I feel like this is a hack that is rarely talked about. And it's the most reliable method I've found for getting an email account that I can use for signing up to other websites.
Imagine you want to create a completely anonymous account on some website. Most websites require an email account to sign up. if you're lucky you can use one of those a temporary email services, but many websites block those nowadays. They only accept trusted email providers like Gmail, Protonmail, etc. And trying to make an anonymous account on those providers is difficult. Even Protonmail, surprisingly. If you try to sign up for Protonmail using a VPN or Tor, they will ask for a phone number or a second email account. So now you have to get a phone number anonymously (very difficult), or get another email account anonymously, back to square one.
Darknet markets solve this problem. Pay a bit of Monero, and you get an account. Completely anonymous. Now I won't pretend it's easy. Even just signing up for a darknet market often requires learning how to PGP encrypt/decrypt messages. But it only takes an 30 min or so to figure it out and sign up, and it opens up a new world of tools to use for privacy. There are many other types of accounts that you can buy aside from Protonmail, and many other products in general that you can buy.
I don't get why Protonmail doesn't just accept anonymous crypto as an option during signup, but until they do this is honestly the most reliable option I've found. I really wish more websites just accepted crypto for account creation. It's understandable that in order to prevent spam accounts, account creation has to cost something, and crypto allows it to cost something without costing your privacy.
Anyways, here's a quick guide to get started. I'll avoid direct links since I don't know if those are allowed.
- install Tor Browser Bundle, and use it for the following steps
- search for websites like Daunt, Dread forums, and Tor Taxi. Darknet markets change all the time so use those websites to figure out which ones are currently active. Cross-check links across multiple websites to make sure they are trustworthy, since often scam websites will try to pose as legitimate ones
- look for markets that let you search for the product you're interested in before signing up, to save you time
- some markets require you to load funds into the market and then pay using those funds. Avoid loading more than you need, since some markets have "rugpulled" before (aka taken everybody's funds and disappeared. This is the risk of an anonymous market).
Edit: also if for some reason a seller doesn't accept Monero, you can use a crypto swap. Basically you send the swap service some Monero, tell them what crypto to convert it to (like Bitcoin or Ethereum), and where to send it to. Many can be used anonymously, without signup
A much easier and safer way to generate an anonymous email if you live in the EU is to use Posteo.
After you create an account, you get an account code. You can pay by mail with account info on a piece of paper. €1/month. Mail off some Euro, no returned address required.
Very cool I did not know this. Do they ever plan to support Monero? Physical payment methods are still unideal because security cameras can track you.
Track you where? Post it at a post office or drop point with gloves a cap if you want to feel like a badass, dont put a return address on it. How would anyone know by the time it gets to the legitimate company selling a very normal product where it came from to even check cameras?
There's too many unknowns for me to feel comfortable with it. Paper bills have identifiers so you have to make sure you got them anonymously, or launder them anonymously. Use gloves for everything. Mask your face without looking too suspicious. Hope that the post system doesn't secretly scan letter contents. Hope that the government isn't already tracking the movements of all citizens using cameras. Etc
Often the camera footage is enough. I've seen enough cases where police track down criminals via security camera footage, to know how effective it can be.
If you actually needed that level of privacy you wouldn't be posting on a public forum about it.
I don't, somebody else might
Posteo accepts other currencies as well, though obviously mailing cash internationally takes longer.