How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish, in 15 (Not So Easy) Steps

nooby_mcnoob · Mar 13, 2019

Pekelo said:
A simpler solution would be to live a life in which people didn’t hate you enough to target you
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If you have any sort of opinion on anything, you can be sure someone will hate you and wish you death for it. Haven't you been on Twitter?

johnarb · Mar 13, 2019

Pekelo said:
I just have this burning desire. But seriously, do you really think he paid full taxes on his crypto wins? Sure he did....

I am not sure why he is giving away his secrecy secrets? After all, he can only lose by discussing them and he might have to change some of those or find newer ones. Another question is, there are plenty of crypto millionaires, so why the blackmailers picking on him?

Anyhow, if I were him I would switch countries even if just for a few years. Living abroad in obscurity beats living home in fear...
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I'm sure he paid his fair share in taxes like all wealthy individuals out there - Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon and their friends.

Giving away secrets? He's trying to share and help others, like you do with sharing us with your vast knowledge and research. Speaking of research, you're right about that, why is he the only one?, oh wait...

https://news.trijo.co/news/crypto-r...-front-of-his-four-year-old-daughter/?lang=en

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technol...change-chief-executive-kidnapped-leaves-work/

Why you wanna kick him out of the US? He sounds like a smart guy and an asset to our economy and he's sharing tips on how to minimize risks such as working and meeting remotely, you know, digital nomad lifestyle.

Pekelo · Mar 13, 2019

johnarb said:
I'm sure he paid his fair share in taxes
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I am sure too...

Anyway, your links brought up an interesting feature of cryptos: they are excellent tools for blackmailing. Also since the wallets are kept most likely somewhere home or on the person they are a rather easy target. (at least that is the assumption and no need to wait for the banks to open) And because some of these owners don't pay taxes, the robbers think they are stealing just from another robber.

Anyhow, if my well beloved crypto brings so much danger on me, I would switch to loving puppies, instead of going into 15 steps fake identity process.

Don't tell me there is a puppy snatching maffia out there!

P.S.: When you have a bitcoin exchange/office and has to go into your office every day it is hard to disappear. (like the guy in the link)

It is simply ridiculous to think that the solution is what was laid out in the OP.

Sprout · Mar 13, 2019

johnarb said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/technology/how-to-disappear-surveillance-state.html

Step No. 10: Buy a decoy house to fool the D.M.V.

In October 2017, a SWAT team descended on Jameson Lopp’s house in North Carolina. Someone — it still isn’t clear who — had called the police and falsely claimed that a shooter at the home had killed someone and taken a hostage. After the police left, Mr. Lopp received a call threatening more mayhem if he did not make a large ransom payment in Bitcoin.

To scare off future attackers, Mr. Lopp quickly posted a video on Twitter of himself firing off his AR-15 rifle. He also decided he was going to make it much harder for his enemies — and anyone else — to find him ever again.

Mr. Lopp, a self-described libertarian who works for a Bitcoin security company, had long been obsessed with the value of privacy, and he set out to learn how thoroughly a person can escape the all-seeing eyes of corporate America and the government. But he wanted to do it without giving up internet access and moving to a shack in the woods.

Many celebrities and wealthy people, wary of thieves, paparazzi and other predators, have tried to achieve Mr. Lopp’s vision of complete privacy. Few have succeeded.

2. Set up new bank accounts and payment cards.
Some of the most personal and widely tracked information we generate is through our financial transactions. To make new purchases that weren’t tied to him, Mr. Lopp opened a bank account with one of his new L.L.C.s and created a corporate credit card with an online company that did not require him to list his name on the card.

To ensure he doesn’t tie too much information to the corporation, he makes most purchases, especially when buying something online, with prepaid debit cards that don’t list his name or his L.L.C.

3. Carry cash.
The most anonymous way to buy things, of course, is to simply use cash. Mr. Lopp now carries enough to handle most daily transactions. (He wouldn’t say how much.)

4. Get a new phone number.
Our phone records allow the phone companies — and anyone who subpoenas or hacks them — to know everyone whom we’ve spoken with. Mr. Lopp stopped using his old phone number, which was linked to his real name, and set up a new one under his corporate identity.

He also started using a service to generate new, throwaway phone numbers that masked his master account. For his conversation with me, Mr. Lopp used a number that started with the 917 area code. “I created this number a few minutes ago and I will probably delete it shortly thereafter,” he said. “And it will only cost me a few dollars to do that.”

5. Stop using the phone for directions.
To make sure his phone wasn’t keeping a record of everywhere he’d been — and potentially transmitting it to apps he was using — he turned off all its geolocation services. When he drives and needs directions, he uses a dedicated GPS device that isn’t otherwise tied to him.

