How to pay for hosting with Bitcoin fully anonymously

Whenever you make day-to-day transactions, you reveal your identity, especially when you spend money using traditional payment methods such as a debit or credit card. Any time you transmit funds electronically, your bank not only knows how much you have sent or received but also where the payments came from or where they are going. One way to maintain your privacy during transactions is to make use of anonymous bitcoin.

Bitcoin transparency

The anonymity Bitcoin offers make it stand out over other transactional methods. Instead of revealing your identity when you send or receive funds, you make transactions without any third parties. Your funds are associated with an anonymous Bitcoin address to which your data is not attached.

The most important thing to remember when trying to remain anonymous is not to reveal your identity while purchasing Bitcoin. This is because every transaction that occurs in the blockchain is viewable by everyone, so your transactions are traceable to your original address. If you provide an ID or confirm your address, you won’t be using Bitcoin anonymously. Despite being a bit more difficult these days to avoid identity confirmation, it can be circumvented in several ways!

How to buy Bitcoin anonymously?

1. Buying from individuals

There are many ways to buy bitcoin without ID verification and anonymously. A direct way is to buy directly from individuals interested in selling bitcoin. Below are some of the best online platforms that bring buyers and sellers of anonymous bitcoin together.

LocalBitcoins 

Unlike centralized exchange platforms, LocalBitcoins brings buyers and sellers together to trade directly. As a result, you can buy Bitcoin anonymously. There is a support of more than twenty payment methods on this platform, including PayPal and money transfers.

When you first sign up, you do not have to provide the platform with any identity documents. However, some sellers only sell to a user who has confirmed their identity with LocalBitcoins. In this case, if you’re unwilling to prove your identity, you will simply have to look for a seller who will let you buy Bitcoin without verification. 

Another advantage of buying on LocalBitcoins is that there’re no fees for the buyer when buying itself. However, the seller is at liberty to set the price at which they want to sell their Bitcoin. You will have to make sure you don’t end up paying higher than the current market price.

Paxful

Paxful is one of the best services you can find for bitcoin trading. Since LocalBitcoin removed its local cash ads, it has stepped up as a reliable service. Paxful has been in operation since 2015, and today offers services in most countries and regions across continents. It is a well-known site of choice for over-the-counter bitcoin trading. 

It’s not just the service, but the ease of access, that makes Paxful a great choice. Start buying BTC on Paxful in three simple steps:

1. Open the site and sign up
2. Select the “Buy Bitcoin” option from the menu bar on the top left corner
3. Enter your location and the requested amount, and then select “cash” as your payment method.

Once you’ve completed these steps, a list of sellers will be displayed on the screen. If no sellers are showing, you will simply have to wait for one to appear. You might want to consider other methods if you’re looking to buy immediately. The seller’s list shows the feedback score for each seller, ranked by previous buyers. This can help you determine the reliability of the person you are buying from. You can also see their exchange rate, and decide which seller can provide within your budget. You can get in touch with the sellers and arrange further details of your trade via direct messaging.

2. Bitcoin ATM

Nowadays you can find Bitcoin ATMs commonly quite easily. How this works is, Instead of entering a card to withdraw cash, you enter cash, provide the ATM with your wallet address, and get Bitcoin. If you don’t have a Bitcoin wallet address yet, a Bitcoin ATM can also create one for you.

Bitcoin ATM Map is a helpful guide that displays the location of all ATMs near your location. However, not all Bitcoin ATMs let you buy coins anonymously, as some require identification before using them. You can use the Bitcoin ATM Map to narrow down the search area to only show you machines that let you buy currency anonymously.

You should remember that because of laws that restrict money laundering, there’s an upper limit to the amount of currency you can buy without an ID.

One of the drawbacks of Bitcoin ATMs is their high commission policy. The charge is often up to 8%-20% above the market price to complete the transaction. Include this cost in your overall budget before you make a decision.

Bitcoin anonymous storage

If you use an ATM to buy bitcoin, it can provide you with an anonymous address for your Bitcoin wallet.

However, if you use services like LocalBitcoins or Paxful, you will need to send your Bitcoins to an anonymous wallet. This part is simple.

