1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Now that we have our wallets set up in this lecture and the next lectures, we're going to discuss how 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,000 to buy bitcoins anonymously. 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Now, there are a number of ways to buy bitcoins, but not all of them are anonymous. 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:22,000 So if we go back to our wallet right here, you can see that if we click on the receive, you'll see 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,000 our receiving address. 6 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:30,000 This is the only piece of information that you'll be sharing when you want to receive money into your 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,000 wallet and when you receive money into this. 8 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Like I said, this will be stored in a public ledger in the blockchain. 9 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Therefore, anybody can come in and analyze the blockchain and see who sent you money. 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:53,000 So if you send money to this address using your bank account or using a service that verifies your identity, 11 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,000 then your identity will be linked to this address. 12 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:04,000 And then any transfer you make from this address will be known and again will be traced back to your 13 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:05,000 real identity. 14 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:11,000 So, so far we're anonymous because this address is not linked to anything. 15 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:19,000 But if you use an anonymous way of transferring money into this wallet, then this wallet will be linked 16 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:20,000 to your identity. 17 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:27,000 And then whenever you use this wallet, all the transactions could be easily traced back to your real 18 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:28,000 identity. 19 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:34,000 Therefore, it's very, very important that you buy your bitcoins anonymously. 20 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:40,000 So the first way of doing this is to create bitcoins yourself. 21 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000 And to do that, you're going to have to mine bitcoins. 22 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:50,000 So if you remember when we spoke about how bitcoins work, we said that there are computers right here, 23 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000 the yellow ones, and we call them miners. 24 00:01:52,000 --> 00:02:01,000 And these computers keep a copy of the blockchain and they use their computation power to keep the blockchain 25 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:02,000 working. 26 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:09,000 They do this by solving mathematical problems and calculating hashes so that the blockchain functions 27 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:10,000 as it should. 28 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:17,000 Now, these mathematical problems and the calculations, they take a lot of computation power and a 29 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:18,000 lot of electricity. 30 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,000 Therefore, not anyone can afford to do this. 31 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:29,000 But if you can afford to do it, then it is a really good way of generating bitcoins anonymously. 32 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:36,000 Now, we're not going to go into this because we can literally make a big course just on how to mind 33 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:37,000 bitcoins properly. 34 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,000 So we're not going to cover it here. 35 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,000 The next option is to use an exchange. 36 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:49,000 Now, using exchanges is not anonymous, because when you use an exchange, they will ask for your bank 37 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:54,000 information and they will ask you to verify your identity. 38 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:03,000 So using an exchange is not anonymous, but we can combine using an exchange with what's known as Bitcoin 39 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:04,000 tumblers or mixers. 40 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:10,000 These are services that attempt to mask where the money is coming from. 41 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:15,000 There is a lot of debate of how good or how anonymous this is. 42 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:19,000 It adds an extra step when you're transferring the money. 43 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,000 Therefore, it's a little bit complicated. 44 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:28,000 And because of all of this debate, I do, I wouldn't feel very secure or very anonymous by using this 45 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:29,000 method. 46 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:34,000 But this is a really good method because exchanges work all over the world. 47 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:40,000 So if you couldn't get bitcoins any other way, then you might have to use this way where you use an 48 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,000 exchange with a tumbler or mixer. 49 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:50,000 Now, if you just go on Google and look for a Bitcoin exchange, you'll see a lot of websites that will 50 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:51,000 allow you to do this. 51 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Now, on Bitcoin website itself, you can see that they're recommending the following exchanges. 52 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:01,000 You can just click any of them to open their website. 53 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:06,000 Now, the most popular one is Coinbase, which I already have open right here. 54 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,000 Like I said, this is really, really easy to use. 55 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,000 All you have to do is click on Get Started. 56 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,000 It will take you through a number of steps where you create a new account. 