNs have no-logs policy, but of course it's a matter of trust.

    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    yesterday






  • 2





    @TomášZato [citation needed] That's a common rumor, but the fact is, the highest-bandwidth exit nodes that make up more than 60% of the exit network are run by people and organizations who are well-known. Even though there are a few malicious nodes, it would take a very large sybil attack (which would be very noticeable) to actually deanonymize en masse using traffic correlation attacks.

    – forest
    yesterday












  • I suppose using someone else's identity would provide you with anonymity.

    – FreeMan
    18 hours ago


















15














You could use xmr.to for that.
According to them:




XMR.TO allows you to make a Bitcoin payment with the strong privacy provided by Monero. This means that using Monero together with XMR.TO, you can pay any Bitcoin address in the world while protecting your privacy.




You buy Monero, a privacy-centric coin, send to xmr.to with the destination Bitcoin address, they sell your Monero, buy Bitcoin, and send to the host. Xmr.to a well known service, and lots of people uses it every day.



Their FAQ is pretty informative, and you should read it.






share|improve this answer






























    9














    You could buy gift cards with cash then sell them for bitcoin on r/GiftCardExchange






    share|improve this answer








    New contributor




    Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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      4














      You can trade cryptocurrencies with other cryptocurrencies and the trails become cold fast if you use random amounts. More iterations with independent wallets makes it even harder to trace. E.g.



      1. Buy BTC.

      2. Transfer some of the BTC (not all) to another wallet.

      3. Exchange BTC to another cryptocurrency.

      4. Transfer some of that to another wallet.

      5. Exchange back to BTC.

      6. Repeat steps 2 to 5.

      The trick is that



      • on cryptocurrency transfers it's unclear whether it's your own or someone else's wallet.

      • cryptocurrency exchange with independent amounts is untraceable, because it's not the same coins anymore.

      Of course you lose some money in the process and it takes some time and effort. That's the price for such anonymity. Sadly the same methods that are used for money laundering applies to making payments truly anonymous.






      share|improve this answer




















      • 13





        I wouldn't trust that. The ledgers are open and it's only a matter of effort to put things together, an effort that can be automated and I would be surprised if law enforcement and other interested parties haven't done so already. There are, however, mixers who will take money from many sources and send it out to many sources, mixing it up so that no connection between sender and receiver can be made. Similar to the old anonymous mail mixers. If you chain a couple of them in various jurisdictions, maybe you have a chance. No idea how many of them are sting operations, though.

        – Tom
        2 days ago











      • @Tom the problem with mixers is that you would then take part and appear in other money trails that may not be as innocent or well-intentioned as OP...

        – zakinster
        yesterday






      • 3





        I disagree that independent amounts make you untraceable. That is only true if the wallets involved have many other, unrelated, transactions. Hence, mixers. Remember that tracing doesn't have to be perfect unless you want to use it as evidence in a court of law. If I'm a three letter agency, or organized crime, a reasonably high degree of confidence that two transactions are related is enough. I can easily develop tools that will trace over multiple intermediate steps and keep track of confidence ratings.

        – Tom
        yesterday






      • 1





        Mixing and splitting only increase the CPU power needed to trace funds; they do not make it impossible.

        – WGroleau
        yesterday






      • 1





        Don't mix them yourself, since you're only combining your own money and all paths lead to you... Use a tumbler service. As an example a popular Bitcoin Cash wallet has one built-in now: cashshuffle.com. The way these work is by making a many-to-many transaction with a lot of peoples moneis and adding a random fee so you can't link back by matching transfer amounts. With 100 of people in a single transaction it becomes very hard to link back to you.

        – csiz
        yesterday



















      2














      For obtaining an anonymous source of payment from a cash source you can buy pre-paid debit cards.



      Many times you can also get free services for hosting and domain registration; for example, TLDs such as .tk and .ga are (as of this writing) free of charge via FreeNOM.






      share|improve this answer






























        -2














        Find a legal way to run a crypto miner on someone else's computer. One way to do this would be to offer crypto mining as a payment option for whatever service you are offering. Now you have clean cash so long as you are an expert in computer networking and haven't left a trail a mile long from doing things like setting up your wallet, not having your cache cleared, not being on a computer and network you trust, being on a computer that could be tied to you (e.g. by monitor size). As I understand it you shouldn't even consider doing any of this without Tails (all connections go through TOR).



        Now all you have to do is receive your item anonymously. How you do this depends on your item but I've heard people just use the regular postal service for this.






        share|improve this answer























        • That's not going to get you much money... You'd need a pretty damn massive botnet if you want to pay someone more than a few fractions of a cent.

          – forest
          13 hours ago











        • Yeah, you are right. But I believe my answer is still technically correct.

          – user875234
          13 hours ago












        • It'd be correct if you had an insane amount of computer power. In reality though, mining is not an effective way to make money. A couple months of mining and you might be able to buy a toothpick...

          – forest
          13 hours ago












        • Mining is not an effective way to make money when anonymity isn't your primary concern.

          – user875234
          13 hours ago











        • Even if it is your primary concern, it's not an effective way to make money. Not unless you own a very large botnet (i.e. an illegal way). Crypto mining has stopped being profitable for us years ago.

          – forest
          13 hours ago



















        -5














        nothing beats bitcoin. so far, it's the meta anonymous coin to be used on the internet.
        you can probably use it to possibly buy a disposable credit card from "semi-credited" sources (hypothetically, of course) and get vpn yeah? but it's not a good idea. VPN companies aren't mostly trusted imo, and those that are have a shitty product.



        you want anonymity online? do what everyone does - TOR and bitcoin. simple enough.






        share|improve this answer








        New contributor




        blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.















        • 13





          Bitcoin is not anonymous...

          – forest
          2 days ago






        • 2





          As @forest commented, Bitcoin is explicitly not anonymous, which is why criminals use other cryptocurrencies which are anonymous to hide the money trail.

          – Rory Alsop
          yesterday









        protected by Rory Alsop yesterday



        Thank you for your interest in this question.
        Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).



        Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?














        8 Answers
        8






        active

        oldest

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        8 Answers
        8






        active

        oldest

        votes









        active

        oldest

        votes






        active

        oldest

        votes









        55














        To protect your privacy and avoid tracking, nothing beats cash.



        There are various services that let you purchase credits in cash at a brick and mortar store, which you can then later use to purchase goods and services online.



        One example is paysafecard (I haven't tried it, but you should also be able to buy bitcoin with cash). There are a number of VPN providers which accept these payments.



        Alternatively, you could simply purchase your VPN access directly offline at a store.