Bitcoin wallets are the first step in anonymous Bitcoin transactions. When you store Bitcoin in your wallet, you will never be asked for any private information. Transferring funds to your anonymous Bitcoin wallet without providing any identities becomes quite easy.

Bitcoin works in a decentralized network, so you fully control your funds. This security induces certain limitations, however. If you ever lose your private key, you will have lost access to all your funds.

1. Samourai Wallet

Samourai Wallet  proudly advertises itself as “the most private and anonymous bitcoin wallet.” Samourai stores your private keys for all your bitcoin transactions.

This brand new wallet keeps your bitcoin transactions private and your identity secret. Samourai works with a team of experts who can ensure your funds are secure at all times. This wallet uses AES-256 encryption. This encryption offers the largest bit size, making it virtually unbreakable and, therefore, the strongest encryption standard out there. Also, it has no communication with any servers. It offers a full offline mode to create secure cold storage systems.

You also get other amazing features with Samourai. These include scrambled PIN, which works against screen recording spyware, remote SMS commands, and stealth mode which removes Samourai from the launcher and home screen on your device, instead of accessing it via a special code. You can also use seed word backup for fund storage.

When making transactions, Samourai Wallet produces a new bitcoin address. With Samourai, you can integrate your connection with Tor and a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide your actual IP address. BIP47 makes it possible to receive anonymous bitcoin without sharing your bitcoin address with the sender. In case there is a dust attack on your Bitcoin address, you get the immediate notification by Samourai. You may not use satoshi from the dust attack in your transactions to prevent the adversary from linking all your wallets.

The Ricochet feature is also available, which adds a few more transactions when you send bitcoins, thereby confusing your tracks. This feature is useful if your address is blacklisted with cryptocurrency exchanges. Samourai wallet can choose which Bitcoin node you should use. Samourai wallet also has CoinJoin implementation called Whirlpool and which can help you with bitcoin laundering.

2. Wasabi Wallet

Another useful wallet to keep you private is Wasabi Wallet. It is an open-source wallet that is also compatible with your PC. Although it doesn’t provide some of the functions found in Samourai Wallet, it is still capable of integrating with Tor, as well as laundering bitcoin, and offers CoinJoin service.  

Since this wallet is distributed for PCs, particularly for Linux systems, its code is open and you can integrate it with Tor and with the I2P network. While its functionality may be smaller, you can manually produce functions that are automatically provided in the Samourai wallet. When it comes to using Bitcoin anonymously, Wasabi is a good choice.

3. Ledger Nano X

The Ledger Nano X followed the Ledger Nano S is the latest in line of hardware wallets. Its release was in 2019 and features several hardware and software upgrades that make it a worthy investment. Ledger has been known to be a pioneer in the field of hardware wallets. It is today one of the most popular tools for the security of cryptocurrencies. 

Essentially, the Ledger Nano X is a paid hardware cryptocurrency wallet that comes with a Bluetooth feature with end-to-end encryption. The mobile app is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. Your private keys are secured with the CC EAL 5+ certification, which also secures the chips. Each device comes with a secure PIN code.

Also, you can use the wallet safely with an infected device. The Ledger Nano X can be handy as an anonymous bitcoin wallet as well if you conceal your ISP with a VPN. Easily set up he wallet and use it by connecting to your computer or smartphone. The wallet isn’t limited to bitcoin, as it can store over 1250 cryptocurrencies.

How to use Bitcoin anonymously

When looking for online security, you might find yourself in a trade-off between effectiveness and convenience. Which side of the scale you end up on depends entirely on your priorities.

Below you will find methods that might not score high on the convenience scale but have higher guaranteed effectiveness. These methods all look to make your online activity less traceable.

1. Improve Bitcoin Privacy

A good practice to maintain when dealing with bitcoin transactions is to avoid reusing addresses. Whenever possible, create a new address for each of your transactions. Be extra careful in making sure you never disclose your address. 

There isn’t much point in updating a static IP address that is directly connected with your identity, such as a tip address associated with your social media account. However, this is a highly recommended practice for most other situations. Another good idea is to use HD wallets (almost all wallets are hierarchical deterministic (HD) ). These wallets auto-generate addresses so you don’t have to do it for each transaction, and allow almost an unlimited number of addresses to be connected to one private key. You could also use several different wallets for different purposes, which would isolate your transactions with no possible way of associating them together. 

