[vectorpush]

YES YOU DID provide a lot of information to Paypal.

Never any of the items that I listed in my post.

To open the bank account that you need to use Paypal in the first place, you were required to provide lots of personal info and ID, and sign lots of forms.

Right, and people living in the real world still need a bank account if they want to cash out their bitcoin or spend it without a 3rd party provider cashing it out for them. It is not practical to use bitcoin in the real world without a bank account or a centralized provider's bank account by proxy.

[aianus]

It's really easy to buy BTC in cash on LocalBitcoins in any major city and maintain pretty good anonymity. Also cheaper than the conventional alternative for anonymous online payments, Visa gift cards.