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 (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 :-)