Which payment methods are private?

Payment methods
1

Most electronic fiat payments are more or less traceable, which supported payment methods are private?

2

I am not sure, but perhaps there is none that is private both for seller and buyer. Maybe cash deposit can let buyer stay anonymous in your region.

3

Yes, cash deposit for small amounts should let the buyer stay anonymous.

If I understand the value proposal correctly, Bisq exchange does not aim at eliminating the traceability of electronic fiat payments between individual users, but focuses on other privacy aspects.

4

Bisq improves privacy because there’s no central database of trades, but as long as we use banking accounts we have to share personal information with someone. The other peer, and only when needed, the moderator.

1 Like
5

Yes, Bisq definitively improves privacy.

One leg of the trade ends up in a number of central databases tho. Personal identifiers are shared in various ways depending on the payment processor, and transactional data may be aggregated to indirectly reconstruct the other leg of the trade, in some cases.

Not sure if Bisq is aiming at breaking these links completely, or if focus lies elsewhere. There might be ways of ‘improved link breaking’ with some sort of randomised zero-knowledge triple leg setup but, whats possible is not always desirable.

6

Most of the focus currently is in perfecting decentralization of the network with the DAO, but if there are any good suggestion in the future about increasing privacy, I am sure that devs will seriously consider it.

7

Can you specify more what you mean by that?

8

If we look at an isolated extreme case as an example, where:

A - dirty exchange
B - seller
C - buyer

If C is only buying from B, and B’s account is only used for transacting with A and C, the link between A and C becomes strong.

Introducing a mandatory third party D in each trade, simply spoofing transactions with B, should weaken the link between A and C.

Integrating further measures into the protocol such as making D random and anonymous, adding random tx delays and so on, may ensure a certain level of privacy.

With the ability of integrating these ‘spoofs’ into the protocol, a well thought out system, combined with a large enough user pool, would potentially cover up all tracks but perhaps also turn the platform into a strong magnet for AML arbitrage.