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
#2Sounds good, but I suspect many of those steps won't actually work. That is, he hasn't truly vanished, maybe to online trolls who are into SWATTING.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#3"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.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#4I am surprised it is possible to get a corporate credit card without a human’s name or identity tied to it.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#5"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.
I interpreted this as referring to the privacy stuff on its own: paperwork, legal advice, etc. - and, yes, the place for his car to live. (Which sounds like it probably wasn't very expensive.)
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#6Bitcoin is the very opposite of anonymous. Permanently recorded for posterity would be a better description. The best you can get is pseudonymous, and that's if you never actually spend any of the coin.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#7Sounds good, but I suspect many of those steps won't actually work. That is, he hasn't truly vanished, maybe to online trolls who are into SWATTING.
It’s a continuum. There’s a lot of difference between hiding from stalkers and online trolls and effectively hiding within a nation state that is devoting considerable resources to find you. It’s also somewhat a function of what you’re willing to give up to hide.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#8Perhaps I'm missing something, but the DMV links him to his LLC which is linked to everything else. A quick records search on myself pulled up the requisite registration information, so I'm left to question how anonymous he actually is.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#9Perhaps I'm missing something, but the DMV links him to his LLC which is linked to everything else. A quick records search on myself pulled up the requisite registration information, so I'm left to question how anonymous he actually is.
> 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.
Re: How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 Not So Easy Steps
#10Perhaps I'm missing something, but the DMV links him to his LLC which is linked to everything else. A quick records search on myself pulled up the requisite registration information, so I'm left to question how anonymous he actually is.
> 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.