Final step, post it all on NYTimes!
Seriously though, the toughest part about seeking anonymity is working against human nature and one's need for social validation.
How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
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Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#12Final step, post it all on NYTimes! Seriously though, the toughest part about seeking anonymity is working against human nature and one's need for social validation.
It doesn't sound like he's shed his identity, but instead he wants to make it so his identity can't be tracked to his physical location anymore.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#13Also quite a good checklist for money laundering. I think buying a house in the UK now requires ID for this reason, and there's an ongoing campaign to close the loopholes for companies.
I do remember when I was briefly the director of a tiny UK non-profit that the company identity information was mandatory .. except for a very small list of those who were exempt because of intimidation, after a nasty terrorist campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restricting-the-d...
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That would make him easy to track down if someone learned the name of the L.L.C. Nevada, Wyoming and New Mexico, however, don’t require corporations to record their owner. Mr. Lopp took advantage of that.
His real identity is tied to the DMV, which ties him to the car, which is tied to the LLC; does this not deanonymize the LLC? From the LLC you get the rest of his large assets, namely his second house.
How is the car tied to the LLC?
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#15This article has so little to do with Bitcoin that I think a more descriptive title would have been:
"How a Very Wealthy Person Conceals His Name and Address From The Public"
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#16This article has so little to do with Bitcoin that I think a more descriptive title would have been: "How a Very Wealthy Person Conceals His Name and Address From The Public"
Wealthy maybe but not very wealthy. A very wealthy person would have many more options. This is more of a guide for someone that has money to burn on this as a (serious) hobby but isn't ludicrously out of reach for most readers.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#17> To make sure his phone wasn’t keeping a record of everywhere he’d been — and potentially transmitting it to apps he was using — he turned off all its geolocation services.
... Of course, IMEI tracking (from tower registration) can get you pretty much all of this data anyway. This article is more about how to partially obfuscate your identity to private actors.
It would be interesting to know how fast a professional could unravel all of this. Minutes? Hours?
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#18Final step, post it all on NYTimes! Seriously though, the toughest part about seeking anonymity is working against human nature and one's need for social validation.
That's actually a feature if you want to know whether you've done it well!
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#19I am surprised it is possible to get a corporate credit card without a human’s name or identity tied to it.
Isn't it tied to someone via the corporation's ownership, still?
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#20"Bitcoin evangelist": The most anonymous way to buy things, of course, is to simply use cash .... Buys a house, in cash. Buys another "throwaway" house for his car, in cash. Buys car, in cash. And then claims: " Mr. Lopp estimates that his efforts to disappear have cost him about $30,000. " Yeah, right.
Auto insurance is a legal requirement. My insurance company asks me to state where my car is habitually parked, and would consider a misleading answer fraudulent.