Quote from: moksha on June 30, 2012, 09:51 amHaven't read the last few post so I apologize if I step on any toes, just wanted to make an argument for keeping your bitcoin purchases anonymous. If you're in the U.S. you've probably heard of a lot of people being charged with "conspiracy to possess\distribute" instead of the straight possession etc. charges, it's much easier for them to get a conviction for this and in some cases the penalties are actually more severe for having to prove less. Not definitive either way, but I wouldn't be surprised to see evidence of using tor and buying bitcoins used against you in court to prove (at least) conspiracy charges. And keep in mind that while we're quite privy to how all of this works that most people in the judicial system are not, and will have a difficult time getting their head around it all, and even more so in believing that you're using all this technology that *can* be used to buy drugs on the internet for innocent reasons.Thanks Moksha,I think it's important that we also have an idea what we're up against.Certainly in the UK (and I assume in the US too) Judges are frequently middle aged and not too au fait with technology. A quick Google will show that the main advantage of Bitcoins is to criminals and frankly you can do without the publicity.From a Prosecutor's perspective in the UK, by itself it probably wouldn't be enough to convict someone with conspiracy to supply a drug but I understand US law is much more open to interpretation. I suppose a good analogy might be the kind of plausible denial you can have with encryption. Use of the Bitcoin network can be used to form a case against you that you were trying to hide your financial activities. You could indeed have a number of laudable and legal reasons to do this - my own business selling Bitcoins is perfectly legal for instance but that's not going to be much good to you if :a) Frequent Bitcoin purchases are reported to the authorities by your bank (as far as I know my bank in the UK is not doing this at the moment) and a Judge decides this is sufficient grounds for a Search warrant of your home.b) You receive contraband in the mail and try to claim it was unsolicited. The reverse is also true - only a vendor who's a complete fool would cash out large amounts from an exchange right into their bank account although admittedly the amounts are appreciably larger.I appreciate that the above contains a lot of What If's - I exchange e-mails about this topic often with people who think it would be easier to buy Bitcoins via an exchange than pay my commission on cash they send for BTC - the way I frame is I ask them to imagine that the chance of their purchase being flagged by the bank is 2% - meaning there's a 98% chance it will be lost in the ether, or the Police will notice and not care, or they're not monitoring people's bank accounts in the first place, or they do notice but can't get a warrant to seize your mail etc. etc.Also let's say you buy Bitcoins at the end of each month with your salary and use them to purchase enough drugs for the next four weeks. Every month you're taking this 2% chance - if we do the maths, this will mean that your probability of getting caught escalates to near 100% within four years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability_distribution#Delta-function_representation) - of course the chance is still 2% each time but it's a little like tossing a coin fifty times and expecting it to land heads ten times in a row...V.