        There are also domain registrars which accept these payment methods, but most will ask for identifying information (name, address, etc) when registering a domain. So if you want to conform with registrars TOS, registering a domain anonymously wouldn't be possible. You can hide your information from third parties by requesting that your registrar doesn't disclose the information, violate the TOS by providing false information (not recommended), or find a registrar or third party service that does not request this information.






        share|improve this answer




















        • 26





          Some stores also offer prepaid debit cards that you can buy with cash and use anywhere online, I believe.

          – Ave
          2 days ago







        • 5





          @Keatinge - That is possible - in order to activate anything like that, whoever is issuing it needs to know who sold it, so they know that it's a valid activation (and not fraud). From that, it's certainly possible to work backwards to the specific transaction. But I'm fairly sure that most CCTV in stores is on a rewriting loop. If you let your cards sit long enough (which could be anywhere from a week to a year, at least), then the video will get overwritten and there won't be any useful records left.

          – Bobson
          2 days ago






        • 6





          @Keatinge: CCTV is the outdated threat model there. You have cell phone position records kept by towers, license plate readers, etc. etc. etc. whose data will likely never get overwritten, and which will tie the buyer to the time and location of the sale, if any of them apply to the buyer.

          – R..
          yesterday






        • 5





          @Tom Cash is only anonymous by convention and not really by any inherent property. People have been recording serial numbers and marking bills as long as cash has existed. It is definitely within modern technology to use high speed scanners to record serial numbers every time cash moves through a bank, and you can imagine ATMs recording serial numbers as they dispense cash.

          – user71659
          yesterday






        • 2





          @R.. When you are worried about anonymity, you could just leave your phone at home.

          – tim
          21 hours ago















        55














        To protect your privacy and avoid tracking, nothing beats cash.



        There are various services that let you purchase credits in cash at a brick and mortar store, which you can then later use to purchase goods and services online.



        One example is paysafecard (I haven't tried it, but you should also be able to buy bitcoin with cash). There are a number of VPN providers which accept these payments.



        Alternatively, you could simply purchase your VPN access directly offline at a store.



        There are also domain registrars which accept these payment methods, but most will ask for identifying information (name, address, etc) when registering a domain. So if you want to conform with registrars TOS, registering a domain anonymously wouldn't be possible. You can hide your information from third parties by requesting that your registrar doesn't disclose the information, violate the TOS by providing false information (not recommended), or find a registrar or third party service that does not request this information.






        share|improve this answer




















        • 26





          Some stores also offer prepaid debit cards that you can buy with cash and use anywhere online, I believe.

          – Ave
          2 days ago







        • 5





          @Keatinge - That is possible - in order to activate anything like that, whoever is issuing it needs to know who sold it, so they know that it's a valid activation (and not fraud). From that, it's certainly possible to work backwards to the specific transaction. But I'm fairly sure that most CCTV in stores is on a rewriting loop. If you let your cards sit long enough (which could be anywhere from a week to a year, at least), then the video will get overwritten and there won't be any useful records left.

          – Bobson
          2 days ago






        • 6





          @Keatinge: CCTV is the outdated threat model there. You have cell phone position records kept by towers, license plate readers, etc. etc. etc. whose data will likely never get overwritten, and which will tie the buyer to the time and location of the sale, if any of them apply to the buyer.

          – R..
          yesterday






        • 5





          @Tom Cash is only anonymous by convention and not really by any inherent property. People have been recording serial numbers and marking bills as long as cash has existed. It is definitely within modern technology to use high speed scanners to record serial numbers every time cash moves through a bank, and you can imagine ATMs recording serial numbers as they dispense cash.

          – user71659
          yesterday






        • 2





          @R.. When you are worried about anonymity, you could just leave your phone at home.

          – tim
          21 hours ago













        55












        55








        55







        To protect your privacy and avoid tracking, nothing beats cash.



        There are various services that let you purchase credits in cash at a brick and mortar store, which you can then later use to purchase goods and services online.



        One example is paysafecard (I haven't tried it, but you should also be able to buy bitcoin with cash). There are a number of VPN providers which accept these payments.



        Alternatively, you could simply purchase your VPN access directly offline at a store.



        There are also domain registrars which accept these payment methods, but most will ask for identifying information (name, address, etc) when registering a domain. So if you want to conform with registrars TOS, registering a domain anonymously wouldn't be possible. You can hide your information from third parties by requesting that your registrar doesn't disclose the information, violate the TOS by providing false information (not recommended), or find a registrar or third party service that does not request this information.






        share|improve this answer















        To protect your privacy and avoid tracking, nothing beats cash.



        There are various services that let you purchase credits in cash at a brick and mortar store, which you can then later use to purchase goods and services online.



        One example is paysafecard (I haven't tried it, but you should also be able to buy bitcoin with cash). There are a number of VPN providers which accept these payments.



        Alternatively, you could simply purchase your VPN access directly offline at a store.



        There are also domain registrars which accept these payment methods, but most will ask for identifying information (name, address, etc) when registering a domain. So if you want to conform with registrars TOS, registering a domain anonymously wouldn't be possible. You can hide your information from third parties by requesting that your registrar doesn't disclose the information, violate the TOS by providing false information (not recommended), or find a registrar or third party service that does not request this information.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited yesterday









        scohe001

        1246




        1246










        answered 2 days ago









        timtim

        24.8k673103




        24.8k673103







        • 26





          Some stores also offer prepaid debit cards that you can buy with cash and use anywhere online, I believe.

          – Ave
          2 days ago







        • 5





          @Keatinge - That is possible - in order to activate anything like that, whoever is issuing it needs to know who sold it, so they know that it's a valid activation (and not fraud). From that, it's certainly possible to work backwards to the specific transaction. But I'm fairly sure that most CCTV in stores is on a rewriting loop. If you let your cards sit long enough (which could be anywhere from a week to a year, at least), then the video will get overwritten and there won't be any useful records left.

          – Bobson
          2 days ago






        • 6





          @Keatinge: CCTV is the outdated threat model there. You have cell phone position records kept by towers, license plate readers, etc. etc. etc. whose data will likely never get overwritten, and which will tie the buyer to the time and location of the sale, if any of them apply to the buyer.

          – R..
          yesterday






        • 5





          @Tom Cash is only anonymous by convention and not really by any inherent property. People have been recording serial numbers and marking bills as long as cash has existed. It is definitely within modern technology to use high speed scanners to record serial numbers every time cash moves through a bank, and you can imagine ATMs recording serial numbers as they dispense cash.

          – user71659
          yesterday






        • 2





          @R.. When you are worried about anonymity, you could just leave your phone at home.

          – tim
          21 hours ago












        • 26





          Some stores also offer prepaid debit cards that you can buy with cash and use anywhere online, I believe.