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CreditChris Koehler

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CreditChris Koehler
6. Move.
Mr. Lopp’s old house was inextricably tied to him, so he and his dog needed a new one. (He doesn’t have any children, and he declined to comment on whether he has a significant other living with him.) When he found a property to buy, he used the L.L.C. and a cashier’s check from the L.L.C.’s bank account to pay for the house in full. A mortgage was not going to be possible.

7. Make up a fake name for casual interactions.
Mr. Lopp didn’t want his new neighbors to blow his cover. When he introduced himself, he used a pseudonym. At first, he felt odd about giving people a fake name. Now, Mr. Lopp says, he feels weirder telling people his real name.

8. Create a V.P.N. for home internet use.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Lopp had worked for an online marketing company that could tie internet addresses to specific customers using databases purchased from other companies.

In order to shield his internet address and his location, he turned his home internet router into a virtual private network, or V.P.N., that made all his internet traffic appear to come from different internet addresses in different places.

9. Buy a boring car.
Mr. Lopp’s motorcycle and Lotus Elise sports car were registered to him through the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. They had to go. When he purchased a new car, he picked a much less flashy model, and he used the L.L.C. to sign the papers. (He also had to get rid of vanity license plates that said BITCOIN.)

10. Buy a decoy house to fool the D.M.V.
To register his car, the D.M.V. insisted on a real name — not an L.L.C. — and a street address. To satisfy the D.M.V. without giving away the address of his new home, he purchased a tiny second property just for this purpose. “It’s the crappiest, cheapest hole in the wall I could find that has a physical mailbox,” he said.

11. Set up a private mailbox and remailing service.
Mr. Lopp certainly didn’t want his new home on anyone’s mailing list, even if it was only under his L.L.C.’s name. For those times when he needed to receive mail or a delivery, he created a private mailbox at a shipping center not far from his new home.

Even that felt a bit too revealing, so now he has his mail and packages shipped through a remailing service, where the shipper gets the address of a private company that receives the mail in a different state and then reroutes it to his private mailbox.

CreditChris Koehler

Image

CreditChris Koehler
12. Master the art of disguise.
There are surveillance cameras everywhere, many of them with facial-recognition software. Mr. Lopp didn’t want to get plastic surgery to completely change his appearance, so when he ventures out he wears sunglasses and a hat. He used to have a big, easily noticed beard. “It’s a more manageable length now so that I can blend into a crowd more,” he said.

13. Work remotely.
Attending a meeting in person would give his clients information about his travels and location. Mr. Lopp now insists on working remotely, doing any meetings by video conference in rooms where people won’t be able to identify where he is or what may be outside.

14. Encrypt devices when traveling remotely.
When he traveled to Tokyo recently, he had no choice but to present his passport at the border. But Mr. Lopp does take precautions: He shuts down his digital devices and encrypts all of his data. That way, if a customs official turns a device back on, his information is still protected.

15. Hire private investigators to check your work.
To make sure he didn’t make any mistakes, Mr. Lopp paid private investigators to try to find him. It was an investigator who helped him figure out that his D.M.V. registration was making him vulnerable, which led him to getting a decoy address.

Mr. Lopp estimates that his efforts to disappear have cost him about $30,000. He doesn’t expect too many people to follow his example, but he views the experiment as doing his part in a broader effort to lay out what it takes to reclaim privacy in the modern world. “I wanted to push the envelope,” he said, “and see what could be done.”

Correction: March 12, 2019
A previous version of this article misidentified Mr. Lopp's sports car. It was a Lotus Elise, not Elite. The article also misidentified a weapon fired by Mr. Lopp. It was an AR-15 rifle, not a Kel-Tec shotgun.

Nathaniel Popper covers finance and technology. He is the author of “Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money.” He previously worked at The Los Angeles Times and The Forward.
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Thanks for sharing this post.

I’m interested in knowing more about number 14 - how to encrypt one’s data. Curious if any use iOS apps that would do this for general phone data (contacts, apps, call and text history, etc.) and also how a good memthod for managing passwords of all types - websites, financial institutions, crypto wallets and such. If anyone has any good recommends.

The part about having a PI investigate him was smart.

johnarb · Mar 13, 2019

Pekelo said:
I am sure too...

Anyway, your links brought up an interesting feature of cryptos: they are excellent tools for blackmailing. Also since the wallets are kept most likely somewhere home or on the person they are a rather easy target. (at least that is the assumption and no need to wait for the banks to open) And because some of these owners don't pay taxes, the robbers think they are stealing just from another robber.

Anyhow, if my well beloved crypto brings so much danger on me, I would switch to loving puppies, instead of going into 15 steps fake identity process.

