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Anonymous Payments Track

Anonymous payments is one of anoni.net's three tracks for 2026, alongside the personal privacy guide and Tor relays on campus. This page is the track's public entry point, covering research goals, progress, the article index, external reports awaiting translation, and how to join.

Why payments is a track of its own

One part gets left out of years of advocacy for anonymity tools: the privacy of money. The time, amount, and recipient of a transfer, combined with a card number or an account name, reconstructs a person's social network, movements, and commitments almost completely. The risk matches anonymity online in importance, while the tools and institutions lag well behind.

Cash is the most mature form of anonymous payment, with clear limits when money crosses borders, moves online, or reaches an organization as a donation. What the community is working on is a lawful survey of the alternatives, covering cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, zero-knowledge identity verification, and multi-signature arrangements, with a regional reading of what the regulatory environment permits.

Research goals for 2026

  • Concepts: setting out why anonymous payments matter from the threat model outward, connecting to the existing vocabulary of privacy, anonymity, pseudonymity, and confidentiality
  • Tool survey: a privacy spectrum covering cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, self-custody wallets, and multi-signature, and how to choose between them
  • Scenario guidance: a lawful, auditable anonymous donation workflow for both advocacy organizations and donors
  • Advanced theory: readable material on what zero-knowledge proofs, ring signatures, and chain analysis can and cannot do
  • Regional regulation: tracking the Virtual Asset Service Act through the legislature and maintaining a long-term reference on what it means for individuals and organizations
  • Cross-community dialogue: bringing anonymous payments to more open source communities and civic advocates through conference programming

Done so far

  • VASP legal observation: after the Executive Yuan approved the draft Virtual Asset Service Act in April 2026 and sent it to the Legislative Yuan, the community published a first blog observation covering its structure, penalties, and the role of industry associations at the public hearing, then developed it into a long-term reference that now tracks the Act as passed on 30 June 2026. In May 2026 the accounting and internal control guidance for listed companies from the stock exchange and the Taipei Exchange was added
  • g0v Hackath71n proposal: the community proposed anonymous payments as a discussion topic at g0v Hackath71n in Kaohsiung in January 2026, gathering initial interest
  • COSCUP 2026 programming partnership: with ETHTaipei, a joint anonymous payments session ran on the afternoon of 8 August 2026. The call for proposals and joint review arrangement are in COSCUP 2026 open call
  • Structural placement: payments has a defined position within the site's seven sections rather than a separate category of its own
  • The financial censorship angle: the May 2026 post when financial companies act as censors connects EFF's Transaction Denied with PayPal closing domestic transactions in Taiwan in 2017 and Stripe's structural non-support, as the motivating case for the whole track

In progress

  • Drafts across the layers above are published and being revised
  • Workshop planning beyond conference programming, as partners ask for it
  • Translating external research reports, listed below
  • Regular internal research syncs, accumulating cases on CryptPad

Reading and translation candidates

  • Privacy coin design: the Monero and Zcash whitepapers and technical documentation
  • Stablecoin regulation: FATF policy recommendations and comparative studies across jurisdictions
  • Chain analysis: public reports from Chainalysis, Elliptic, and TRM Labs, and academic criticism of on-chain privacy
  • The Tornado Cash sanctions: a timeline of the US OFAC sanctions, the subsequent litigation, and the technical community's response
  • Cross-border donations: case studies on how advocacy organizations accept cryptocurrency donations within compliance
  • Financial censorship: Rainey Reitman's Transaction Denied (Beacon Press, 2026), documenting more than a decade of financial intermediaries acting as speech censors
  • EFF's financial censorship series (2012 to 2025): Smashwords, Nifty Archive, OnlyFans, Palestinians and PayPal, Naked Yoga, Tor and PayPal, Tornado Cash
  • US crypto market structure legislation, 2025 to 2026: the GENIUS Act (stablecoins, signed July 2025), the CLARITY Act (market structure, through the Senate Banking Committee in May 2026), and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (passed the House in July 2025, with S.1124 pending), as comparison material against the Taiwanese draft

How to join

Discussion happens on Matrix (homeserver im.anoni.net), in the relevant rooms of the community's public Space. Collaborative writing uses CryptPad, and regular calls use Jitsi. Account requests and service entry points are on Community services.

Backgrounds we would particularly welcome:

  • Industry experience with cryptocurrencies or stablecoins, sharing compliance and implementation observations
  • Legal or accounting expertise, commenting on the Virtual Asset Service Act, anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer requirements, and tax detail
  • Experience running an advocacy organization or civil society group, knowing what donation channels actually run into
  • Cryptography background, reviewing material on zero-knowledge proofs and ring signatures

No cryptocurrency experience is required. Wanting to learn is a sufficient reason to join.

This is the topic we are taking to our booth at Global Gathering 2026 in Estoril on 6 September. If you have a real situation to describe, whether or not you are travelling, the booth announcement covers how to send it, including a route that does not attach your name to it.

Ground rules

All discussion presumes lawful use, and this track needs particular care. Workshops and sessions present material for education and risk understanding, and do not assist money laundering, tax evasion, or other unlawful conduct. For legal questions about a specific situation, consult a professional. Community members' observations do not substitute for legal advice.