          – Ave
          2 days ago







        • 5





          @Keatinge - That is possible - in order to activate anything like that, whoever is issuing it needs to know who sold it, so they know that it's a valid activation (and not fraud). From that, it's certainly possible to work backwards to the specific transaction. But I'm fairly sure that most CCTV in stores is on a rewriting loop. If you let your cards sit long enough (which could be anywhere from a week to a year, at least), then the video will get overwritten and there won't be any useful records left.

          – Bobson
          2 days ago






        • 6





          @Keatinge: CCTV is the outdated threat model there. You have cell phone position records kept by towers, license plate readers, etc. etc. etc. whose data will likely never get overwritten, and which will tie the buyer to the time and location of the sale, if any of them apply to the buyer.

          – R..
          yesterday






        • 5





          @Tom Cash is only anonymous by convention and not really by any inherent property. People have been recording serial numbers and marking bills as long as cash has existed. It is definitely within modern technology to use high speed scanners to record serial numbers every time cash moves through a bank, and you can imagine ATMs recording serial numbers as they dispense cash.

          – user71659
          yesterday






        • 2





          @R.. When you are worried about anonymity, you could just leave your phone at home.

          – tim
          21 hours ago







        26




        26





        Some stores also offer prepaid debit cards that you can buy with cash and use anywhere online, I believe.

        – Ave
        2 days ago






        Some stores also offer prepaid debit cards that you can buy with cash and use anywhere online, I believe.

        – Ave
        2 days ago





        5




        5





        @Keatinge - That is possible - in order to activate anything like that, whoever is issuing it needs to know who sold it, so they know that it's a valid activation (and not fraud). From that, it's certainly possible to work backwards to the specific transaction. But I'm fairly sure that most CCTV in stores is on a rewriting loop. If you let your cards sit long enough (which could be anywhere from a week to a year, at least), then the video will get overwritten and there won't be any useful records left.

        – Bobson
        2 days ago





        @Keatinge - That is possible - in order to activate anything like that, whoever is issuing it needs to know who sold it, so they know that it's a valid activation (and not fraud). From that, it's certainly possible to work backwards to the specific transaction. But I'm fairly sure that most CCTV in stores is on a rewriting loop. If you let your cards sit long enough (which could be anywhere from a week to a year, at least), then the video will get overwritten and there won't be any useful records left.

        – Bobson
        2 days ago




        6




        6





        @Keatinge: CCTV is the outdated threat model there. You have cell phone position records kept by towers, license plate readers, etc. etc. etc. whose data will likely never get overwritten, and which will tie the buyer to the time and location of the sale, if any of them apply to the buyer.

        – R..
        yesterday





        @Keatinge: CCTV is the outdated threat model there. You have cell phone position records kept by towers, license plate readers, etc. etc. etc. whose data will likely never get overwritten, and which will tie the buyer to the time and location of the sale, if any of them apply to the buyer.

        – R..
        yesterday




        5




        5





        @Tom Cash is only anonymous by convention and not really by any inherent property. People have been recording serial numbers and marking bills as long as cash has existed. It is definitely within modern technology to use high speed scanners to record serial numbers every time cash moves through a bank, and you can imagine ATMs recording serial numbers as they dispense cash.

        – user71659
        yesterday





        @Tom Cash is only anonymous by convention and not really by any inherent property. People have been recording serial numbers and marking bills as long as cash has existed. It is definitely within modern technology to use high speed scanners to record serial numbers every time cash moves through a bank, and you can imagine ATMs recording serial numbers as they dispense cash.

        – user71659
        yesterday




        2




        2





        @R.. When you are worried about anonymity, you could just leave your phone at home.

        – tim
        21 hours ago





        @R.. When you are worried about anonymity, you could just leave your phone at home.

        – tim
        21 hours ago













        23














        Using a VPN won't make you anonymous.



        The owner of the VPN service will still knows who you are from the origin IP address.



        In the past several VPN providers that stated that everything was anonymous in fact released all the information they had to the FBI and US Department of Justice. It makes sense that they are not private; if you commit a crime using their systems and they cannot point to the perpetrator of the crime then they might be held liable.



        For the crypto currencies, you do not need to buy them; you can mine them.
        Also some crypto-currencies have a higher level of privacy than others.



        At the moment the best possible way to make you private in some of the internet traffic is still Tor as long you follow their best practice.



        The other way to be private in the internet is if you steal someonelse's digital identity. This is the most common means used by thieves.






        share|improve this answer




















        • 1





          You should also be careful to mine them anonymously, i.e. put your mining node behind Tor anyways

          – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
          yesterday






        • 3





          @usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ Lots of tor exit nodes are controlled by intelligence organizations. There's always a limit to security.

          – Tomáš Zato
          yesterday











        • Some VPNs have no-logs policy, but of course it's a matter of trust.

          – Dmitry Grigoryev
          yesterday






        • 2





          @TomášZato [citation needed] That's a common rumor, but the fact is, the highest-bandwidth exit nodes that make up more than 60% of the exit network are run by people and organizations who are well-known. Even though there are a few malicious nodes, it would take a very large sybil attack (which would be very noticeable) to actually deanonymize en masse using traffic correlation attacks.

          – forest
          yesterday












        • I suppose using someone else's identity would provide you with anonymity.

          – FreeMan
          18 hours ago















        23














        Using a VPN won't make you anonymous.



        The owner of the VPN service will still knows who you are from the origin IP address.



        In the past several VPN providers that stated that everything was anonymous in fact released all the information they had to the FBI and US Department of Justice. It makes sense that they are not private; if you commit a crime using their systems and they cannot point to the perpetrator of the crime then they might be held liable.



        For the crypto currencies, you do not need to buy them; you can mine them.
        Also some crypto-currencies have a higher level of privacy than others.



        At the moment the best possible way to make you private in some of the internet traffic is still Tor as long you follow their best practice.



        The other way to be private in the internet is if you steal someonelse's digital identity. This is the most common means used by thieves.






        share|improve this answer




















        • 1





          You should also be careful to mine them anonymously, i.e. put your mining node behind Tor anyways

          – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
          yesterday






        • 3





          @usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ Lots of tor exit nodes are controlled by intelligence organizations. There's always a limit to security.

          – Tomáš Zato
          yesterday











        • Some VPNs have no-logs policy, but of course it's a matter of trust.

          – Dmitry Grigoryev
          yesterday






        • 2





          @TomášZato [citation needed] That's a common rumor, but the fact is, the highest-bandwidth exit nodes that make up more than 60% of the exit network are run by people and organizations who are well-known. Even though there are a few malicious nodes, it would take a very large sybil attack (which would be very noticeable) to actually deanonymize en masse using traffic correlation attacks.

          – forest
          yesterday












        • I suppose using someone else's identity would provide you with anonymity.

          – FreeMan
          18 hours ago













        23












        23








        23







        Using a VPN won't make you anonymous.



