1) How do people think that bitcoin is actually anonymous? You would have to buy them with your debit card/credit card in which banks have your information... why would you think that this stuff is actually anonymous and could be used in such a way?
There are other fairly anonymous ways to buy bitcoin like from forum members or other face-to-face deals. After you have bought bitcoin, there are also means to loose the trail of your coins, making it harder for people to track your spending and ownership. Some would tell you that bitcoin is pseudo anonymous, I would say you can make bitcoin as anonymous as you need.
Just be careful buying bitcoins face to face in the US using localbitcoins. The newest fashion over there are undercover agents that are meeting people over localbitcoins and then arresting them and charging them. Freaking unbelievable!
Is that for real? I would imagine that that would only be applicable to people in NY due to the new laws regarding Bitcoin... Right?
Just one of the threads that you can find online..
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=543688Technically if you do it at a certain level you could be considered a money launder. Think of all the laws exchanges like coinbase have to follow like KYC. They know who you are and at least where it's sent from site. They do this to stay legal and not a money launder.
If you met with someone and just did cash for large amount of BTC. In US you could be considered money launder. I can't imagine cops coming unless you are known for doing a lot, or you got really unlucky and your coins were used for something really bad to warrant tracing them. So there is a element of bad luck.
Only way I can think of to get it to more grey area is sell physical coins with BTC on them. Say to customer they are buying coin which happens to come with X btc on it. I'm sure that wont hold up great in court but it's better then nothing.