Bitcoin Forum

WHY DO I NEED I.D. AND PROOF OF ADDRESS TO BUY BITCOIN ??

tried to but bitcoin at several hubs/sites
they all asked for goverment issued id and proof of address

what gives ? i thought bitcoin was anonymous ?

any suggestions ?

Companies have to comply with 'know your customer' and 'anti money laundering' laws to be able to conduct business. You can always buy in person with cash using LocalBitcoins (https://localbitcoins.com/) if that works for you.

HUH ?
what ?

"Companies have to comply with 'know your customer' and 'anti money laundering' laws to be able to conduct business."

last time i checked, its mainly banks that have to do that... so is bitcoin a banking product ?

i went to my local pawnshop and bought some items (including silver) and they didnt ask for i.d. .

i just dont get it ..... anybody else got input on this topic ?

BitcoinNewsMagazine covered it pretty well.

That action call : prevent of risk.
i am 100% agree with you bitcoin is anonmous and it not banking product. However, when you buy them you have to use banking products ( cash or bank transfer, credit card....) everytime you using a product like that online ( in case here, the shop not see your face) then they have to required by law asking for KYC.
if you using anonymous products ( litecoin,....) to buy anonymous product (bitcoin...) then the shop will not ask you for KYC

in offfline shop when you go to buy something ( cash, or credit card) in most case ,they will not ask you for verify KYC simple because they know money in your hand is your. Some case if they need to know where money from (big money) they still asking you (or they will put themself in trouble if the souces of money not clean)

HI VOD... question : do you like giving out your personal info in order to buy an "anonymous" product ? ... if someone has your personal info and what you bought, how is it anonymous ?


HI UQUID...  i dont understand what you posted...whats a "KYC" ?

KYC is know your customer
meaning : you know who you dealing with
if you not see their face , you need see their documents
simple like that bro !

ok, thanks .... well, i guess no bitcoins for me,not interested anymore...im not uploaded my i.d. and proof of adress to some "company"...god knows what they can do with my info, just seems creepy...i guess bitcoin isnt anonymous as proclaimed. thanks for the replies everyone

You are welcome, maybe you must know more about Cryptocurrency especially Bitcoin. If you know you will be love. And this forum is rich articles to know and learn about Bitcoin. Waiting you back again.

what the hell does some company's policy have to do with bitcoin's anonymity? you're using a third party service. they can set whatever terms they like. 

In the past I bought successful Bitcoins with prepaid creditcard at https://www.virwox.com (https://www.virwox.com). There are relatively high fees but it was working where others asked for too much information about your identity. When mine I.D. was expired I could only find Virwox that still was working.

There have been cases where people have gotten convicted for running an "unauthorized money transmission service", because they sold bitcoins. So you bet bitcoin exchanges / sellers would want to take all the precautions they can.

In many jurisdictions, it's not only "banks" but those that are in the business of transmitting money. So for example, brokers/exchanges that take your USD in exchange for Bitcoin, or wire you out USD need to hold certain licenses. Being a money transmitter entails certain AML and KYC policies. Different sites interpret the extent to which you must identify yourself differently. Basically, if fiat money is involved, you need to provide documents. If it is all crypto -- deposit, withdrawal, trading -- there are many sites which will not require documents.

Why not?  It protects you, it protects the exchange, and this is what is needed with Bitcoin if we want mass adoption.  People want to feel secure.  You have to provide this with a regular bank as well.

Bitcoin is anonymous that doesn't means exchanges or buyer/sellers of bitcoin are anonymous too.If you want to stay anonymous,you better do not deal with them.

pretty sure its because of anti money laundering and fraud protection

You will need to submit your Id proof for any service that combines fiat and bitcoins like an exchange, as they are supposed to report on you to prevent money laundering and tax fraud. If you want to buy bitcoins anonymously, I would suggest using something like localbitcoins.

Hi there, i know exactly how you feeling, feeling scared giving our private information to such a company, however i did it since there's only one exchanger in my country and this is the easiest way to convert my bitcoin to cash or vice versa, firstly i was so scared giving my detail to that company, i just dont know what to do, this is the only simplest and cheap way to trade my bitcoin. I might agree with you when trade bitcoin on exchanger bitcoin isn't anonymous anymore, hoping something bad will not going to happen.

Even localbitcoins is not completely anonymous because you need to verify your phone number hence specify your country, when opening an account with them.

On my local bitcoin wallet also needs identifications like pictures and address. It is need for withdrawing your bitcoin into physical money. Its just a normal procedure since its a local wallet and its for security reasons also. Other wallet are not looking for identifications which is good. Some are not.

Bitcoin is anonymous, but a lot of these exchanges are trying to become reputable financial businesses,
so they have to follow some laws and guidelines. 

