[sterlind]

I'd like to donate with Monero, despite my misgivings about the privacy guarantees of RingCT, because I support the spirit of both projects. but I don't want to raise a red flag to my banking institutions or government. what's the least sketchy-looking way to acquire Monero to donate to projects like this?

[genodethrowaway]

Least sketchy? Haveno[2] is one of the exchanges that the getmonero.org site recommends. However, the platform with the most "institutional support" (if that's what you meant by least sketchy) that allows you to buy XMR is probably Kraken[2], but IIRC they have KYC that takes a few days before you can buy.

[1]: https://haveno.exchange/

[2]: https://www.kraken.com/

[Cider9986]

I have never purchased Monero anonymously, I just buy it straight from fiat on Kraken.

What I do:

Fiat-->Kraken-->Monero-->Self-custody Monero Wallet

If you don't want anyone to know you purchased Monero(which is not necessary for most people because once you have the Monero, it's untraceable and all anyone can know is that you bought Monero, similar to how anyone can know you have cash once you withdraw from the ATM, but it's untraceable) then the easiest way would be to buy a different crypto (that you are okay with bank/govt knowing you bought) and then swapping it to Monero.

Now, I don't know the extent to which you would be passively traced if you bought a traceable crypto like Bitcoin on Kraken, withdrew to CakeWallet and swapped on Trocador. It would depend on if the instant exchange on Trocador shares info with Kraken or they both use the same Chainalysis company.

What you could do to break the link is buy ZCash on a CEX like Kraken, withdraw to CakeWallet, shield it(I think it's automatically shielded, but Ive never used ZCash), and then swap on Trocador for Monero.

The idea here is that ZCash is more friendly to govt so they still know you bought ZCash, but after you bought it, it vanishes from their analysis.

Haveno/Retoswap is great, but I would not encourage it for your first time obtaining Monero because it is not easy for beginners and can be complicated. Also there was an exploit recently. I do think long-term it will be awesome.

> despite my misgivings about the privacy guarantees of RingCT

Yeah well fortunately we are upgrading to FCMP++[1]. Also, a lot of Chainalysis's tracing from this leaked video[2], highly recommend you watch, was based on malicious nodes. They implemented an IP blacklist for malicious nodes, but you can also use Tor for more protection. The best thing for would be to run your own node.

I have a node I host and if you contact me I can give you the URL–it's really fast.

I've given info about buying Monero in the past[3], but not your specific situation. You might find it informative.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc8Kc0WogAI

[2] https://odysee.com/@tuxsudo:6/chainalysis_XMR:69

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47858801

[akimbostrawman]

>The idea here is that ZCash is more friendly to govt so they still know you bought ZCash

Not when it's shielded which is why nobody uses it that way so you might as well just directly buy the superior private currency monero.

>similar to how anyone can know you have cash once you withdraw from the ATM, but it's untraceable

Contrary to popular belief cash is very much not untraceable. Serial number tracking is a thing but probably unlikely to be used against low level targets at scale (yet).

[Cider9986]

> Not when it's shielded which is why nobody uses it that way so you might as well just directly buy the superior private currency monero.

The person I replied to asked how to buy it without "raise a red flag to my banking institutions or government". I don't think buying Monero would raise a red flag and I would absolutely recommend buying it directly. Unfortunately, it's delisted in many countries so the only option is to buy a different crypto and swap it. For most people Litecoin is fine for that, but if you wanted to prevent anyone from knowing you bought XMR, than I think ZCash is a good choice.

If you swap from a transparent coin to Monero and the exchange that you swapped on shares data, than they could know that you bought Monero. If you use shielded ZCash, I assume that link is broken and all they know is that you shieled your ZCash.

Really, I don't think they have much of a problem with buying XMR as much as depositing and exchanging back to fiat.

>Contrary to popular belief cash is very much not untraceable. Serial number tracking is a thing but probably unlikely to be used against low level targets at scale (yet).

Likely similar with Monero right now. Highly resistant to mass surveillance, but must be used with good OPSEC to remain anonymous against targeted attacks.

As we saw from the leaked Chainalysis video, targeted attacks on Monero users have been done, although it's likely due to the malicious nodes. FCMP++ will greatly mitigate the attack and Monero will gain back footing equal to shielded ZCash for sender privacy.