If someone wants to attack you, he will need to find the information first, of where exactly to find you or to find your assets, so that he lay his hands on them. Therefore, this blog post is only the first half of a complete defense strategy.
The other half is about the tracking device in your pocket: “Mobile phones, How not to do it”.
Do not receive third-party payments into a bank account, ever.
If any third party needs to pay me, they will have to do so in bitcoin or in cash. There is no way that I will provide them with a bank account to wire to. If this third party does not want that, they will have to trade with someone else. Does it happen that people refuse to trade because they would have to pay with bitcoin?
Yes, and that is a good thing ™. People capable of paying with bitcoins are more sophisticated than the mainstream. They are good clients or employers to have. Sophisticated people generally make more money and therefore they are often able to pay more money. It is a fantastic selection filter to decide who to trade with.
One additional remark. You may receive third-party payments under an employment contract.
There is a third caveat about employment contracts, in the context of especially government agencies.
They want to lift money out of your pocket even before you have received it. I reject that very concept. If someone wants money, they will have to ask me and not ask a third party that I happen to be trading with. I will never allow anybody to lift money out of my pocket just by asking a third party to give my money to them instead.
Why? Just because I say so. I will tell you a bit more on why governments do not matter in that respect, in a next blog post.
The policy of NOT receiving third-party payments into a bank account, prevents your money from accumulating there. That is a good thing ™. It means that nobody will waste their time trying to take away from you such accumulated funds. Nobody would know anyway, where exactly to do a thing like that, because the funds are not in a bank account.
You see, if you make it easy to attack you, that is exactly what they will be doing. What stops government agencies from trying to collect even more money from you? The banks communicate your bank account and its balance to them. These government agencies want that money, and all they need in order to grab it — simply by pressing the button — is a flimsy pretext. Do not make it easier for them to do that. Make it hard, and as as a result, they will less easily do it.
If I really have to, I will deposit limited amounts of cash into a bank account, in order to make small payments from my own bank account, usually, yet again to another bank account of mine.
This practice does not disclose to any third party what my bank accounts are. It stays within the family, so to say.
So, it is relatively ok for the short time that just some small funds stay in those bank accounts.
Furthermore, I always open these bank accounts in different countries, which adds another layer of inconvenience for anybody who would want to know too much, or who would want to attack my assets.