i’m wanting to get on usenet but remain compeltely anon (vpn, anon purchase, etc).

i know this ins’t stricly a piracy question and is maybe more of a crypto question but figure there ain’t nobody who knows privacy and anoniminitry like you guys do.

so if i want to some amounts of bitcoin/whatever anonymously, how tf do i get it? liek not large amount, just small shit like to buy subs for a few for usenet indexes and whatnot?i know the bitcoin atm’s and banks do “know your customer” stuff (basically they id you first) and are not anon. have hear d that you can mine it anon but not sure if apps track hw specs and whatnot that could be used to id you. is there another ways that dont require you to have sepcial sms accounts or burner phones pr whaetver first? or maybe you guys can recommend me some foss mining apps which are safe that i could check out?

i’m on linux ifg it matters for good mining aps. i can write some bash scripts but im not a super hacker or anthing so ones that dont require a degree are appreciated.

edit: i don’t specifically care about bitcoin. i just don’t know jack about crypto and assumed that was what the usenet service providers would accept. if there’s something else they’d take that is still anonymous, that’s fine with me as long as you guys can help my dumb noob ass understand what to do.

  • thisusernameistaken@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    BTC you would “probably” be okay but if you are going full anon i think Monero is the only true anon. im not really into crypto so i dont know how true that is, I just see that mentioned a lot that Monero / XMR is a privacy coin. Cash is king though. Maybe the most annon? frugal usenet and Blocknews actually have a cash payment option on the website at checkout, if you are worried maybe ask them the track record for receiving it. If you are doing VPN to, Mullvad takes cash but you do not need vpn for usenet.

  • shawnshitshow@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    You aren’t going to be able to mine more than a few cents of Bitcoin a month without specialized hardware.

    As mentioned, Monero is best for privacy.

    If you must use Bitcoin specifically, one option is to “wash” whatever you buy by using an exchange that allows anonymous account creation, then converting it to XMR and back before using it. You can also find someone to trade with in person for cash. There at least used to be localbitcoin to help facilitate that, if that’s even still a thing.

  • Brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    i know the bitcoin atm’s and banks do “know your customer” stuff (basically they id you first)

    Depends on your area so make sure to double-check. Many (most?) BTMs only require KYC for larger amounts. e.g. buying $800+ might require KYC, buying less than $800 may only require text message verification. For text messages you can buy a temporary burner phone with cash, or if you’re lucky you can find a SMS service that works with the BTM - just be aware most BTMs don’t work with virtual SMS phone numbers.

    Or your other option is maybe buy bitcoin via cash by mail, some crypto trading websites/platforms offer that.

    Or going non crypto you could technically just purchase a pre-paid credit card with cash, you’d just need to make sure the card would work with whatever services you are subscribing to.

    Cash is still more anonymous than cryptocurrency, I suppose you can ask the services you’re subscribing to if they accept cash by mail (I don’t know of any offhand).

    PS - Not sure if your post is breaking rules here, this Lemmy instance is anti-cryptocurrency and does have a rule forbidding crypto shill topics. But it might be okay if you’re just asking a general question.