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> Coinbase brought a true sense of legitimacy and trustworthiness to Bitcoin exchanging. I could be wrong but to me this makes every shill for crypto that says

> Coinbase brought a true sense of legitimacy and trustworthiness to Bitcoin exchanging. I could be wrong but to me this makes every shill for crypto that says "it's anonymous!" a joke. I had to provide a driver's license and do checking account verification to be approved on Coinbase. Does that not remove the anonymity or am I missing something?

smolder 6y ago
It does remove any question of who you are for coinbase, but bitcoin was only ever pseudonymous transactions, not fully anonymous. We can all see how each wallet behaves.
- MuffinFlavored 6y ago
  and in an "audit" or "government" scenario, your Coinbase wallet is linked to your driver's license + checking account, right? Do we know if Coinbase would cooperate with US government in such a situation? I would imagine they would. I'd imagine they are also going to be sending IRS 1099-like forms for all crypto transactions, right?
  - fossuser 6y ago
    Yeah - it's not anonymous, the shill people didn't understand the technology and are wrong. Every transaction is part of the public ledger. If you ever want to get money in or out from fiat you need some point that is going to require ID. You could try and avoid this doing in person and cash, but if make any mistake ever your entire history of transactions is known. Some people have tried to do things to obscure this (coin mixing), some coins exist to do something clever to make it private, but BTC isn't and the other stuff doesn't really work. Coinbase is great because the original exchanges like "Magic The Gathering Exchange" (Mt. Gox) were amateur hour, they were routinely hacked and lost everyone's money. Coinbase was the first real company that showed up and did what they were supposed to do. They also made things easy with good UI. I think this is partly because in the Mt. Gox days it wasn't taken too seriously, (most) people were playing with it because they thought it was cool not because they expected it to grow in to a trillion dollar monster.
Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
Bitcoin CAN be used anonymously if you never use an online exchange to convert fiat to Bitcoin or vice versa. But yeah, otherwise I agree with you. Once you've bought your Bitcoin from Coinbase, your name is attached to a Bitcoin address. Law enforcement might not know where the coins go once you spend them, but they could subpoena you or otherwise make some sort of legal demand to know who you sent them to if they suspected you of buying illegal things.
- MuffinFlavored 6y ago
  > Bitcoin CAN be used anonymously if you never use an online exchange to convert fiat to Bitcoin or vice versa. How do you get a Bitcoin wallet registered and get funds into it?
  - Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
    You don't need to "register" a Bitcoin wallet anywhere. If you download the desktop client, you have a wallet, and you don't need to log in or register anywhere. You can then create a Bitcoin address and have Bitcoin sent to it.

smolder 6y ago

It does remove any question of who you are for coinbase, but bitcoin was only ever pseudonymous transactions, not fully anonymous. We can all see how each wallet behaves.

MuffinFlavored 6y ago
and in an "audit" or "government" scenario, your Coinbase wallet is linked to your driver's license + checking account, right? Do we know if Coinbase would cooperate with US government in such a situation? I would imagine they would. I'd imagine they are also going to be sending IRS 1099-like forms for all crypto transactions, right?
- fossuser 6y ago
  Yeah - it's not anonymous, the shill people didn't understand the technology and are wrong. Every transaction is part of the public ledger. If you ever want to get money in or out from fiat you need some point that is going to require ID. You could try and avoid this doing in person and cash, but if make any mistake ever your entire history of transactions is known. Some people have tried to do things to obscure this (coin mixing), some coins exist to do something clever to make it private, but BTC isn't and the other stuff doesn't really work. Coinbase is great because the original exchanges like "Magic The Gathering Exchange" (Mt. Gox) were amateur hour, they were routinely hacked and lost everyone's money. Coinbase was the first real company that showed up and did what they were supposed to do. They also made things easy with good UI. I think this is partly because in the Mt. Gox days it wasn't taken too seriously, (most) people were playing with it because they thought it was cool not because they expected it to grow in to a trillion dollar monster.

Sohcahtoa82 6y ago

Bitcoin CAN be used anonymously if you never use an online exchange to convert fiat to Bitcoin or vice versa. But yeah, otherwise I agree with you. Once you've bought your Bitcoin from Coinbase, your name is attached to a Bitcoin address. Law enforcement might not know where the coins go once you spend them, but they could subpoena you or otherwise make some sort of legal demand to know who you sent them to if they suspected you of buying illegal things.

MuffinFlavored 6y ago
> Bitcoin CAN be used anonymously if you never use an online exchange to convert fiat to Bitcoin or vice versa. How do you get a Bitcoin wallet registered and get funds into it?
- Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
  You don't need to "register" a Bitcoin wallet anywhere. If you download the desktop client, you have a wallet, and you don't need to log in or register anywhere. You can then create a Bitcoin address and have Bitcoin sent to it.