You may have heard that bitcoin is untraceable and completely anonymous – this is a myth. Paying with cash without a record of sale remains the only means of making an anonymous purchase. Learning how to buy bitcoin with cash is the first step in keeping your purchases as anonymous as possible.
Paying online with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is the closest thing to complete anonymity as you can get in a digital payment. Yet, just paying in bitcoin doesn’t mean the payment isn’t tracked and your wallet address linked to your identity.
In order to use bitcoin without a trace, you will need to buy bitcoin anonymously, keep it in an anonymous wallet, and make purchases anonymously. Keep reading to learn the only way to buy, hold, and use bitcoin anonymously.
How to Buy Bitcoins with Cash
The blockchain of bitcoin is public information and every transaction ever made records the wallet addresses of both the seller and the buyer. Without taking certain measures your bitcoin wallet address can be linked to your identity through association with your transactions of sending and receiving bitcoin.
The most anonymous way to buy bitcoin is by purchasing it with cash at a Bitcoin ATM. Locations are limited so you will have to find an ATM nearest you.
Using a Bitcoin ATM is extremely simple. You simply insert cash bills into the machine, enter your bitcoin address (or have a private key generated which becomes your bitcoin wallet), and confirm the transaction. Since no ID is required to use the ATM there is no name or other information to associate you with the wallet.
How to Hold Bitcoin Anonymously
There is a good reason why you don’t want anyone to know where you keep your bitcoin – Hackers. Keeping your bitcoin with any online wallet or trading platform leaves you vulnerable to hackers. Exchanges require verification of identity to open a wallet so that in itself links you to every transaction made with that wallet.
The safest and most anonymous way to hold bitcoin is with an Bitamp hardware wallet is the best option for this. Since these wallets are air-gapped (not connected to the internet) a hacker would have to have physical access to the hardware and break its security to steal your Bitcoins.
How to Spend Bitcoin Anonymously
First of all, if you want to buy anything online where the vendor requires you to identify yourself to place an order, your bitcoin wallet is linked to that information by the seller. If you have something shipped, the name and address you provide are linked to your wallet by the seller.
The only way to stay completely anonymous purchasing with Bitcoin online is to purchase without giving any personal information and use a VPN plus TOR to hide your IP address (links your location to the wallet). This, of course, assumes that you have not publicly purchased bitcoin with that wallet and you have not publicly requested to receive bitcoin with that wallet.
Buy Bitcoin with Cash
Sending and receiving bitcoin online is more anonymous than using a credit/debit card but only if you buy Bitcoin with cash, use a private wallet, and mask your location with a VPN and through the TOR network. Even then, your transactions are not 100% autonomous.
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