Bitcoin and Crypto Talk (Merged)(includes NFT)

mt15 said
Interesting who and what is using bitcoin, as well as the possibility it’s not as anonymous as people think:

“Websites such as WeSearchr, which raises money for a “bounty” for information, and Hatreon, where donations can be made to alt-right figures such as Andrew Anglin, primarily use bitcoin for fundraising.

Bitcoin purchases can be traced by a determined researcher. And, the Southern Poverty Law Center will be releasing a list of 200 accounts tied to white nationalists and racists in the coming week.

Forbes Magazine put bitcoin’s secrecy to the test by purchasing small amounts of marijuana online, then asking a researcher to see if she could figure out where the transactions originated.

She found the buys and traced it back to Forbes.”

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch...raising-sources-bitcoin-fills-gap-hate-groups

Bitcoin is not anonymous in and of itself. If you deposit money into Coinbase using your checking account, it deposits the BTC in your Coinbase wallet, and then you send the BTC from there to a darknet market wallet, then that transaction is fairly easily traced back to you, because there is a direct link between the marketplace and your Coinbase wallet which is tied to your dox. But, what if I were to use a VPN/Tor to install an wallet that could be used as an intermediate wallet between Coinbase and the market? It would be much harder to prove who owns that wallet (you don't have to provide any proof of identify to install a new wallet), and who exactly sent the money to the market. Basically, it's the wallets, Tor, and VPN that are anonymous, and as a decentralized digital currency, BTC can exist in that medium.

I'm kinda sick that I didn't bite the bullet and drop some coin on Ripple a couple of days ago. I was *this close* to buying some when it was $1.07, but decided against it. It reached over $1.90 today.