Don't tell me there is a puppy snatching maffia out there!

P.S.: When you have a bitcoin exchange/office and has to go into your office every day it is hard to disappear. (like the guy in the link)

It is simply ridiculous to think that the solution is what was laid out in the OP.
More...

You know it's not just crypto enthusiasts that need to worry about being robbed/kidnapped, right?

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/01/09/norway-kidnappers-monero-ransom/

https://www.ccn.com/kidnapped-south-african-tycoon-released-for-50-bitcoins-ransom-report

PS: Pekelo, have you ever walked into a bitcoin exchange office before? You need to do more research, my friend. Everything is in the cloud nowadays... The guy in the link, can you tell me where his office is? lol, The article went over your head, me thinks...

johnarb · Mar 13, 2019

Sprout said:
Thanks for sharing this post.

I’m interested in knowing more about number 14 - how to encrypt one’s data. Curious if any use iOS apps that would do this for general phone data (contacts, apps, call and text history, etc.) and also how a good memthod for managing passwords of all types - websites, financial institutions, crypto wallets and such. If anyone has any good recommends.

The part about having a PI investigate him was smart.
More...

No problem.

I don't have any IOS or Apple (or Windows that I actually use for my stuff) devices, so can't advice on those...

We don't have as much right as we have at the borders so you'll have to assume that you'll be asked to provide access to your electronic devices. You can google what happens to travelers (even if US Citizens) that are on the "US list" and they get their laptops, cell phones, tablets, confiscated at the airports.

I'm not on the list, but on our last trip overseas trip, I work on the assumption that I am.

When entering the airport on departure or arrival:

Traveled with 2 Android phones. The "airport" phone has a throwaway google account and the SIM is installed there. If they confiscate it at the airport, no worries, the main phone is in the luggage, but it's factory reset. I have TWRP backup of the full phone image which takes about 5-10 minutes to restore at the destination. Google custom recovery TWRP.

The laptop has the SSD running Windows from factory. If they confiscate it, it sucks, but no worries. The real SSD is in the checked luggage as well and it has Full-Disk Encryption dm-crypt, safe from evil-maid attack or even if it's found and confiscated. (I have full backups at different locations and have changed laptops so those backups are verified and tested).

I only use Linux OS.

Pekelo · Mar 13, 2019

johnarb said:
1.You know it's not just crypto enthusiasts that need to worry about being robbed/kidnapped, right?

2.The guy in the link, can you tell me where his office is?
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1. So everybody with money should shit their paints and do a 15 steps secrecy process? Got it.

2. I can't, but the kidnappers apparently could.

Look, this is my last one because the original idea is just silly... Hire bodyguards instead of fake mail boxes if you are rich, like other rich people do.

johnarb · Mar 13, 2019

Pekelo said:
1. So everybody with money should shit their paints and do a 15 steps secrecy process? Got it.

2. I can't, but the kidnappers apparently could.

Look, this is my last one because the original idea is just silly... Hire bodyguards instead of fake mail boxes if you are rich, like other rich people do.
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1. No one is telling anyone what to do. It's one guy presenting his OpSec ideas. Take what you want out of it, or none of it.

2. You're being disingenuous here. You know full well that was before all this setup he made and to prevent such attacks in the future.

I'm sure the wife of one of the richest guys in Norway had bodyguards. Same as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, but still they got robbed and kidnapped. Everyone has to be careful and there are ideas to not make yourself an easy target.

This is just a NY Times article on one guy's safety ideas which no one has to follow, and certainly not all of the steps. You don't like them, it's fine.

Seaweed · Mar 13, 2019

johnarb said:
1. No one is telling anyone what to do. It's one guy presenting his OpSec ideas. Take what you want out of it, or none of it.

2. You're being disingenuous here. You know full well that was before all this setup he made and to prevent such attacks in the future.

I'm sure the wife of one of the richest guys in Norway had bodyguards. Same as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, but still they got robbed and kidnapped. Everyone has to be careful and there are ideas to not make yourself an easy target.

This is just a NY Times article on one guy's safety ideas which no one has to follow, and certainly not all of the steps. You don't like them, it's fine.
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The critical thing here is famous people need to be kept in the spotlight in order to keep making money and staying relevant. Kim lasted for how long not posting on social media after her kidnapping???

A guy with bitcoin riches is much better off hiding in my opinion that hiring bodyguards.

CSEtrader · Mar 16, 2019

nooby_mcnoob said:
If you have any sort of opinion on anything, you can be sure someone will hate you and wish you death for it. Haven't you been on Twitter?
More...

“You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do no bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.”
― Victor Hugo