        The owner of the VPN service will still knows who you are from the origin IP address.



        In the past several VPN providers that stated that everything was anonymous in fact released all the information they had to the FBI and US Department of Justice. It makes sense that they are not private; if you commit a crime using their systems and they cannot point to the perpetrator of the crime then they might be held liable.



        For the crypto currencies, you do not need to buy them; you can mine them.
        Also some crypto-currencies have a higher level of privacy than others.



        At the moment the best possible way to make you private in some of the internet traffic is still Tor as long you follow their best practice.



        The other way to be private in the internet is if you steal someonelse's digital identity. This is the most common means used by thieves.






        share|improve this answer















        Using a VPN won't make you anonymous.



        The owner of the VPN service will still knows who you are from the origin IP address.



        In the past several VPN providers that stated that everything was anonymous in fact released all the information they had to the FBI and US Department of Justice. It makes sense that they are not private; if you commit a crime using their systems and they cannot point to the perpetrator of the crime then they might be held liable.



        For the crypto currencies, you do not need to buy them; you can mine them.
        Also some crypto-currencies have a higher level of privacy than others.



        At the moment the best possible way to make you private in some of the internet traffic is still Tor as long you follow their best practice.



        The other way to be private in the internet is if you steal someonelse's digital identity. This is the most common means used by thieves.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited yesterday









        forest

        39.8k18128144




        39.8k18128144










        answered 2 days ago









        HugoHugo

        94649




        94649







        • 1





          You should also be careful to mine them anonymously, i.e. put your mining node behind Tor anyways

          – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
          yesterday






        • 3





          @usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ Lots of tor exit nodes are controlled by intelligence organizations. There's always a limit to security.

          – Tomáš Zato
          yesterday











        • Some VPNs have no-logs policy, but of course it's a matter of trust.

          – Dmitry Grigoryev
          yesterday






        • 2





          @TomášZato [citation needed] That's a common rumor, but the fact is, the highest-bandwidth exit nodes that make up more than 60% of the exit network are run by people and organizations who are well-known. Even though there are a few malicious nodes, it would take a very large sybil attack (which would be very noticeable) to actually deanonymize en masse using traffic correlation attacks.

          – forest
          yesterday












        • I suppose using someone else's identity would provide you with anonymity.

          – FreeMan
          18 hours ago












        • 1





          You should also be careful to mine them anonymously, i.e. put your mining node behind Tor anyways

          – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
          yesterday






        • 3





          @usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ Lots of tor exit nodes are controlled by intelligence organizations. There's always a limit to security.

          – Tomáš Zato
          yesterday











        • Some VPNs have no-logs policy, but of course it's a matter of trust.

          – Dmitry Grigoryev
          yesterday






        • 2





          @TomášZato [citation needed] That's a common rumor, but the fact is, the highest-bandwidth exit nodes that make up more than 60% of the exit network are run by people and organizations who are well-known. Even though there are a few malicious nodes, it would take a very large sybil attack (which would be very noticeable) to actually deanonymize en masse using traffic correlation attacks.

          – forest
          yesterday












        • I suppose using someone else's identity would provide you with anonymity.

          – FreeMan
          18 hours ago







        1




        1





        You should also be careful to mine them anonymously, i.e. put your mining node behind Tor anyways

        – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
        yesterday





        You should also be careful to mine them anonymously, i.e. put your mining node behind Tor anyways

        – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
        yesterday




        3




        3





        @usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ Lots of tor exit nodes are controlled by intelligence organizations. There's always a limit to security.

        – Tomáš Zato
        yesterday





        @usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ Lots of tor exit nodes are controlled by intelligence organizations. There's always a limit to security.

        – Tomáš Zato
        yesterday













        Some VPNs have no-logs policy, but of course it's a matter of trust.

        – Dmitry Grigoryev
        yesterday





        Some VPNs have no-logs policy, but of course it's a matter of trust.

        – Dmitry Grigoryev
        yesterday




        2




        2





        @TomášZato [citation needed] That's a common rumor, but the fact is, the highest-bandwidth exit nodes that make up more than 60% of the exit network are run by people and organizations who are well-known. Even though there are a few malicious nodes, it would take a very large sybil attack (which would be very noticeable) to actually deanonymize en masse using traffic correlation attacks.

        – forest
        yesterday






        @TomášZato [citation needed] That's a common rumor, but the fact is, the highest-bandwidth exit nodes that make up more than 60% of the exit network are run by people and organizations who are well-known. Even though there are a few malicious nodes, it would take a very large sybil attack (which would be very noticeable) to actually deanonymize en masse using traffic correlation attacks.

        – forest
        yesterday














        I suppose using someone else's identity would provide you with anonymity.

        – FreeMan
        18 hours ago





        I suppose using someone else's identity would provide you with anonymity.

        – FreeMan
        18 hours ago











        15














        You could use xmr.to for that.
        According to them:




        XMR.TO allows you to make a Bitcoin payment with the strong privacy provided by Monero. This means that using Monero together with XMR.TO, you can pay any Bitcoin address in the world while protecting your privacy.




        You buy Monero, a privacy-centric coin, send to xmr.to with the destination Bitcoin address, they sell your Monero, buy Bitcoin, and send to the host. Xmr.to a well known service, and lots of people uses it every day.



        Their FAQ is pretty informative, and you should read it.






        share|improve this answer



























          15














          You could use xmr.to for that.
          According to them:




          XMR.TO allows you to make a Bitcoin payment with the strong privacy provided by Monero. This means that using Monero together with XMR.TO, you can pay any Bitcoin address in the world while protecting your privacy.




          You buy Monero, a privacy-centric coin, send to xmr.to with the destination Bitcoin address, they sell your Monero, buy Bitcoin, and send to the host. Xmr.to a well known service, and lots of people uses it every day.



          Their FAQ is pretty informative, and you should read it.






          share|improve this answer

























            15












            15








            15







            You could use xmr.to for that.
            According to them:




            XMR.TO allows you to make a Bitcoin payment with the strong privacy provided by Monero. This means that using Monero together with XMR.TO, you can pay any Bitcoin address in the world while protecting your privacy.




            You buy Monero, a privacy-centric coin, send to xmr.to with the destination Bitcoin address, they sell your Monero, buy Bitcoin, and send to the host. Xmr.to a well known service, and lots of people uses it every day.



            Their FAQ is pretty informative, and you should read it.






            share|improve this answer













            You could use xmr.to for that.
            According to them:




            XMR.TO allows you to make a Bitcoin payment with the strong privacy provided by Monero. This means that using Monero together with XMR.TO, you can pay any Bitcoin address in the world while protecting your privacy.




            You buy Monero, a privacy-centric coin, send to xmr.to with the destination Bitcoin address, they sell your Monero, buy Bitcoin, and send to the host. Xmr.to a well known service, and lots of people uses it every day.



