I have the opportunity to choose between using my foreign debit card (which my government would find difficult to access but still it has my real name) or Bitcoin (which isn’t completely anonymous, but the online marketplace doesn’t accept Monero). I have my Bitcoins in a Coinbase wallet linked to my ID and real name. Is there a significant difference in this context between choosing Bitcoin or my foreign debit card if my threat model is the government? Thanks!
That depends. I don’t wanna ask you your business, so don’t tell me. But ask yourself, is what you’re looking to buy illegal? If it is, I would use neither. Both can be directly linked to you. If you answered that question no, and it’s legal, and this is just deciding which payment method is more private, then that becomes less clear as there is arguments for both really. On the one hand, debit cards do have your personal information. However your purchase will only ever be known by your bank and the vendor you’re buying from. If you choose bitcoin, it is true the bitcoin won’t display personal information when you purchase it, and it also won’t show on your bank account. However bitcoin’s blockchain is public, so even though no one can put a name with the address, EVERYONE can see your activity. Aside from Coinbase of course, who does know who you are.
I would argue that if you use Bitcoin, everyone with access to the ledger (pretty much everybody, which is to say potentially all governments) can see the transactions but the debit card would limit your exposure to just the governmental jurisdictions involved.
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Can you explain to me how the government can find out from a Bitcoin transaction that I bought that Bitcoin from Coinbase and thus discover my real name?
No, legal. If I hypothetically—and I would never do that (disclaimer for the government, hello guys! 
)—were to buy illegal stuff, I would only use Monero, Tails, and Tor. I don’t play, guys!
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There might be a security (not privacy) case to be made for using bitcoin instead of debit card. Even if that bitcoin is personally linked to your identity, your debit card’s information isn’t compromised if there’s a data breach on the vendor’s servers.
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First off, Coinbase has KYC policy
Anyone (therefore any gov’t) can run a bitcoin node and enable indexing and search away who are the involved in the transaction and how much.
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