Achieving financial freedom using cryptocurrencies

Let me introduce myself

• Cryptoanarchist & voluntaryist focused on technology and society hacking
• IT security guy, founder of IT security hacking companies (Nethemba, Hacktrophy) & contemporary art (Satori)
• Co-founder of Bratislava's and Prague's hackerspaces (Progressbar & Paralelni Polis)
• Member of Czech contemporary anti-government artistic group Ztohoven
• Responsible for many anti-government & digital privacy projects www.nepracujemeprestat.sk, www.internetbezcenzury.sk

Why do we need financial freedom?

• Tracking & monitoring financial transactions by banks /governments represents a drastic intervention to citizens' digital privacy
• Above some cash limits, you cannot avoid using bank accounts even if you don't trust banks
  • There were many incidents in the past when bank employees misused sensitive customer's information

• Information exchanged by OECD CRS can be  leaked (by potential hacking attack or internal employees)
• Banks can block your transactions because they are suspicious, you have a burden to prove your innocence

Why do we need a financial freedom II?

• Prohibition of anonymous cash in many countries above some limits including Czech and Slovak Republic, and it is becoming worse (India)
• KYC, AML and other "financial dictatorship promoting" regulations
• The card payment companies, banks, government institutions - all of them can easily track your financial transactions
• When you receive a "suspicious" bank transaction or from a "suspicious" country (e.g. offshore), the bank sends automated notifications to the government officials...
• International payments (out of euro-zone) are thoroughly inspected, blocked by banks requiring a lot of bureaucracy

Why do we need a financial freedom III?

• 100% protection of your assets against the government (especially when you use truly anonymous cash)
• The government can:
  • freeze your bank account
  • take your physical cash or gold
  • take your property or land
  • suspend your bussiness

Real digital privacy starts with protection your financial transactions

Bitcoin is not anonymous

• In addition to Bitcoin, there are true anonymous cryptocurrencies
  • Monero - Ring Signatures (fungibility)
  • ZCash - zk-Snark (fungibility), requires a trusted setup
  • ZCoin - Zerocoin protocol 
  • Particl.io - Ring Signatures, proof of stake
• Ring Signatures is more verified/stable crypto than zk-Snark/zerocoin protocol
• Bitcoin Lightning Network (Onion routed micropayments)
• Bitcoin (especially when you change recipient addresses frequently) can still provide you a significantly better privacy than a traditional banking system

Anonymous cryptocurrency exchanges

• The most popular ones (Coinbase, Kraken, Bitstamp, Bitfinex, Btc-e) are definitely not anonymous and have to follow AML/KYC regulations, expect governments can know everything about your Bitcoin trades
• Localbitcoins.com (prefer trusted people trading with cash, public places for a physical exchange, use Tor & anonymous email)
• Bitsquare.io (prefer trusted people trading with cash)
• Use your local anonymous Bitcoin ATM (expect 3% fee)
• Contact your local hackerspace (Parallel Polis, Progressbar)

Pay your bills with bitcoins - bitwa.la

• If you want BTC SEPA gateways, you always have to be verified for transactions above certain limits (e.g. 500 EUR/monthly), you can have multiple "anonymous profiles", but they can be revealed if you do payments to the same bank accounts
• Bitwa.la (be aware, it follows KYC/AML)
  • allows you to make SEPA transactions up to 50000 EUR (after Skype verification) with 0.5%
  • allows many international currencies (but it's still expensive for CZK, use Simplecoin instead)
  • allows multi-pay transactions at once (you can use it for all your regular monthly payments)
  • through shapeshift plugin you can use arbitrary altcoins

Use local bitcoin gateways

• In order to avoid high fees for incoming SEPA payments, use cheaper local bitcoin gateways
  • simplecoin.cz
  • coinhub.cz
  • firstbitcoin.cz
• Or visit Paralelni Polis community! :-)

