Ok i do not want to get into the whole argument of usefulness of bitcoin, but I have to repeat something that I have been repeating for many years on this site, on other sites and in real life, and it still does not catch on. Bitcoin is not anonymous! True, the government may need to do some work to find your wallet number, but once they do they will know all transactions you have ever done with that wallet in all of time. In fact bitcoin allows for surveillance possibilities that governments could only dream of before. It also provides surveillance opportunities for people that are not the lawful government and do not have the power to issue warrants.

Anytime you engage in any transaction using bitcoin, the other party must necessarily know your wallet number. Then the other party can easily check every single transaction made with that wallet for the history of bitcoin, and can do additional checks in the future. Of course you can get a new wallet, but moving the money from the old wallet to the new wallet will also appear for everyone to see.

Thus any government agent, creditor or ordinary stalker can figure out a way to sell you something or buy something from you using bitcoin, and voila they have your entire financial history.

The writer of the original article is being dangerously misleading when he implies bitcoin is anonymous. There are people languishing in jails right now because they thought bitcoin was anonymous.