For context; I live in a NOT progressive country/region where being LGBT is illegal, and I often post in LGBT spaces. I want to do digital transactions but am afraid of the above will quickly get me in jail.
That is broadly the case with any bank account, credit, or debit card. The ‘digital’ part of a digital bank account just means there isn’t a physical bank location to visit.
If you are worried about your government tracking the details of your financials, cash is the only option which cannot be surveilled easily.
There’s also cryptocurrency. Not as invisible as many would have you believe, especially when KYC checks are involved, but there are definitely ways to stay hidden with it, by choosing certain exchanges, transfer methods, and currencies.
Not as straightforward of an answer as OP is probably hoping for though, and it also depends heavily on the recipient of the money.
Does anyone actually use crypto to make actual purchases though?
It’s almost mythical by this point.
There’s some countries that accept it as payment fairly widely, and a couple that have even properly adopted it iirc.
In general though, no, but it’s certainly usable globally and would get around OP’s problem if the recipient accepts it. And if OP can be bothered with the hassle of learning about it.
Assuming banks in your country follow typical banking industry regulations, an account with a digital bank doesn’t really differ much from opening an account in person at a local branch. Banks report to the government for tax purposes, and transactions may also be monitored because of anti money laundering regulations.
You need to clarify the relation between banking transactions and posting in LGBT spaces though. Do you mean your transactions are directly related like donating to LGBT orgs? Or do you just mean you don’t want your online activity (posting and communicating on forums) connected back to you? If it’s the latter, then you need to look more into anonymization (i.e. use throwaway user accounts and don’t share personal info; get a vpn; etc.)
I Am Not A Lawyer : I presume your best chance of anonymisation will probably be crypto accounts. But even then, platforms must register as authorized banking institutions with ID verification to be able to operate. And I suspect the local state can access that data, for example to track tax evasion.
But you also don’t want unauthorized platforms because who knows what will happen to your money.
😓
You can store crypto on a thumb drive, it is not necessary to keep it in some online account
If you’re into anonymity, then don’t open a bank account. Instead, use crypto.