57 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:20,000 It will automatically create a web wallet for you. 58 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,000 So a wallet that you use on this website, it will ask you to verify your ID. 59 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,000 So like I said, this is not anonymous. 60 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:33,000 But once you do, once you create your account and buy some bitcoins, you can use a Tumblr service 61 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:37,000 and we'll talk about Tumblr services and mixers later on in the course. 62 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:44,000 And when you do that, it will add a layer of anonymity and it will make it harder to link this account 63 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:50,000 that you're going to create in here with your Bitcoin wallet that you're going to transfer the money 64 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:51,000 to. 65 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,000 Transferring the money is always the same. 66 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:58,000 You literally just have to put the receiving address that you have in here, in the wallet that you're 67 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,000 going to create on this website. 68 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,000 And the money will go to your Bitcoin wallet. 69 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,000 Now, don't worry about this too much because like I said, if you're going to use this, you'll need 70 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:13,000 to use a tumbler or a mixer and I will cover tumblers and mixers later on. 71 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:16,000 So even if you want to use this option, keep it in mind. 72 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:17,000 Don't use it right now. 73 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Only use it after I cover the tumblers and mixers. 74 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:27,000 The next option that we have is to use a Bitcoin ATM. 75 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:33,000 Now, this is a really, really good option because some of these ATMs even accept cash. 76 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:38,000 The only problem is not all countries have bitcoin ATMs. 77 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:45,000 So to check if your country have a Bitcoin ATM, you can go on this website. 78 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,000 I'm going to include its link in the resources. 79 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:54,000 It's coin, ATM, radar, dotcom, and all you have to do is just put your address in here. 80 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,000 Or if you want, you can go down on this map right here. 81 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:05,000 I'm going to maximize it and look for your country, zoom in on your country and see if there are any 82 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:06,000 ATMs. 83 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:12,000 Now, I will talk about this in more details in the next lecture where I'm going to teach you how to 84 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,000 use Bitcoin ATMs in details. 85 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:23,000 And you'll learn how to convert real currencies such as dollars and euros to Bitcoins anonymously using 86 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:24,000 Bitcoin ATMs. 87 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:31,000 Last but not least, we can use peer to peer services to buy bitcoins. 88 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:38,000 Now, peer to peer services allow us to buy bitcoins directly from the seller. 89 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,000 So unlike coin exchanges, there is no middleman. 90 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,000 There is no middle institution. 91 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:50,000 And if the seller is willing to give us bitcoins using an anonymous method such as by giving him cash, 92 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,000 then this will be perfect. 93 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:59,000 Now again, going back to the Bitcoin website, you can see that they list a number of peer to peer 94 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:00,000 services. 95 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:08,000 Now, pretty much all of these services will either require to verify your identity or they will only 96 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:13,000 use services that require your identity, for example. 97 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:20,000 Bit quick right here will not ask you to verify your identity, but in most countries the only method 98 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:24,000 of transferring money would be a method that would require your identity. 99 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,000 So you're pretty much back to the start. 100 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:33,000 Local Bitcoin used to be a really good service that would allow you to buy bitcoins in cash, so you'd 101 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:38,000 literally meet the person and give them cash and they transfer the money to you. 102 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:45,000 Unfortunately, recently they stopped this and you can't buy bitcoins with cash with local bitcoin and 103 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:47,000 they also started verifying IDs. 104 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:51,000 So again, this service is not very anonymous anymore. 105 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:58,000 Paxful, on the other hand, is a really good peer to peer service that still allows you to get bitcoins 106 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:02,000 by literally giving cash in person to the person that will give you the bitcoins. 107 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,000 So it's really, really good if you can find peers in your country. 108 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:11,000 And I will actually cover this in future lectures. 109 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,000 So that's it for this lecture. 110 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:21,000 I just wanted to give you a breakdown of the most common ways that you can buy Bitcoins anonymously. 111 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:27,000 And in the next lectures, I'm going to show you how to specifically buy Bitcoins from an ATM and how 112 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:32,000 to specifically buy bitcoins using a peer to peer service. 113 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:37,000 And both cases will be used in cash, so it will be as anonymous as possible.