            Their FAQ is pretty informative, and you should read it.







            share|improve this answer












            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer










            answered 2 days ago









            ThoriumBRThoriumBR

            24.7k85875




            24.7k85875





















                9














                You could buy gift cards with cash then sell them for bitcoin on r/GiftCardExchange






                share|improve this answer








                New contributor




                Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                Check out our Code of Conduct.
























                  9














                  You could buy gift cards with cash then sell them for bitcoin on r/GiftCardExchange






                  share|improve this answer








                  New contributor




                  Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                  Check out our Code of Conduct.






















                    9












                    9








                    9







                    You could buy gift cards with cash then sell them for bitcoin on r/GiftCardExchange






                    share|improve this answer








                    New contributor




                    Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                    Check out our Code of Conduct.










                    You could buy gift cards with cash then sell them for bitcoin on r/GiftCardExchange







                    share|improve this answer








                    New contributor




                    Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                    Check out our Code of Conduct.









                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer






                    New contributor




                    Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                    Check out our Code of Conduct.









                    answered 2 days ago









                    Alex PalumboAlex Palumbo

                    971




                    971




                    New contributor




                    Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                    Check out our Code of Conduct.





                    New contributor





                    Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                    Check out our Code of Conduct.






                    Alex Palumbo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                    Check out our Code of Conduct.





















                        4














                        You can trade cryptocurrencies with other cryptocurrencies and the trails become cold fast if you use random amounts. More iterations with independent wallets makes it even harder to trace. E.g.



                        1. Buy BTC.

                        2. Transfer some of the BTC (not all) to another wallet.

                        3. Exchange BTC to another cryptocurrency.

                        4. Transfer some of that to another wallet.

                        5. Exchange back to BTC.

                        6. Repeat steps 2 to 5.

                        The trick is that



                        • on cryptocurrency transfers it's unclear whether it's your own or someone else's wallet.

                        • cryptocurrency exchange with independent amounts is untraceable, because it's not the same coins anymore.

                        Of course you lose some money in the process and it takes some time and effort. That's the price for such anonymity. Sadly the same methods that are used for money laundering applies to making payments truly anonymous.






                        share|improve this answer




















                        • 13





                          I wouldn't trust that. The ledgers are open and it's only a matter of effort to put things together, an effort that can be automated and I would be surprised if law enforcement and other interested parties haven't done so already. There are, however, mixers who will take money from many sources and send it out to many sources, mixing it up so that no connection between sender and receiver can be made. Similar to the old anonymous mail mixers. If you chain a couple of them in various jurisdictions, maybe you have a chance. No idea how many of them are sting operations, though.

                          – Tom
                          2 days ago











                        • @Tom the problem with mixers is that you would then take part and appear in other money trails that may not be as innocent or well-intentioned as OP...

                          – zakinster
                          yesterday






                        • 3





                          I disagree that independent amounts make you untraceable. That is only true if the wallets involved have many other, unrelated, transactions. Hence, mixers. Remember that tracing doesn't have to be perfect unless you want to use it as evidence in a court of law. If I'm a three letter agency, or organized crime, a reasonably high degree of confidence that two transactions are related is enough. I can easily develop tools that will trace over multiple intermediate steps and keep track of confidence ratings.

                          – Tom
                          yesterday






                        • 1





                          Mixing and splitting only increase the CPU power needed to trace funds; they do not make it impossible.

                          – WGroleau
                          yesterday






                        • 1





                          Don't mix them yourself, since you're only combining your own money and all paths lead to you... Use a tumbler service. As an example a popular Bitcoin Cash wallet has one built-in now: cashshuffle.com. The way these work is by making a many-to-many transaction with a lot of peoples moneis and adding a random fee so you can't link back by matching transfer amounts. With 100 of people in a single transaction it becomes very hard to link back to you.

                          – csiz
                          yesterday
















                        4














                        You can trade cryptocurrencies with other cryptocurrencies and the trails become cold fast if you use random amounts. More iterations with independent wallets makes it even harder to trace. E.g.



                        1. Buy BTC.

                        2. Transfer some of the BTC (not all) to another wallet.

                        3. Exchange BTC to another cryptocurrency.

                        4. Transfer some of that to another wallet.

                        5. Exchange back to BTC.

                        6. Repeat steps 2 to 5.

                        The trick is that



                        • on cryptocurrency transfers it's unclear whether it's your own or someone else's wallet.

                        • cryptocurrency exchange with independent amounts is untraceable, because it's not the same coins anymore.

                        Of course you lose some money in the process and it takes some time and effort. That's the price for such anonymity. Sadly the same methods that are used for money laundering applies to making payments truly anonymous.






                        share|improve this answer




















                        • 13





                          I wouldn't trust that. The ledgers are open and it's only a matter of effort to put things together, an effort that can be automated and I would be surprised if law enforcement and other interested parties haven't done so already. There are, however, mixers who will take money from many sources and send it out to many sources, mixing it up so that no connection between sender and receiver can be made. Similar to the old anonymous mail mixers. If you chain a couple of them in various jurisdictions, maybe you have a chance. No idea how many of them are sting operations, though.

                          – Tom
                          2 days ago











                        • @Tom the problem with mixers is that you would then take part and appear in other money trails that may not be as innocent or well-intentioned as OP...

                          – zakinster
                          yesterday






                        • 3





                          I disagree that independent amounts make you untraceable. That is only true if the wallets involved have many other, unrelated, transactions. Hence, mixers. Remember that tracing doesn't have to be perfect unless you want to use it as evidence in a court of law. If I'm a three letter agency, or organized crime, a reasonably high degree of confidence that two transactions are related is enough. I can easily develop tools that will trace over multiple intermediate steps and keep track of confidence ratings.

                          – Tom
                          yesterday






                        • 1





                          Mixing and splitting only increase the CPU power needed to trace funds; they do not make it impossible.

                          – WGroleau
                          yesterday






                        • 1





                          Don't mix them yourself, since you're only combining your own money and all paths lead to you... Use a tumbler service. As an example a popular Bitcoin Cash wallet has one built-in now: cashshuffle.com. The way these work is by making a many-to-many transaction with a lot of peoples moneis and adding a random fee so you can't link back by matching transfer amounts. With 100 of people in a single transaction it becomes very hard to link back to you.

                          – csiz
                          yesterday














                        4












                        4








                        4







                        You can trade cryptocurrencies with other cryptocurrencies and the trails become cold fast if you use random amounts. More iterations with independent wallets makes it even harder to trace. E.g.