Its actually a bit difficult to buy coins without using any id at first.
You can probably find some trusted members on this site to buy from, but they may charge you higher fees at first, until you establish a relationship with them.

That cuts both ways. It is difficult to sell bitcoins without using any id as well.
So ideally, the price that you buy/sell bitcoin on a forum like this without any id should not be very different from the market price (say on exchanges).

The only option left to you buying or selling bitcoin anonymously is individual sellers/buyers.There are few reputable but always use escrow or if you are skeptical,use exchanges and compromise on your anonymity

If you really dont want to put your proof and purchase the bitcoin then better you can purchase with your local bitcoiners or you can go to localbitcoins.com site their you can find lot of users selling for cash or bank transfers. Other then that all other exchanges are asking identification details. Or else you can buy with exchanges like yobit, bitrex

There is really need for it becaise it is a legal transaction relating money with the bank or someone.  There is a requirement to validate the transaction and to know if it is really you who deposiyed and earned the money. 

As BitcoinNewsMagazine said, there are still ways to buy them without these checks but it normally comes at a cost premium. I suspect many of these buying channels will eventually be outlawed too.

I agree its sad to see the libertarian spirit die, but if you want BTC to rise in value and become a "proper" financial asset, which it just about now is, then you have to accept regulation. The more it happens, the more it will be used and bought.

Because if the police get suspicious about your activities, they will wanna know who you are. If the police asks about you, they will hand away your personal information to them and make the police's job easier. I don't know if they can scam you with those informations but it is probably possible.

I do not know about that since maybe we have different bitcoin wallet.  I bought bitcoin through banks and I have no problem with it.  I remember having opening a bitcoin wallet I have to give them some personal information plus a digital copy of my government issued id. 

Maybe those sites that you want to buy uses those things because they are legal.  They needed your information so that there would be no fraudulent act to happen.

So when I buy BTC from bank system that holds all of my information,
Then I send it to a wallet who has less of my information.
When I purchase or send BTC. How much information can these banks and wallets gather from the address that I send it to ?

You could try local Bitcoins to purchase BTC without an ID.

Many options are available, you just have to look around. Try and find local Bitcoin meetup groups within your area, there is a large chance that people are looking to get cash for BTC.

Most of the sellers on lbtc these days ask you for ID too to make sure you are not sending money through a hacked account or something. Atleast been happening a lot recently in my country.

yeah. it didn't used to be that way. when I first used it nobody asked for any type of id. when I tried it again recently it was like using a regular service. I guess the sellers are much more professional than they used to be and much more paranoid about scammers and falling foul of regulations.

Well I am a seller there. They have to be paranoid. A friend of mine had legal action taken against him because he ended up being unlucky to have traded with a hacked account twice.

This leads to a lesser risk when dealing with transactions involving monetary value.

It is better to be safe.
Otherwise, you can be the victim of a MIM attack like this person,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1604317.0

What you can do is buy litecoin or another alt coin, then use shapeshift and trade it into bitcoin.
That way no one can connect you to your bitcoins

The exchanges abide by the bank regulations to avoid further hurdles like money laundering and illegal accumulation of wealth,you have to provide the client details when law intervene and so is the reason they are asking for national ID as it is mandatory to identify the clients identity

If you want to convert your BTCs into your local currency you need to follow their rules. That is what the law wants. If you don't agree with that and don't want to give your personal informations, just use your Bitcoins to buy things on the internet. You won't need to give I.D for anyone. You can shop goods, buy it and ask to send to your living address.

That is essentially to place a tag on you, so the authorities can have a proof of who you are and exactly where to find you if a need arise. With fiats, that has been their joker, but bitcoin has turned out a pain and spoiler for them because it has handed stolen power back to the people.

According to my views these exchanges are deal with banking system like you will need to deposit through banks/cards etc so it is the rules of banks that the person will need to provide his identity details without t any transaction is considered as illegal by the state law.

Well its because bitcoin is one powerful thing on the internet its very popular to many countries the government wants your info because they need to assure your not a criminal that use bitcoins for bad things but surely if they have your info it would be easy for you to cash out bitcoins in the real world and then you have easily buy bitcoin with all you want but to me its very scary if you try to give your information in the government for just bitcoin because its that i don't really trust the government maybe i don't know but its a private thing for me that my info i have bitcoin in my wallet i just buy in the internet for somethings or games and bitcoin is not anonymous anymore its getting bigger and much larger than before i suggest you to work in this site and have bitcoin by working its not easy but its fun :D

yes , btc not anounymous , hehe , i dont know a bout this .

Being anonymous is gradually turning into a myth with current events happening from over the world especially USA with the IRS going after Coinbase Users for investigation which under the law, Coinbase is to comply by providing details of their users all else they will be the one to bear the liability and that his why all other exchange sites trading sites will want to know even your family background as a result of KYC.

