[lacoolj]

Contrary to a lot of comments here, the only way to use bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency) without tracking is to mine it yourself, and even then...

Where did you get it? Purchased/transferred? Where did they get it? What else did the person with that wallet do?

If the answer is "mined", even then, you have to actually do something with it, right? Buy something? Where is that something shipped? At worst you'll have to pay customs on it, and have it actually get through customs. At best, your address is in a database now.

Have it shipped somewhere obscure? Video cameras are everywhere. Have it shipped to someone else's house and steal it off their porch? Again, cameras everywhere.

Not have a physical item? Just a service? That's pretty much the closest you'll get to anonymous money transfer and full usage (along with whatever VPN you prefer).

Cool that was a fun mental exercise. Now everyone tell me why I'm wrong!

[wildzzz]

It's great for transactions where moving a large amount of money would be impossible due to KYC laws and smuggling the cash even more so. As long as you can find someone willing to sell you bitcoin and someone else willing to accept it, you're still in business.

[bulbar]

> Where did you get it? Purchased/transferred? Where did they get it?

NFTs solved that problem by providing plausible cause of "I got the money from selling this money image for 100,000 USD"

[yesco]

Ah, I finally understand NFTs now

[Haven880]

Originally there is mixer parties. That was taken down massively in the covid years. That is the one that can trackless. Currently the only one that near impossible to track is Monero. But that is actively suppress worldwide. You rarely heard it and any YTber promoting it, usually algo suppressed. Now crypto are even more trackable than bank transfer. I guess cash and maybe diamonds is still king.

[para_parolu]

It shipped to a forest, buried and gps location is given. Pretty old scheme when buyer and seller don’t want to meet

[ethbr1]

That's called a dead drop.

[VirusNewbie]

I mean, I can meet you in an ally, transfer some satoshis from my wallet to yours, you hand me a wad of cash/jewels/MtG/collector funkos and you might not even know my name.

[nine_k]

Hmm, doesn't this work equally well with a wad of $10 and $20 notes? I mean, yes, notes could be clandestinely marked. But aren't bitcoins also traceable after the first transaction?

[davidwritesbugs]

But do people actually do this? How would you find someone to give you bitcoin for your gold? Are there online markets? Honest Q

[mikkupikku]

Sounds like a setup to get robbed tbqh.

[wolvoleo]

How do you avoid them just putting a bullet in you and just taking your cash without the Bitcoin though? It doesn't seem like a great option.

[beAbU]

True, but this does not happen for large transactions, due to being vulnerable to the $5 wrench attack (1)

For big transactions where something of actual value is exchanged, both parties will want an escrow, and this is where a public exchange comes in.

1 - https://xkcd.com/538/

[omegadynamics]

fund my art project and my sculpture will prove you wrong.

[joe_the_user]

Yeah, crypto as normally managed is one of the most traceable currencies. The block chain is in fact a complete log of transactions. Naturally that means there are no untraceable uses despite your sound-of-one-hand-clapping thought experiment.