                        1. Buy BTC.

                        2. Transfer some of the BTC (not all) to another wallet.

                        3. Exchange BTC to another cryptocurrency.

                        4. Transfer some of that to another wallet.

                        5. Exchange back to BTC.

                        6. Repeat steps 2 to 5.

                        The trick is that



                        • on cryptocurrency transfers it's unclear whether it's your own or someone else's wallet.

                        • cryptocurrency exchange with independent amounts is untraceable, because it's not the same coins anymore.

                        Of course you lose some money in the process and it takes some time and effort. That's the price for such anonymity. Sadly the same methods that are used for money laundering applies to making payments truly anonymous.






                        share|improve this answer















                        You can trade cryptocurrencies with other cryptocurrencies and the trails become cold fast if you use random amounts. More iterations with independent wallets makes it even harder to trace. E.g.



                        1. Buy BTC.

                        2. Transfer some of the BTC (not all) to another wallet.

                        3. Exchange BTC to another cryptocurrency.

                        4. Transfer some of that to another wallet.

                        5. Exchange back to BTC.

                        6. Repeat steps 2 to 5.

                        The trick is that



                        • on cryptocurrency transfers it's unclear whether it's your own or someone else's wallet.

                        • cryptocurrency exchange with independent amounts is untraceable, because it's not the same coins anymore.

                        Of course you lose some money in the process and it takes some time and effort. That's the price for such anonymity. Sadly the same methods that are used for money laundering applies to making payments truly anonymous.







                        share|improve this answer














                        share|improve this answer



                        share|improve this answer








                        edited yesterday

























                        answered 2 days ago









                        Esa JokinenEsa Jokinen

                        3,4481119




                        3,4481119







                        • 13





                          I wouldn't trust that. The ledgers are open and it's only a matter of effort to put things together, an effort that can be automated and I would be surprised if law enforcement and other interested parties haven't done so already. There are, however, mixers who will take money from many sources and send it out to many sources, mixing it up so that no connection between sender and receiver can be made. Similar to the old anonymous mail mixers. If you chain a couple of them in various jurisdictions, maybe you have a chance. No idea how many of them are sting operations, though.

                          – Tom
                          2 days ago











                        • @Tom the problem with mixers is that you would then take part and appear in other money trails that may not be as innocent or well-intentioned as OP...

                          – zakinster
                          yesterday






                        • 3





                          I disagree that independent amounts make you untraceable. That is only true if the wallets involved have many other, unrelated, transactions. Hence, mixers. Remember that tracing doesn't have to be perfect unless you want to use it as evidence in a court of law. If I'm a three letter agency, or organized crime, a reasonably high degree of confidence that two transactions are related is enough. I can easily develop tools that will trace over multiple intermediate steps and keep track of confidence ratings.

                          – Tom
                          yesterday






                        • 1





                          Mixing and splitting only increase the CPU power needed to trace funds; they do not make it impossible.

                          – WGroleau
                          yesterday






                        • 1





                          Don't mix them yourself, since you're only combining your own money and all paths lead to you... Use a tumbler service. As an example a popular Bitcoin Cash wallet has one built-in now: cashshuffle.com. The way these work is by making a many-to-many transaction with a lot of peoples moneis and adding a random fee so you can't link back by matching transfer amounts. With 100 of people in a single transaction it becomes very hard to link back to you.

                          – csiz
                          yesterday













                        • 13





                          I wouldn't trust that. The ledgers are open and it's only a matter of effort to put things together, an effort that can be automated and I would be surprised if law enforcement and other interested parties haven't done so already. There are, however, mixers who will take money from many sources and send it out to many sources, mixing it up so that no connection between sender and receiver can be made. Similar to the old anonymous mail mixers. If you chain a couple of them in various jurisdictions, maybe you have a chance. No idea how many of them are sting operations, though.

                          – Tom
                          2 days ago











                        • @Tom the problem with mixers is that you would then take part and appear in other money trails that may not be as innocent or well-intentioned as OP...

                          – zakinster
                          yesterday






                        • 3





                          I disagree that independent amounts make you untraceable. That is only true if the wallets involved have many other, unrelated, transactions. Hence, mixers. Remember that tracing doesn't have to be perfect unless you want to use it as evidence in a court of law. If I'm a three letter agency, or organized crime, a reasonably high degree of confidence that two transactions are related is enough. I can easily develop tools that will trace over multiple intermediate steps and keep track of confidence ratings.

                          – Tom
                          yesterday






                        • 1





                          Mixing and splitting only increase the CPU power needed to trace funds; they do not make it impossible.

                          – WGroleau
                          yesterday






                        • 1





                          Don't mix them yourself, since you're only combining your own money and all paths lead to you... Use a tumbler service. As an example a popular Bitcoin Cash wallet has one built-in now: cashshuffle.com. The way these work is by making a many-to-many transaction with a lot of peoples moneis and adding a random fee so you can't link back by matching transfer amounts. With 100 of people in a single transaction it becomes very hard to link back to you.

                          – csiz
                          yesterday








                        13




                        13





                        I wouldn't trust that. The ledgers are open and it's only a matter of effort to put things together, an effort that can be automated and I would be surprised if law enforcement and other interested parties haven't done so already. There are, however, mixers who will take money from many sources and send it out to many sources, mixing it up so that no connection between sender and receiver can be made. Similar to the old anonymous mail mixers. If you chain a couple of them in various jurisdictions, maybe you have a chance. No idea how many of them are sting operations, though.

                        – Tom
                        2 days ago





                        I wouldn't trust that. The ledgers are open and it's only a matter of effort to put things together, an effort that can be automated and I would be surprised if law enforcement and other interested parties haven't done so already. There are, however, mixers who will take money from many sources and send it out to many sources, mixing it up so that no connection between sender and receiver can be made. Similar to the old anonymous mail mixers. If you chain a couple of them in various jurisdictions, maybe you have a chance. No idea how many of them are sting operations, though.

                        – Tom
                        2 days ago













                        @Tom the problem with mixers is that you would then take part and appear in other money trails that may not be as innocent or well-intentioned as OP...

                        – zakinster
                        yesterday





                        @Tom the problem with mixers is that you would then take part and appear in other money trails that may not be as innocent or well-intentioned as OP...

                        – zakinster
                        yesterday




                        3




                        3





                        I disagree that independent amounts make you untraceable. That is only true if the wallets involved have many other, unrelated, transactions. Hence, mixers. Remember that tracing doesn't have to be perfect unless you want to use it as evidence in a court of law. If I'm a three letter agency, or organized crime, a reasonably high degree of confidence that two transactions are related is enough. I can easily develop tools that will trace over multiple intermediate steps and keep track of confidence ratings.

                        – Tom
                        yesterday





                        I disagree that independent amounts make you untraceable. That is only true if the wallets involved have many other, unrelated, transactions. Hence, mixers. Remember that tracing doesn't have to be perfect unless you want to use it as evidence in a court of law. If I'm a three letter agency, or organized crime, a reasonably high degree of confidence that two transactions are related is enough. I can easily develop tools that will trace over multiple intermediate steps and keep track of confidence ratings.