CoinJoin/Mixers & other methods to avoid transaction tracking

A cryptocurrency mixer is an effective tool for improving the anonymity of your cryptocurrency. The basics on which they work is quite simple. You send your Bitcoin to the mixer’s address, where it gets jumbled with another individual’s transaction or thousands of other wallets. Once the process is complete, clean bitcoins are sent back.

One of the best mixing techniques you will find is CoinJoin. It combines a plethora of Bitcoin payments coming from several different sources into a single transaction. This makes it impossible to trace any single transaction to any single user. A CoinJoin Wallet, like Wasabi wallet or Samourai, is a worthwhile investment to effectively avoid transaction tracking.

2. Improving Your Online Privacy

Logging on to the internet from the same electronic device you use for Bitcoin is not a recommended habit. You should step up on the privacy and security you have installed. 

PRISM break offers a lot of guidance, based on your device and operating system. You can check out what steps you can take to improve your privacy and security based on the device you use. 

As a minimum precaution, think about investing in ad-blockers and JavaScript blockers. You should also make a regular habit of refusing and cleaning your cookies regularly. We also recommend to use the HTTPS Everywhere to encrypt and secure your online browsing. It offers protection against surveillance, account hijacking and censorship, and is available as a Google Chrome extension. Remember, when selecting encryption software, open-source solutions that are available for modification are usually preferable.

3. Avoid SPV and Hosted Wallets

Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) allows validation of your transactions in a block and confirms other blocks are being added to the chain. The thing with SPV wallets is that they do not locally store the blockchain. Instead, they connect with a single SPV server for all the transactions associated with your addresses. Although this process is far more efficient and faster than locally parsing the blockchain, the problem is that every one of your Bitcoin addresses is submitted to the SPV server.

Also often known as light wallets, SPV wallets leak all the addresses you own to the SPV server they connect to. Some SPV wallets do come with bloom filters, which can hide the addresses you own. This process works by processing other transactions that are not connected to your wallet, thereby “covering your tracks”. Other wallets, like Electrum, don’t use any kinds of bloom filters, so the server they connect to will have your addresses. While you can look for SPV wallets with bloom filters, it is also a good idea to just avoid them completely where possible.

Hosted Wallets

Hosted clients, where third parties manage the wallets, offer even less anonymity. As all your public and private keys are stored on a third-party server, it is easy for an operator to know the addresses you own. This is in addition to any other personal information submitted to the service, which is stored with your Bitcoin addresses and is accessible by service operators.

Naturally, the biggest issue with these types of wallets is that they make it easy for an operator to not only be able to identify which Bitcoin addresses you own but also easily associate them with your IP address. Wallets from hoster companies raise security concerns, as there is the possibility of the operator leaking or losing your information. Offices of government or law enforcement can also serve subpoenas or a national security letter (NSL) to compel a release of your information.

Trusting any single party when it comes to Bitcoin transactions should be avoided. Where anonymity is a primary concern, the best route to take is to make use of a Bitcoin client such as Bitcoin-Qt or Armory and to locally store the blockchain.

4. Disguising Your IP Address with Tor

Tor is one of the most powerful anonymity tools you can use when looking to disguise your IP address. It works by dispelling your connection through many participating computers before it reaches its destination. The ultimate result is that the website you wish to log onto will see this request originating from a completely different device, in a completely different state or even country. 

Masking your IP address and other potential identity markers in your browser is certainly the first step in maintaining anonymity. However, do not be consider Tor as the complete privacy solution. In addition to disguising your IP address, you should take a few extra steps to ensure security.

It should be noted that a known attack in the Tor network has been found. It uses malicious exit nodes that show a fake copy of LocalBitcoins as a phishing technique. While this is a potential risk to using this service, consider all your pros and cons before you make a decision.

5. Consider Joining a Virtual Private Network (VPN)

As stated above, Tor cannot guarantee 100% privacy. A potential risk occurs when someone who owns both the very first and the final device the connection goes through will have access to your IP address and the sites you visit.

