Quote from: Vladimir on July 08, 2012, 03:05 pmQuote from: vlad1m1r on July 08, 2012, 10:49 amHello again Vlad,A few reasons why using MtGox (or indeed any exchange to obtain Bitcoins) is a bad idea:- You can't access MtGox via Tor without risking them asking you for ID documents. This means you can't buy Bitcoins safely as you have to resort to more unsafe methods such as using VPN's.- Even if you can access an exchange safely if you use a traceable method such as bank transfer, Dwolla etc. the original purchase of Bitcoins can be traced to you, thereby undermining their anonymity. At the risk of sounding like a plug, this is the reason I sell BTC for cash in the mail only!- MtGox have said publicly they'll cooperate with enquiries from law enforcement - they also have one at least one occasion frozen a user's Bitcoin assets because some of their coins were allegedly stolen. This was probably true in the sense that the five dollar bill in your wallet may have been stolen from a cash register at some point, it doesn't make you a thief.The golden rule which I repeat ad nauseum is that the ONLY ways to obtain Bitcoins safely are buying them with cash, selling them for goods/services e.g MoneyPaks or mining them.Hope this helps,V.wow, thanks for the extensive response! but how traceable are the coins? it must be a real pain in the ass to trace them, so "they" wouldn't do it to a small-time buyer like me, or am I wrong?It's a common argument but I'm not convinced it would be very difficult - certainly it wouldn't be much more difficult to trace 5,000 dollars instead of 500 - the best way to illustrate this is to go to www.blockchain.info and enter your current wallet address in the search bar the top right. You'll see all Bitcoins sent to and from that address. Most importantly you can also see the addresses from which/to which they are sent. You can then copy and paste these addresses to trace the passage of the coins throughout the block chain. If at any stage your identity can be linked to a wallet address e.g because a court has ordered an exchange to turn its records over to the Police, then it will be possible to track the passage of your Bitcoins.Of course if you use a traceable method to buy Bitcoins in the first place e.g wire transfer, this won't even be necessary as it will be obvious to any fool with access to your bank records that you sent money to an exchange. There are of course perfectly legal reasons to do this but if you're standing in court because you've received a package full of drugs at your home address and are trying to deny all knowledge of it, it's not going to help your case if it can be proven you've bought some of the No. 1 currency for trafficking in illegal goods. Of course this is a worst case scenario but the point remains that the risk is real and not theoretical and it also wouldn't make much of a difference how many Bitcoins you've bought (although admittedly very large amounts are more easy to trace through the block chain).You can reduce the chance of the kind of block chain analysis I've talked about taking place by using a coin mixer but on the basis of prevention being better than cure, it's better to use cash or sell goods like Moneypaks to obtain your Bitcoins rather than go via an exchange. It may cost more but it's a very small price to pay for obtaining the Bitcoins safely.V.