                        – Tom
                        yesterday




                        1




                        1





                        Mixing and splitting only increase the CPU power needed to trace funds; they do not make it impossible.

                        – WGroleau
                        yesterday





                        Mixing and splitting only increase the CPU power needed to trace funds; they do not make it impossible.

                        – WGroleau
                        yesterday




                        1




                        1





                        Don't mix them yourself, since you're only combining your own money and all paths lead to you... Use a tumbler service. As an example a popular Bitcoin Cash wallet has one built-in now: cashshuffle.com. The way these work is by making a many-to-many transaction with a lot of peoples moneis and adding a random fee so you can't link back by matching transfer amounts. With 100 of people in a single transaction it becomes very hard to link back to you.

                        – csiz
                        yesterday






                        Don't mix them yourself, since you're only combining your own money and all paths lead to you... Use a tumbler service. As an example a popular Bitcoin Cash wallet has one built-in now: cashshuffle.com. The way these work is by making a many-to-many transaction with a lot of peoples moneis and adding a random fee so you can't link back by matching transfer amounts. With 100 of people in a single transaction it becomes very hard to link back to you.

                        – csiz
                        yesterday












                        2














                        For obtaining an anonymous source of payment from a cash source you can buy pre-paid debit cards.



                        Many times you can also get free services for hosting and domain registration; for example, TLDs such as .tk and .ga are (as of this writing) free of charge via FreeNOM.






                        share|improve this answer



























                          2














                          For obtaining an anonymous source of payment from a cash source you can buy pre-paid debit cards.



                          Many times you can also get free services for hosting and domain registration; for example, TLDs such as .tk and .ga are (as of this writing) free of charge via FreeNOM.






                          share|improve this answer

























                            2












                            2








                            2







                            For obtaining an anonymous source of payment from a cash source you can buy pre-paid debit cards.



                            Many times you can also get free services for hosting and domain registration; for example, TLDs such as .tk and .ga are (as of this writing) free of charge via FreeNOM.






                            share|improve this answer













                            For obtaining an anonymous source of payment from a cash source you can buy pre-paid debit cards.



                            Many times you can also get free services for hosting and domain registration; for example, TLDs such as .tk and .ga are (as of this writing) free of charge via FreeNOM.







                            share|improve this answer












                            share|improve this answer



                            share|improve this answer










                            answered yesterday









                            fluffyfluffy

                            1,284189




                            1,284189





















                                -2














                                Find a legal way to run a crypto miner on someone else's computer. One way to do this would be to offer crypto mining as a payment option for whatever service you are offering. Now you have clean cash so long as you are an expert in computer networking and haven't left a trail a mile long from doing things like setting up your wallet, not having your cache cleared, not being on a computer and network you trust, being on a computer that could be tied to you (e.g. by monitor size). As I understand it you shouldn't even consider doing any of this without Tails (all connections go through TOR).



                                Now all you have to do is receive your item anonymously. How you do this depends on your item but I've heard people just use the regular postal service for this.






                                share|improve this answer























                                • That's not going to get you much money... You'd need a pretty damn massive botnet if you want to pay someone more than a few fractions of a cent.

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago











                                • Yeah, you are right. But I believe my answer is still technically correct.

                                  – user875234
                                  13 hours ago












                                • It'd be correct if you had an insane amount of computer power. In reality though, mining is not an effective way to make money. A couple months of mining and you might be able to buy a toothpick...

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago












                                • Mining is not an effective way to make money when anonymity isn't your primary concern.

                                  – user875234
                                  13 hours ago











                                • Even if it is your primary concern, it's not an effective way to make money. Not unless you own a very large botnet (i.e. an illegal way). Crypto mining has stopped being profitable for us years ago.

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago
















                                -2














                                Find a legal way to run a crypto miner on someone else's computer. One way to do this would be to offer crypto mining as a payment option for whatever service you are offering. Now you have clean cash so long as you are an expert in computer networking and haven't left a trail a mile long from doing things like setting up your wallet, not having your cache cleared, not being on a computer and network you trust, being on a computer that could be tied to you (e.g. by monitor size). As I understand it you shouldn't even consider doing any of this without Tails (all connections go through TOR).



                                Now all you have to do is receive your item anonymously. How you do this depends on your item but I've heard people just use the regular postal service for this.






                                share|improve this answer























                                • That's not going to get you much money... You'd need a pretty damn massive botnet if you want to pay someone more than a few fractions of a cent.

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago











                                • Yeah, you are right. But I believe my answer is still technically correct.

                                  – user875234
                                  13 hours ago












                                • It'd be correct if you had an insane amount of computer power. In reality though, mining is not an effective way to make money. A couple months of mining and you might be able to buy a toothpick...

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago












                                • Mining is not an effective way to make money when anonymity isn't your primary concern.

                                  – user875234
                                  13 hours ago











                                • Even if it is your primary concern, it's not an effective way to make money. Not unless you own a very large botnet (i.e. an illegal way). Crypto mining has stopped being profitable for us years ago.

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago














                                -2












                                -2








                                -2







                                Find a legal way to run a crypto miner on someone else's computer. One way to do this would be to offer crypto mining as a payment option for whatever service you are offering. Now you have clean cash so long as you are an expert in computer networking and haven't left a trail a mile long from doing things like setting up your wallet, not having your cache cleared, not being on a computer and network you trust, being on a computer that could be tied to you (e.g. by monitor size). As I understand it you shouldn't even consider doing any of this without Tails (all connections go through TOR).



                                Now all you have to do is receive your item anonymously. How you do this depends on your item but I've heard people just use the regular postal service for this.






                                share|improve this answer













                                Find a legal way to run a crypto miner on someone else's computer. One way to do this would be to offer crypto mining as a payment option for whatever service you are offering. Now you have clean cash so long as you are an expert in computer networking and haven't left a trail a mile long from doing things like setting up your wallet, not having your cache cleared, not being on a computer and network you trust, being on a computer that could be tied to you (e.g. by monitor size). As I understand it you shouldn't even consider doing any of this without Tails (all connections go through TOR).



                                Now all you have to do is receive your item anonymously. How you do this depends on your item but I've heard people just use the regular postal service for this.







                                share|improve this answer












                                share|improve this answer



                                share|improve this answer










                                answered 13 hours ago









                                user875234user875234

                                1344




                                1344












                                • That's not going to get you much money... You'd need a pretty damn massive botnet if you want to pay someone more than a few fractions of a cent.

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago











                                • Yeah, you are right. But I believe my answer is still technically correct.

