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If you don't care about anonymity but seller does you should be able to open the coin base account and ask the seller for his private key and send him bitcoin or usdt and nobody on his end would know where it came from. It could be traced back through coinbase to you but who cares not a problem. Should be good enough for his purposes.
Bitcoin is probably easiest in terms of a transfer.
NEW TO CRYPTO --- I'm opening a Coinbase account so that i can purchase an end product that the vendor (overseas) is selling. He wants his money in Crypto (not sure why since the product is 100% legal).
ANYWAY, Going through the application on Coinbase, i have to transfer funds into my account via WIRE or ACH from my bank. In this case i have to reveal to Coinbase where the money is going and showing the account it came from...
SINCE all parties have my information, 'How is this transaction anonymous?
Thoughts /Comments ?
Speaking as a cryptocurrency investor of 10 years with post history to validate this.
If you pay with cryptocurrency you cannot reverse the transaction. The vendor has no reason to accept cryptocurrency over a legitimate, Federally regulated, method of cash transfer.
The vendor may not have a car for sale at all.
The vendor may be trying to avoid tax liability, as filing and paying taxes on cryptocurrency is relatively new. I should know, I had back taxes this year and gladly paid.
Keep in mind when you sell or purchase cryptocurrency on COINBASE specifically, they ALWAYS generate tax summaries for every transaction. Depending on what you do on Coinbase- it may or may not be reported to the IRS. COINBASE REPORTS TO THE IRS DIRECTLY.
YOU, AND YOU ALONE, WILL BE LIABLE FOR ALL TAXES. This can be from 17-35%, I am not exaggerating.
If you are new to cryptocurrency and confused by Coinbase, the simplest platform and I say this kindly, you are more likely to be tricked or scammed. Don't do it.
What is the VIN and registration of this vehicle? Who holds the title? How exactly is it getting to your location? What is the assigned cargo number for the shipment locker? What boat will it be on? If you can pay in full by Coinbase, you can afford a roundtrip flight to the dealership itself to view the vehicle. Then buy while you are there.
1. Anonymity- applies to the buyer's and seller's personal identities. The transaction itself is not anonymous. It is publicly and transparently posted on the blockchain for all to see. A transaction between Sender/Receiver displays their wallet addresses, a date and time stamp, and the amount of the transaction (in terms of BTC). It does not reveal any other info, such as the wallet-owner's identity, platform, etc. So anyone in the world can see that a $150 worth of BTC transaction occurred on (insert date, time, amount of BTC) between two random wallets. The wallet addresses themselves are considered impossible to decipher (for now) requiring quantum computing technology that does not presently exist.
2. Coinbase- like other crypto platforms, it is a custodial exchange. You signup for an account, transfer funds into the account, and receive a wallet to store your funds (in dollars). It is similar to signing up for a Fidelity or Vanguard account. The institution is responsible for holding your funds in their custodial wallets on your behalf. The main difference is that Coinbase is not FDIC insured like traditional brokerages. If you get hacked or Coinbase goes belly-up, you have no protection by the Federal government.
3. Transactions- Once your account is funded, you can execute a buy order transaction to buy BTC. You receive that amount of BTC which is stored in a BTC wallet assigned to you (supplied by Coinbase). Next, you can send or receive BTC. In the OP's scenario, they want to send BTC to another party. They would first need to obtain the other party's (recipient) wallet address, then use that address to send to.
4. Privacy- Coinbase is a custodial account platform. Your personal account info is private in the same way that a Fidelity or Vanguard online account are private. Technically, someone (such as the IRS, a lawyer with subpoena power, or a judge) could obtain this information, but it is not considered public information for the world to see. Even so, they could obtain your account details and transaction history, but would not know the recipient's identity or the purpose of the transaction.
5. Hot / Cold Storage- Given the small amount of money your are dealing with, it makes zero sense to worry about this. With that said, a Coinbase wallet is considered hot storage. Hot storage wallets are considered less secure than Cold Storage wallets. Cold storage wallets are where you store your BTC funds offline on a device that makes it almost impossible for any hacker to gain access to your BTC since it is physical storage. It involves you transferring BTC out of Coinbase and into your own device through another company/vendor.
6. Tax Consequences- it is important to note that all crypto transactions are considered taxable events. BTC is considered an asset, not a currency, in the eyes of the IRS. The IRS requires you to report this on your taxes even if you make one singular transaction the entire year. BTC prices are highly volatile, and by holding BTC for even seconds you could record a capital gain or loss. The IRS requires you to check a box on your taxes stating that you bought/sold crypto during the taxable year. If you lie, they will find out and you can get in trouble. Coinbase keeps track of taxable information on your account, so it would not be wise to lie or mislead on your taxes.
The hard part is trying to track back to the original source. Crypto makes it very easy to setup multiple levels of anonymity that cannot be easily traced but some companies have figured out ways to do it. https://cipherblade.com/blockchain-forensics/
Even once you find the wallet you're looking for, you need to confirm the "true" owners identity which is also very difficult but again it can be done.
All transactions with crypto are visible but your personal info is not. One can see what you hold though.
for example, scroll down and you'll see the transactions. Click on the address of the buy or sell and you'll see more. Anyone heard of SOBA?
This is incorrect. Unless your crypto account is exposed, nobody can see what you hold. They can only see the transaction amount and info as noted in your first sentence. For example, if I do a BTC transaction, nobody can see that I hold ETH or Solana.
The hard part is trying to track back to the original source. Crypto makes it very easy to setup multiple levels of anonymity that cannot be easily traced but some companies have figured out ways to do it. https://cipherblade.com/blockchain-forensics/
Even once you find the wallet you're looking for, you need to confirm the "true" owners identity which is also very difficult but again it can be done.
Law enforcement traces it back to the exchange company where the wallet is held that originated the transaction. Then they subpoena that company for your personal records. As you said, there are ways criminals can evade this. Keeping the tokens offline or off popular exchanges helps. U.S. law enforcement tools may be limited or non-existent outside of the U.S. in 3rd world countries. There are many other ways but you get the point.
I would be concerned about paying in crypto in case you are dissatisfied with the product or never receive it. I don’t think you have any way to get a refund.
Here's the problem not just crypto with all kinds of payment and especially cash. How do you get a refund if you buy something from someone with cash?
The same way you would approach the person and ask them about being being dissatisfied.
Here's how being dissatisfied can lead to scams, where someone buys something from you and takes the item and give you the payment but then complains about being dissatisfied and ask the payment service for a refund but they already used the item. Having crypto doesn't change anything, it is just like cash.
We cannot have a payment system like Paypal that allows someone to scam people who argues the item received wasn't delivered or lied about not delivery. This is not a crypto problem.
The hard part is trying to track back to the original source. Crypto makes it very easy to setup multiple levels of anonymity that cannot be easily traced but some companies have figured out ways to do it. https://cipherblade.com/blockchain-forensics/
Even once you find the wallet you're looking for, you need to confirm the "true" owners identity which is also very difficult but again it can be done.
The only thing anonymous is when someone generates their own wallet and use that to conduct business without ever converting it to fiat currency.
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