Should You Use a VPN to Buy Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies?

How far can a VPN protection be stretched

When it comes to cryptocurrency VPNs are certainly helpful, but they can only be stretched so far. Coinbase is perhaps the most used Bitcoin exchange site and before making any transaction you first need to create an account on it to be able to manage your online wallet. The problem here arises when trying to actually buy Bitcoins, because at this point you’ll need more than just an email address – which is replaceable and so not such a major security issue. You’ll also need to attach your credit card information, and that will be obviously linked to many personal details.

VPNs can’t protect you in this instance, since it will need to be genuine information for the payment to work, and will link the account to details of your address, credit history and more. So even if you use a VPN to virtually place yourself in other countries when creating an account, they cannot mask the real information being used in these accounts.

Still, VPNs do help in many other situations when dealing with cryptocurrency, primarily in their ability to increase the overall level of privacy and anonymity. For instance, paying for a service using cryptocurrency does make you invisible to the vendor, but since transactions are made online other entities could be able to see your purchases and trace your IP address right back to you. Your ISP will also see your transaction and so will the government.

Likewise, if you happen to make such a transaction using public Wi-Fi, everyone connected to it will also be able to find out your details, which can be a gold mine for hackers. Because VPNs encrypt your connection they become lifesavers in these cases, making them something that you should always make use of even when accessing your Coinbase account. In this case, it is advisable to opt for a VPN with at least one server in your country and that has strong security measures, such as a good encryption level and various protocols.

However, depending on the situation, VPNs can also become quite superfluous, too. When ordering any product that needs physical delivery, for instance, even if you pay using cryptocurrency you will still need to provide an address for it to be delivered to. Let’s be honest here, you won’t receive an order for anything if it’s sent to an unknown address, so the vendor will be able to logically link the place of delivery to the specific Bitcoin account that had issued the payment.

Other ways to anonymously buy cryptocurrency