> Obviously you have pay anonymously, with bitcoin, for exaple (if youuse it carefully)
Bitcoin is anonymous? Time to go to jail.
Bitcoin is anonymous? Time to go to jail.
Thinking this through- an adversary who's watching the block chain probably knows some inputs and some outputs. As in, these addresses belong to an exchange, these addresses belong to a hosting company.
Okay, fine. Now remember than any user can literally create wallets out of thin air, and in fact doing so is considered basic security hygiene. Let's say Joe User transfers one coin from one wallet to another wallet under their control. Let's say they do this 20 times, sometimes with the full amount, sometimes less.
How does the adversary attach an identity to those transactions?
So as long as you don't do a transaction that connects your identity to any bitcoin address, you are fine. but to use bitcoins you are almost always required to do it (its an electronic financial transaction, they are governed by law to have an identity, but of course you can find entities who do not follow these laws).
As for where the Bitcoins came from, I'm sure the author of this document would have some digital assets they could sell on the darknet to acquire some Bitcoin. Where those Bitcoin originated then would not be their problem.
I would imagine others use JoinMarket to mix up the coins[1], use coin control[2] to exchange for other cryptocurrency p2p, or other obfuscation methods like buying up high demand items with bitcoin then selling them remotely for other bitcoins.
[1]https://github.com/JoinMarket-Org/joinmarket/wiki http://joinmarket.io/
Telling the blockchain about your bitcoins and their transactions would also leak your IP.
To be anonymous you need to do all transactions from anonymous internet and get all your stuff anonymously.
Perhaps a purchased ebook downloaded from TOR.
You can wash your coins of course, I think it currently requires trust in the company doing it and if not done correctly might still leave a trace.
Of course the real world is different, would the FBI do enormous op sec to catch a small time crook. It's more about risk management.