HOW TO DISAPPEAR
                                      

Without breaking any laws, Bitcoin evangelist reveals 15 extreme steps for masking your identity but it'll cost you.

In today's all-connected world, it can seem impossible to remain truly anonymous and insulated from being tracked, watched or indexed by the internet or other means.

First of all, you have to change your name.  The  easiest way to do that is go to a cemetery in a city that you don’t intend to live in and choose the name of a baby that died and is buried in that cemetery. When you are asked for a birth certificate, you can claim you’re your mother that  gave birth to you didn’t  didn’t have your birth   recorded. 

Lopp devised an exhaustive, albeit extremely complicated, list of 15 steps to 'escape the all-seeing eyes of corporate America and the government.

To start, he sought to mask his identity by creating a limited liability company, or LLC. (a limited liability company is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a corporation) to shield your identity, use cash as much as possible, quit using a smartphone GPS for directions and even move to a new home or another city. In some states, it's not required for the owner's name of an LLC to be publicly available. This makes it that much harder for people to snoop on and track down the owner of an LLC. He now purchases items with a prepaid debit card, which has money already loaded onto it, limiting the number of transactions linked to his LLC. After his LLC was established, Lopp set up new bank accounts and payment cards, creating a bank account under his new LLC, as well as a corporate credit card with a firm that doesn't require users to list their name. 

        

Many of Lopp's strategies sought to stamp out the kinds of information collection and monitoring overseen by state and federal agencies.

People can be recorded in a database each time they fill out a form for everyday things like buying property, registering a credit card or a driver’s licence other common transactions.

The goal was to completely remove himself from databases that record our personal information.

His concerns aren't unlike the recent attention that's been given to the shadowy underworld of 'data brokers' and online surveillance systems that profit off the sale of users' data - often without their knowledge or consent. 

Many organizations, ranging from telecommunications firms and hotels to the likes of Silicon Valley giants have been criticized for extensively collecting and sharing users' data.  Facebook and Google in particular have been called into question for the massive amounts of data they store from their users.  This would mean that you would have to never uses a computer.

The rise of facial recognition technology and other types of biometric authentication has also stoked fears of a global surveillance state in which anyone's whereabouts can be easily tracked.  Once the authorities have a picture of your face, they can put it in their data bases and even a street video can spot your face and subsequently track you.  That means that you would have to change your face as to make it looks such as grow a beard or remove your beard and change the colour of your hair.  Of course, if you have a scar on your face where a beard won’t cover it, That will be a problem.

Your voice will trip you up because it is almost impossible to disguise your voice.

The Bitcoin evangelist then got a new phone number that's linked to his LLC and often uses services that create random phone numbers that are deleted after each call, akin to having a burner phone.

He has changed his phone habits as well, by refusing to use the device for GPS directions and disabling geolocation services. 

This means his device can't keep a record of his location activity, which also prevents apps on the device from slurping up that data too.  When Lopp needs directions, he uses a GPS device that isn't tied to him

Lopp also uses cash for many purchases, which allows him to remain anonymous. 

He recommends that users encrypt their data when traveling so that if officials seize your device, they're unable to access private information stored on any of your devices.  

Lopp also uses a Virtual Private Network when browsing the web at home to mask his IP address. 

In what is perhaps some of his more drastic measures, Lopp also moved into a new house, which he purchased in full using a cashier's check from his LLC, uses a pseudonym when interacting with his neighbors and wears a disguise when traveling outside to avoid being tracked by CCTV cameras or facial recognition software.

Lopp got rid of his motorcycle and Lotus Elise sports car as part of the effort and, instead, purchased a more 'boring' model under the LLC.

Additionally, he acquired a decoy house to throw off the local Department of Motor Vehicles, as they require residents to register a new car with their real name and an address.  Instead of investing your money to purchase anther home, just rent a mail box.

To further protect your location, only works remotely and give your address as a place where the address is a mail box that is in  stores. Lopp also set up a private mailbox to prevent his name from being added to mailing lists and has packages sent through a remailing service, which sends the package to a random address, then reroutes it back to the private mailbox. 

If you want to work for a living, you will have to prove that you are a citizen of the country you are in in order to get a government card that the company will have to record for tax purposes.  Don’t apply for a passport.

Finally, he recommends that people hire a private investigator periodically to try to find them. If they find him, he will know hoe to correct the deficiencies that trip him up. 

Is it possible that the police authorities advise some of these procedures when they ae hiding witnesses for their safety.

There is one downside to hiding in this way. You cannot contact your friends or family members anymore or commit any crimes where your fingerprints will be taken.