1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 Now that we know what Monero is and why it's so anonymous. 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000 In this lecture, I want to talk about how we can buy Monero anonymously. 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:16,000 Now, this task was much more challenging when we were talking about Bitcoin because as mentioned before, 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:21,000 Bitcoin's ledger or the blockchain is entirely public. 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:27,000 Therefore, if our identity is linked to an address, any transaction sent to and from this address 6 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,000 will be linked to our identity. 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,000 This is not the case with Monero. 8 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:39,000 As mentioned in the previous lecture, Monero uses ring signatures to hide the source of funds and stealth 9 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,000 addresses to hide the receiver. 10 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:48,000 Therefore, if the blockchain is analyzed, there will be no useful information regarding the senders 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:49,000 and receivers. 12 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,000 Not only that, even the sender wants the money is sent from the sender. 13 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:00,000 The sender doesn't really know where the money is going again due to the use of stealth addresses, 14 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000 which are not the real address. 15 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:08,000 So when you give a receiving address to a sender, this address is only used once. 16 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,000 And it's not your real actual address. 17 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,000 It's only an address to be used for a transaction. 18 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:21,000 Therefore, if you think of it, you can actually buy Monero using any method and this method will be 19 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,000 much more anonymous than using bitcoins. 20 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:31,000 So even if you verify your identity when buying Monero, once you transfer your coins from the website 21 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:39,000 that you bought it to your own local wallet, this money becomes untraceable and unthinkable to the 22 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,000 account that you used to buy Monero. 23 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:48,000 The only way that this can be linked to you is if you make a mistake, an opsec mistake and someone 24 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:49,000 hacks into your computer. 25 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:56,000 Or if you are forced by a law enforcement agency to give information about where you use that. 26 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:01,000 Monero So they'll be able to see that you bought Monero on X website, but they won't know which wallet 27 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:09,000 this Monero went to and what it was used for unless you go ahead and give them the information yourself. 28 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:16,000 With that being said, there are some methods that would be more private and more anonymous because 29 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,000 sometimes we just don't want to share our identity and our private information with online websites, 30 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:26,000 even if this identity will not be linked to our wallet. 31 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:27,000 It's just not ideal. 32 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,000 What if that website gets hacked? 33 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:35,000 What about the employees working in it and the list goes on again similar to any privacy concern. 34 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:43,000 So just like bitcoin, the most anonymous way of getting Monero is to mine it yourself. 35 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Use a powerful computer to help maintain the Monero blockchain and with doing that you will be awarded 36 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:57,000 Xlm or Monero coins and then use that to purchase or send funds to friends and family. 37 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,000 Now doing that is not simple. 38 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:04,000 I can actually make a full course on that and it's not feasible to everybody. 39 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,000 That's why I'm not going to cover it in this course. 40 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:13,000 The other option is, again, something that we discussed when we were buying bitcoins is to use an 41 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,000 exchange so you can use any exchange you want. 42 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:22,000 Like I said, even if the exchange requires you to verify your identity, that's fine, because once 43 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:28,000 the funds leave the exchange, they will be untraceable and they won't be able to link your actual identity 44 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:30,000 to your Monero wallet. 45 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:37,000 Not only that, but some exchanges will not even require you to verify your identity if you're buying 46 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:38,000 small amounts. 47 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:45,000 Now, these exchanges change their policies all the time, so the ones that don't require identity verification 48 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,000 now will probably require it in the future. 49 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,000 And others that require it right now might not require it. 50 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,000 Therefore, the best thing to do is to come to get Monero go to exchanges. 51 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:02,000 I will include this link in the resources of this lecture and go over them, see which ones are allowing 52 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:06,000 people to buy Monero without verifying identity. 53 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:13,000 And if you can't find any, again, it's okay to verify your identity and buy one arrow because like 54 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,000 I said, your identity will still not be link able to your wallet. 55 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:26,000 Some popular ones in here are Bittrex, Binance, Bisque and Bitfinex. 56 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:28,000 Now there are other good ones here. 57 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,000 Like I said, go over them, read their policy before using them. 58 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:39,000 But most of the ones that are listed here are pretty good anyway, and using them is very, very easy. 59 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:40,000 It's usually the same. 60 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:46,000 You click on the website, you sign up, you buy Monero and then you transfer it to your wallet. 