Technically, the protocol is anonymous. Addresses/hashes are not human readable or, better said, you can't easily infer someone's identity/physical address/phon

Technically, the protocol is anonymous. Addresses/hashes are not human readable or, better said, you can't easily infer someone's identity/physical address/phone/nationality just by glancing at them. Exchanges as entry points to the network are required to make that conection. Merchants as the paper say, do too. If a merchant required a certain amount to complete your transaction, and that amount came from an unknown, unregistered wallet (in the sense you didn't acknowledge its ownership), would they legally be able to say it coming from you? In the end, yes, it's a technicality, because it's difficult to enter the blockchain without leaving a trace at the fiat-border. But still...