I had to provide all that stuff for Circle and Coinbase.  It's to be expected--the gov't requires it, as has been pointed out. 

As far as your local pawn shop goes, just try to sell something there.  You will most likely be asked for ID.  Why?  To prevent shenanigans.  Or at least to catch shenanigan-doers.  They have to comply with laws too.  You could still buy bitcoin anonymously, but it takes a lot more effort.

Everything is regulated by your own county so trying to buy them anonymousLy means you'd better have some cash and be able to find someone near you that wants to offload some bitcoins.

Aml/kyc is the reason why you have to give them ID. And bitcoins aren't anonymous, they're pseudonymous. Now educate everyone around you with that info too.

 Hasn't anyone heard of Alcurex remote markets?   

No AML/KYC required, and open to everyone around the world and no ID required.  In fact, all you need is an email address and you can trade direct to high volume markets on Polo and Bittrex.

Can't believe this isn't going viral with all the problems people are having....

FYI:  Only American exchanges are impacted by the AML/KYC requirements, and then only certain areas in USA since California and Texas are huge advocates and developers of the industry, especially in silicon valley, so if it is such a big deal, then move to Texas or Cali, or register on Alcurex and trade anonymously.

 ::)

Generally, an ID or proof of address is only required if there is an airdrop taking place. However, in certain countries there are quite a bit of illegal things taking place which is equivalent to bribery, corruption and so forth. I have purchased bitcoin under my full name and surname I did not however provide an ID document but rather my banking details in order to exchange/purchase BTC

It's just the so-called means of preventing any possible risk.

Bitcoin is anonymous as same as your identity here in the forum. Exchanges are not the same as what we have in the forum. They are those what we called the third party where they need your identity as KYC "know your customer" policy means. I find it just normal because things were just happen that way. No need to worry.

Why you guys trying to bump out an almost 2 year old thread?

Going back on topic, You would really need to pass up KYC when you do make use exchangers that do follow with regulation with the government to prevent possible frauds and money laundering. 2 years ago is totally different on what we are experiencing as of now where verifications becoming already too strict when purchasing up bitcoins but somehow there are other ways which do oppose verification.

it is for identification and verification.

I was attracted to that old thread too! Let's see how things have changed! Now the verification of documents no one raises questions. It's become commonplace! Why then all complain about the fact that the price of bitcoin has decreased? I think that's the reason. Excessive regulation of cryptocurrencies has led to a drop in popularity and outflow of capital.

In many jurisdictions, it's not only "banks" but those that are in the business of transmitting money. So for example, brokers/exchanges that take your USD in exchange for Bitcoin, or wire you out USD need to hold certain licenses. Being a money transmitter entails certain AML and KYC policies. Different sites interpret the extent to which you must identify yourself differently. Basically, if fiat money is involved, you need to provide documents. If it is all crypto -- deposit, withdrawal, trading -- there are many sites which will not require documents.

One point on providing ID/proof of address, once fulfilled, it will eventually cause less hassle when dealing with different cashout methods because of complying with KYC initially.

Bitcoin has been very popular this past few year ever since it was made. This also means that it has attracted people who do scams, fraud, etc.. This type of method is for our protection. It is not like your giving the original copy of your detail, we are just giving them a picture of it.

Bitcoin itself considered as anonimous my friend. But you need to understand that government is against this kind of thing. That's why they are implementing Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer (AML/KYC) policy. For that, we don't have much choice but to follow their regulations or be labelled as criminal for violating such law. Anyway, if you really need to stay anonimous, your last resort must be peer to peer trading. You can use localbitcoins as a way of finding a person who are willing to transact with you and trade bitcoin to fiat. I that's your only way to stay anonymous. If that service is not available in your country. Then you don't have choice but to abide at government's regulations. Just check it for yourself. It's nothing to worry about these policy as long as you're not doing anything wrong or against this policy. You're doing just fine. Also you're gonna get much privilege when you follow it. More cash out options and you can use better crypto exchange. So, for me it's not that bad at all.

This is necessary due to regulations to ensure that Bitcoin can't be use in illegal activities like money laundering and terrorist funding. There is nothing to worry about this as long as you have nothing to hide and ensure that the establishments are legal too so that your data could not be steal. Anyway, its your choice to comply or not to join this investments anymore if you really think it is hard for you to give your data.

Bitcoin is pseudo anonymous! However, governments have made such rules to provide ID details to ensure that these bitcoins are not used for illegal activities. But there are ways to avoid such incidents. Try platforms like localbitcoins or paxful. If you are not buying and selling a very high amount, no one will bother you for your ID proof. Avoid using centralized exchanges and try peer to peer exchanges to get what you need without having to provide any ID proof. 

I think if there is trust of seal the then we don't hesitate to provide ID & Proof of address for cash out methods.

But after all, the biticon is not a banking product, and when it was supposed to be anonymous, then why prove the address?