                                  – user875234
                                  13 hours ago












                                • It'd be correct if you had an insane amount of computer power. In reality though, mining is not an effective way to make money. A couple months of mining and you might be able to buy a toothpick...

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago












                                • Mining is not an effective way to make money when anonymity isn't your primary concern.

                                  – user875234
                                  13 hours ago











                                • Even if it is your primary concern, it's not an effective way to make money. Not unless you own a very large botnet (i.e. an illegal way). Crypto mining has stopped being profitable for us years ago.

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago


















                                • That's not going to get you much money... You'd need a pretty damn massive botnet if you want to pay someone more than a few fractions of a cent.

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago











                                • Yeah, you are right. But I believe my answer is still technically correct.

                                  – user875234
                                  13 hours ago












                                • It'd be correct if you had an insane amount of computer power. In reality though, mining is not an effective way to make money. A couple months of mining and you might be able to buy a toothpick...

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago












                                • Mining is not an effective way to make money when anonymity isn't your primary concern.

                                  – user875234
                                  13 hours ago











                                • Even if it is your primary concern, it's not an effective way to make money. Not unless you own a very large botnet (i.e. an illegal way). Crypto mining has stopped being profitable for us years ago.

                                  – forest
                                  13 hours ago

















                                That's not going to get you much money... You'd need a pretty damn massive botnet if you want to pay someone more than a few fractions of a cent.

                                – forest
                                13 hours ago





                                That's not going to get you much money... You'd need a pretty damn massive botnet if you want to pay someone more than a few fractions of a cent.

                                – forest
                                13 hours ago













                                Yeah, you are right. But I believe my answer is still technically correct.

                                – user875234
                                13 hours ago






                                Yeah, you are right. But I believe my answer is still technically correct.

                                – user875234
                                13 hours ago














                                It'd be correct if you had an insane amount of computer power. In reality though, mining is not an effective way to make money. A couple months of mining and you might be able to buy a toothpick...

                                – forest
                                13 hours ago






                                It'd be correct if you had an insane amount of computer power. In reality though, mining is not an effective way to make money. A couple months of mining and you might be able to buy a toothpick...

                                – forest
                                13 hours ago














                                Mining is not an effective way to make money when anonymity isn't your primary concern.

                                – user875234
                                13 hours ago





                                Mining is not an effective way to make money when anonymity isn't your primary concern.

                                – user875234
                                13 hours ago













                                Even if it is your primary concern, it's not an effective way to make money. Not unless you own a very large botnet (i.e. an illegal way). Crypto mining has stopped being profitable for us years ago.

                                – forest
                                13 hours ago






                                Even if it is your primary concern, it's not an effective way to make money. Not unless you own a very large botnet (i.e. an illegal way). Crypto mining has stopped being profitable for us years ago.

                                – forest
                                13 hours ago












                                -5














                                nothing beats bitcoin. so far, it's the meta anonymous coin to be used on the internet.
                                you can probably use it to possibly buy a disposable credit card from "semi-credited" sources (hypothetically, of course) and get vpn yeah? but it's not a good idea. VPN companies aren't mostly trusted imo, and those that are have a shitty product.



                                you want anonymity online? do what everyone does - TOR and bitcoin. simple enough.






                                share|improve this answer








                                New contributor




                                blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.















                                • 13





                                  Bitcoin is not anonymous...

                                  – forest
                                  2 days ago






                                • 2





                                  As @forest commented, Bitcoin is explicitly not anonymous, which is why criminals use other cryptocurrencies which are anonymous to hide the money trail.

                                  – Rory Alsop
                                  yesterday















                                -5














                                nothing beats bitcoin. so far, it's the meta anonymous coin to be used on the internet.
                                you can probably use it to possibly buy a disposable credit card from "semi-credited" sources (hypothetically, of course) and get vpn yeah? but it's not a good idea. VPN companies aren't mostly trusted imo, and those that are have a shitty product.



                                you want anonymity online? do what everyone does - TOR and bitcoin. simple enough.






                                share|improve this answer








                                New contributor




                                blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.















                                • 13





                                  Bitcoin is not anonymous...

                                  – forest
                                  2 days ago






                                • 2





                                  As @forest commented, Bitcoin is explicitly not anonymous, which is why criminals use other cryptocurrencies which are anonymous to hide the money trail.

                                  – Rory Alsop
                                  yesterday













                                -5












                                -5








                                -5







                                nothing beats bitcoin. so far, it's the meta anonymous coin to be used on the internet.
                                you can probably use it to possibly buy a disposable credit card from "semi-credited" sources (hypothetically, of course) and get vpn yeah? but it's not a good idea. VPN companies aren't mostly trusted imo, and those that are have a shitty product.



                                you want anonymity online? do what everyone does - TOR and bitcoin. simple enough.






                                share|improve this answer








                                New contributor




                                blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.










                                nothing beats bitcoin. so far, it's the meta anonymous coin to be used on the internet.
                                you can probably use it to possibly buy a disposable credit card from "semi-credited" sources (hypothetically, of course) and get vpn yeah? but it's not a good idea. VPN companies aren't mostly trusted imo, and those that are have a shitty product.



                                you want anonymity online? do what everyone does - TOR and bitcoin. simple enough.







                                share|improve this answer








                                New contributor




                                blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.









                                share|improve this answer



                                share|improve this answer






                                New contributor




                                blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.









                                answered 2 days ago









                                blahhblahh

                                15




                                15




                                New contributor




                                blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.





                                New contributor





                                blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.






                                blahh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.







                                • 13





                                  Bitcoin is not anonymous...

                                  – forest
                                  2 days ago






                                • 2





                                  As @forest commented, Bitcoin is explicitly not anonymous, which is why criminals use other cryptocurrencies which are anonymous to hide the money trail.

                                  – Rory Alsop
                                  yesterday












                                • 13





                                  Bitcoin is not anonymous...

                                  – forest
                                  2 days ago






                                • 2





                                  As @forest commented, Bitcoin is explicitly not anonymous, which is why criminals use other cryptocurrencies which are anonymous to hide the money trail.

                                  – Rory Alsop
                                  yesterday







                                13




                                13





                                Bitcoin is not anonymous...

                                – forest
                                2 days ago





                                Bitcoin is not anonymous...

                                – forest
                                2 days ago




                                2




                                2





                                As @forest commented, Bitcoin is explicitly not anonymous, which is why criminals use other cryptocurrencies which are anonymous to hide the money trail.

                                – Rory Alsop
                                yesterday





                                As @forest commented, Bitcoin is explicitly not anonymous, which is why criminals use other cryptocurrencies which are anonymous to hide the money trail.

                                – Rory Alsop
                                yesterday





                                protected by Rory Alsop yesterday



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