61 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:51,000 And I will explain how to transfer funds to and from your wallet in the next lectures. 62 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000 I'm not going to cover that, though, because like I said, it is not ideal. 63 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,000 At the end of the day, you still might have to verify your identity. 64 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:05,000 And even though it's not linked to your wallet, a lot of us might not want to share our identity with 65 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:07,000 third party websites. 66 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:14,000 Another really good option is to exchange an existing cryptocurrency with Monero. 67 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:21,000 So with this option, we can use our bitcoins that we already obtained anonymously using a Bitcoin using 68 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:28,000 a P2P service or a Bitcoin ATM or one of the other methods that we discussed earlier and then exchange 69 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:29,000 it to Monero. 70 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:34,000 So we already obtained our coins in an anonymous way, and then we're buying Monero, which is even 71 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:39,000 more anonymous because it hides information about the sender, receiver and the amount. 72 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:45,000 Therefore, the coins in our local Monero wallet will be very, very anonymous. 73 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,000 This is a really good option and can be used in so many scenarios. 74 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:55,000 You can even use it if you have coins that are not anonymous and exchange them to Monero to increase 75 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:57,000 their anonymity and become more private. 76 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:01,000 Therefore, I will spend a full lecture talking about how to do this. 77 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:02,000 So stay tuned for that. 78 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:09,000 Another option is to use an ATM similar to what we did with Bitcoin, and you can actually use the same 79 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,000 website to find ATMs that sell Monero. 80 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:20,000 So the same website coin atm radar dot com, you scroll down or you put your country in the search box 81 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:27,000 and you can uncheck everything here in the left and only keep Monero checked to get the ATMs that only 82 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:28,000 support Monero. 83 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:30,000 Now, as you can see, there aren't many. 84 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,000 There are much less than Bitcoin. 85 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:35,000 And in my country, in Ireland, there aren't any. 86 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,000 So this option might not be applicable to everybody. 87 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:43,000 But if there is a Monero ATM, then this is a really good option if you can buy it with cash. 88 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000 All you have to do is just go put the receiving address of your wallet and you'll receive the funds 89 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:50,000 in your wallet. 90 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,000 Very similar to what we did with Bitcoin ATMs. 91 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,000 Therefore, there is no point of covering it again. 92 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:00,000 But you can go and revise the lecture where I use the bitcoin atm. 93 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,000 If you want more information about it. 94 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:07,000 Last but not least, you can use a peer to peer service. 95 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:10,000 Again, we showed off a similar service for Bitcoin. 96 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:13,000 For Monero, it's exactly the same. 97 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,000 You just need to use a different website. 98 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,000 The website is called Local Monero Dot Co. 99 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,000 The way it works is very similar to the Bitcoin website. 100 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:24,000 All you have to do is put the amount that you want to buy. 101 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:29,000 For example, let's say I want to buy €25 worth of bitcoin. 102 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,000 You put the country in my case, it's Ireland and we're looking for all online offers. 103 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,000 So from this dropdown list, you can list all of the payment methods. 104 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:43,000 As you can see, you can pay cash, which is very, very anonymous. 105 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,000 You can do cash by mail, you can do cash at ATM. 106 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,000 So there are a number of methods. 107 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:55,000 Once you're happy with all the options, you click on search and you'll get all the local sellers that 108 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:59,000 will allow you to buy Monero using the payment method that you selected. 109 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:06,000 Now, as you can see, again in my country in Ireland of unfortunately there aren't any local sellers, 110 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:13,000 but if you pick a bigger country such as the United States, you will actually see a number of sellers 111 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:20,000 that will sell you Monero by cash, by mail and other anonymous payment services. 112 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,000 Again, using this as very simple, all you'll have to do is click on Buy. 113 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:25,000 Follow the instructions. 114 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:30,000 Send the money to your local Monero address, which I will show you in the next lecture. 115 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:31,000 And that's pretty much it. 116 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,000 You'll have the money in your wallet. 117 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:39,000 And because you're using Monero, the money is untraceable and unthinkable to previous transactions. 118 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:42,000 So that's it for this lecture. 119 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:47,000 Just wanted to list the main methods that you can use to buy Monero anonymously. 120 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:52,000 And in the next lecture, we'll talk about how to exchange it with other cryptocurrencies and we'll 121 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,000 see how to send and receive Monero.