If finances are not an issue, and you’re willing to pay a little extra for security, you should consider using a VPN service. Such services work by routing your connection through the VPN’s servers, instead of directly logging on to the internet. You can also configure a Virtual private server (VPS) as a VPN. VPS, such as those offered by the VSYS hosting company, are often cheaper in the long run while providing the security and anonymity you need from a VPN.

A VPN offers a somewhat similar service to Tor, its main function being to hide your IP address. All your data traffic is encrypted through a virtual tunnel, letting you spoof your IP address’s location. This is an especially helpful tool if you want location-specific data not accessible from where you are.

Additionally, VPNs also lend protection against external attacks. They secure your device against malware via secure firewalls and proxies. They are also usually not limited in the sort of content or sites they can access. Not to mention the higher bandwidth they offer VS Tor networks which are limited in this regard. Some sites will block you from gaining access using known Tor routes and/or offer slower bandwidth.

6. The Amnesic Incognito Live System (TAILS)

One last step in securing your privacy is to bring all the above methods together to function in a secure operating system. Your standard operating system is not primarily concerned with protecting your privacy, while systems like Windows are known to monitor users. Given such concerns, it makes sense to use a secure system that gives precedence to privacy before you begin your anonymous Bitcoin transactions.  

In this regard, one of your best available options is TAILS, a modification of the Linux operating system which is built to cover its tracks. One of its major benefits over other similar OS is that it features an interface that is quite similar to Windows or Mac. TAILS can even mimic the Windows look, so you are unlikely to face problems with the interface, and nothing out of the ordinary registers to any casual onlookers.

TAILS offers a host of security, privacy, and encryption features in a single pack that is stored on a portable USB drive. The standard package even comes with KeePassX, which acts as your password manager and the Electrum light Bitcoin wallet. With TAILS plugged in, you can even send Bitcoin anonymously from even a public, unsecured computer without leaving any identity markers.

TAILS comes with its built-in Tor browser, and functions by never saving any data regarding your software, the sites you visit, or any other activity. For storage purposes, TAILS comes with a feature that lets you create an encrypted, secure volume on the USB drive. Data that is stored within this volume is maintained for long-term use between sessions. We recommend you to keep your password-manager file in this volume.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are an excellent way to send and receive money without involving a third-parties. This system lets users remain anonymous and maintain their privacy. With rapid advancements, you can now quite easily buy Bitcoin anonymously.

You should remember there are many more anonymous currencies available, such as Monero. It uses similar technology as BTC, a slightly different implementation of CoinJoin, and is anonymous by default. Monero is a leading choice of cryptocurrency for transactions on the western darknet. Bitcoin is still a great choice for anonymous transactions, as long as you take the necessary steps to make your privacy isn’t compromised. 

Hosting services to pay for with Bitcoin

Congrats! Now you know how to buy, store & use Bitcoin anonymously! However, when it comes to hosting services, you should also find an anonymity-oriented ISP. Hence it’s the turn of Virtual Systems to show you all its potential! What do I mean by saying that? As an offshore hosting company, VSYS highly values your & all other clients’ confidentiality!

Think about it: now you could forget about sharing even the tiniest piece of information about yourself. Simply sign-up & chat with the technicians via an anonymous email. Moreover, you could pay with Bitcoin for the desired hosting service. Today this procedure is fast & cheap as we don’t are require any additional fees for such payments.

Go for the Bitcoin web hosting if you’re just starting your online business journey or you have a small or medium website. It is easy to upgrade & allows you to easily manage the website with the built-in cPanel with Softaculous.

If you’re looking for a more advanced hosting service, VPS with Bitcoin is your perfect choice. Nevertheless, the dedicated hosting sophistication won’t bother you as you get your own virtual server environment with full control over the OS, software extensions & all its settings.

In case you need a whole server without sharing its resources with anyone else, Virtual Systems has a server hosting option for you. Essential for various resource-intensive applications & web projects, Bitcoin dedicated server gives you a lot of flexibility over the hardware & software.

Are you still in doubt?

Buy your Bitcoin shared hosting here: https://vsys.host/bitcoin-web-hosting.

Order your Bitcoin VPS hosting here: https://vsys.host/bitcoin-vps-hosting.