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I would like to start doing and receiving freelance work, however I don't want to give my name away to random people. Obviously I don't want to compromise on the legal front, either. Is there a way for me to do and receive freelance work without giving my real identity away? This isn't about dodging responsibility btw, I just don't want people to know my real name.

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  • You can work this way, of course, until someone asks you to prove your identity. You will not be able to create accounts on freelancing services and will not be able to get credit cards, paypal account, etc. But yes, you can work incognito. I also sometimes worked incognito with a specific people.
    – Peter MV
    Dec 14, 2017 at 16:04

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You can. At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:

  • Writing articles for Everipedia. Unlikely to earn more than 10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.
  • Content creation and blogging on dtube, LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.
  • Bounties on Monero Social. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.
  • Bounties on bitcoinbounties.org. Payment is in Bitcoin.
  • Bounties on Gitcoin. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins.
  • Bounties on Github such as for Haveno. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.
  • Freelancing on Microlancer. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.

As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or anonymity is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous.

If needed you would than use non-KYC ways, such as Bisq, robosats, or localmonero to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or Monero in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through Bitrefill.

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  • This is an amazing answer, I didn't know about those sites. But here's a caveat, crypto trades are traceable, so it's possible to track the money from your client to your exchange and into your bank account. So you should pay your taxes to avoid getting into trouble later. In my country, exchanges have to require and report your net transactions. None of that is not public information, so you get the privacy but not anonymity
    – Magus
    Sep 18, 2021 at 13:58
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I was going through the same thing. I think the ultimate answer is you can't. You could find people who want a website, who don't have a limited company and arent filing their expenses, etc. And if it was a cash transaction you could get away with all the legal stuff.

However most clients that come to me are official limited companies, and they require proof of identification for their records, and they require invoices for my services so that they can file it as an expense. These things require your name, address etc. Not for all things, but most. Also, if you want to create a contract it would be hard to do without your name and signature.

However, there are things you can do to not be so public immediately. For example your email address could be contact@yourdomain.com. You don't necessarily have to put your name on a websites footer. Your own website can only show your first name. These things you can do that hides your full identity, but when it comes to having the client, you will need to provide your full identity, but hopefully by this point you have already agreed to be his contractor/freelancer, and have established a relationship that is more personal (i.e they talk to you about this business, their business goals, maybe even their finances in some cases!). This is like a two way understanding that your meetings are confidential and professional.

If you create a contract you can also put a clause that both parties need to keep the identities private unless otherwise agreed, must not harass, etc.

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Is there an issue with using a company name? Register as a sole proprietor or limited liability corporation or something similar, and use that name for all your work. Just be warned, depending on your expected client base, noClue Industries may not be the best of names ;-)

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The main question is 'anonymous towards whom?'. As Scot laid out you cannot be completely anonymous and operate legally, because there are always some requirements on taxation and bookkeeping.

IMHO user6950100's advice is already quite good. Some freelancers run a small one person limited company and use that to build their brand. In that case you are still the acting legal person, but you can limit you personal exposure.

One other hint in that direction: some coworking spaces rent out post boxes and telephone desk services. That way you can even have a nice looking business address without giving away your home address.

You should also consider working with business partners; this leads to new options:

  1. Start a simple company. (You will need a laywer for than. In Switzerland the einfache Gesellschaft might be an option to keep it simple.) In this case the company is the legal person and the company name will be in most of the paperwork (website, invoices, etc.). In contact with clients you will also have good reason to downplay your own role ("company first") without appearing overly paranoid ;-)

  2. Or find a small agency (or two) and subcontract for them. Depending on your kind of work that might be the easiest and well established way. Then they can handle the marketing and contract negotiations while you can focus on your work. You will still need a contract with the agency, but there is little contact to the actual customer.

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You can't.

Well, at least you can't get paid for anything anonymously. After all, any payment processor is going to want your information...

The only possible way to work anonymously would be to deal exclusively in cash face to face or cryptocurrency.

However, few actual legitimate, businesses operate in cryptocurrency as far as I'm aware. I could be wrong though. Due to the difficulty in tracking and validating funds, cryptocurrency at this time, isn't really a viable accounting option for legitimate businesses.

If I'm writing you a check, I need to know who to make it out to.

I absolutely need to claim the money I pay you as an expense for my business. So, I need to give your name, company name, taxID, etc to the IRS when I file my taxes.

If you file a business name, the government will have a public record of the filing which can be searched.

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