Use Bitcoin debit cards

• Anonymous debit cards without verification allow only small life-time limits (up to 2000-2500 EUR), you can ask for many of them for many different persons, but you need to pay about 12 EUR/yearly per each of them
• Probably the best non-anonymous cards are xapo.com (true-bitcoin debit card), bitwa.la, cryptopay.com, e-coin.com, uquid
• bitwa.la + uquid.com can be topped up with altcoins (including Monero and ZCash through shapeshift.io plugin)
• Most of these cards are issued by the same issuer (Wave Crest Holdings limited) and have the same fees (2.25 EUR - ATM withdrawal fee, 3% for foreign currency withdrawals/purchase)

Consider to use Revolut

• Revolut is not a bitcoin debit card, but it has a strong competitive advantage - free ATM withdrawals anywhere in the world up to 200 GBP/monthly (then 2%), free currency exchanges up to 5000 GBP/monthly (then 0.5%)
• Ideal debit card for travelling if you want to have best currency exchange rates
• It can be topped up by any Bitcoin debit card (!)
• There is a yearly limit of 15000 EUR (after reaching the limit, it is necessary to prove the source if your income)
• Any other debit cards with similar features as Revolut? (Monzo?)
• They have just launched the business accounts!

Invoice your customers in fiat, but receive BTC

• Check bitwage.com
  • If you are an entrepreneur / small company, you don't need a bank account, just issue the invoice with bitwage.com, they generate unique SEPA payment details, the customer will pay your invoice and you receive bitcoins only
  • It requires your personal verification (a photo with your personal ID)
  • there is no similar anonymous service (probably because of money laundering)

Bitcoin mixing services XMR.TO

• Send your anonymous Monero and receive "clean" bitcoins (Monero transactions are anonymous by default)
• It works through Tor network as well
• Fair conversion rates
• Be aware there are multiple "blockchain forensic agencies" working for Interpol / governments - using mixing service you can easily destroy your real Bitcoin blockchain history
• You can buy your Monero (below specific limits) using poloniex.com in a completely anonymous way

Let's switch to complete bankless setup

• Issue all invoices to your customers using bitwage.com
• Prefer direct bitcoin payments everywhere as possible
  • Check www.coinmap.org
• Pay all bills using bitwa.la (including multi payments)
• Pay the rest using your bitcoin debit cards (if you travel a lot, use Revolut topped up by your bitcoin debit cards)

Bankless setup - more anonymous scenario

• Invoice your customers directly in Bitcoins / Monero
• Laundry your received Bitcoins using XMR.TO
• Prefer direct bitcoin payments everywhere as possible
  • Check www.coinmap.org
• Pay all bills using bitwa.la (including multi payments) with your anonymous bitwa.la accounts (be aware of 500 EUR monthly limits)
• Pay the rest using your anonymous debit cards (be aware of 2000 EUR lifetime limits)
• Never use Revolut (it's not anonymous)

True anonymous cryptocurrencies how to

• Monero (a simple wallet with GUI, can be bought at Kraken.com using fiat or using through shapeshift.io/poloniex.com using Bitcoins)
• ZCash (now supported by Bitcoin Trezor)
• Dash (marketing hype, now supported by Bitcoin Trezor)
• Shadow Cash (Shadow project seems to be a complex decentralized system, probably the follower of the Silk Road market?)

Bitcoin vs. Monero

• Bitcoin is too legal & popular
  • the Bitcoin rate reflects political events / decisions (e.g. ETF, the state prohibition, etc)
  • it reflects "the real world" a lot
• Monero is becoming a default dark-market cryptocurrency
  • despite the fact it is still related to the Bitcoin rate, it doesn't care much about "the real world"
  • the biggest threat for Monero would be probably a full world's legalization of all drugs & guns (the reason why people prefer true anonymous cryptocurrencies :-)
  • FBI is afraid of Monero
  • Monero is ATH just now!

The privacy of government fiat money is dead.

Long life to anonymous cryptocurrencies!

Thanks a lot for your attention!