Bitcoin Forum

Are there any ways to participate?
Many ICOs now have KYC procedures so it is becoming not enough to just use VPN..
Americans are excluded from this party..Are there any roundabout ways?

If ICO asks for KYC then I don't think so can buy being a US citizen if you're not allowed unless you got some fake proofs.

But what you can do is need to find some trusted member who can buy on behalf you from other countries and who are willing to help for some commission. You should deal with only some reputed people if you choose this method otherwise people may cheat you.

The only way then is to fake a proof or get a person in another country register for you and buy and then send to your wallet for the ICOs that have a KYC otherwise a VPN will be ok.I dont know of any other way around this apart from these two

May be it will hard to find it. But there is one more good way. Usually after an ICO is success the its bounty campaign participants will dump the coin, honestly it is not so good decision because even the development is in very early phase. Then you can buy it after they dump, you even can buy at lower price, this is an advantage for you. Then you only need to wait the developer do things in their roadmap and wait the price of their coin rise.

KYC is using for safety, of course they have reason about it. I believe in ICO web has been explanation about why KYC is needed and you can also join their communication channel ( telegram ) to asking about that. Not all ICO use KYC, you can find another ICO or maybe change your style. Meaning, you can participated in ICO after listing on exchange, you can buy it from there and most ICO has low price after list ( investor become trader ). Try it and good luck with you.

If you send someone else's passport, check that it's you, it's not real.
I do not have confidence in the KYC .... leave the data unknown to anyone.
I think in the future it can turn out to be negative.

This really seems more like the simplest way to me than having to go through all the stress of finding someone outside your zone who you can trust, but you also have to consider that must be someone who knows how to handle themselves in the crypto environment without having to mess everything up and then giving you stories on how they got hacked and lost everything.

Even if you have to teach them what to do, you should know it is hard to even do it in person, let alone over the phone. Your best bet is to wait for the token or coin to get listed on an exchange, it usually gets dumped a little bit, but may not be up to the ICO's price, and if you trust that holding the coin will benefit you in the long run, buy and hold at that point. That still makes you an early adopter anyway.

I think KYC was used for your own safety and to protect customer credibility, if US citizen really can't participate or excluded from an ICOs but you still want to buy the coin then i suggest you to do bounty. Its not cost you any money and its eligible for everyone. I dont recommend you to use fake account because it can be considered fraud by some dev and perhaps you can buy from other trusted user in this forum but i dont really recommend that either  ;D

you can still find some good ICO which is not require you to fill KYC, if you not mind to do some search work. check at icodrops for KYC requirement.
this is also good way. i joined x token bounty and i get around $2000++ (rate when token distribution)

I think it is better for you not to participate in those ICOs most requires kyc verification as well. US knows something which most don't understand maybe it will be good for you  :)

It all has to do with the regulation going on with ICOs in the US, and I have noticed it too as most US citizens are not allowed at least for now to participate in ICOs, except if you are lucky to find a viable project without KYC but as long as that is necessary, there is just nothing you can do about it.

Unless of course you have someone you can trust in another country, who you can transfer funds to, to invest in their name as someone already implied, asides that, I cannot think of anything else, except you relocate and become a citizen of another country.

If an ICO requires KYC then there is a high chance that bounty distribution will ask you to do the same. Example (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2848026.msg29214647#msg29214647).
I've seen some people saying that they can submit their KYC to whitelist your address for a small payment but such service doesn't seem legit. The safest way to get necessary tokens is to buy them straight after ICO when the price did not mooned (expecially when bounty hunters are droping their coins).

I think there's no way to bypass KYC. although you could try posting offers in marketplace(altcoin) to get someone to buy tokens for you from an ICO for a good fee. you would have to escrow the amount of BTC/ETH you want to invest(plus the fee) with a trusted member here (you can find many trusted members offering escrow service), then the person that accepts your offer will invest and give you the tokens(you'd have to make sure the token is not fake by checking the contract address etc..) and then funds will be released to him.

Now would you go through all this to invest in a ICO?

It's going to be a hassle so better forget about it. There are still ICO's around that not requires KYC. And for outside investors, you can joined several promotions and at most of the cases, these not requires KYC procedures.

Although you can really acquired more tokens on your stash during sale period especially on pre-sale, you don't have a choice but to comply with the terms. You can also wait for it to be listed on exchanges and wait for some dump which is always present at any tokens after ICO.

The possible things you can do as an alternative (as mentioned in some post) are really hassle and if you are still decided to do it, then it's up to you.

From my experience, different ICOs have different ways of checking the identity of their investors. Some will require you to provide proof of identity such as passport but some just instruct you to join their media channel and participate in an interview. If you are really into buying that ICO, you could check first their KYC procedures. Do mind though that it will not be hassle-free and will be of inconvenience to you. Just make sure that you do your due diligence regarding this ICO and that it should be worth the effort. If not, it is better to wait for it to be listed in an exchange and get it from there.

Being an US citizen is such a pain in the ass when it concerns cryptocurrency. How ironic.  ;D

I think you should just stay away from them if the case is that they do not allow American citizens to participate. These guys will for sure try and forfeit your investment in the event they discover you are prohibited from investing. So just save yourself the trouble and just get into crypto some other way. Trading seems still viable for US citizens even if the KYC is strict, at least you are sure not to get screwed.

totally agree with this methode.better to wait at market althoug us citizen could not participate in ICO .no matter with this case as long as they still could trading in cryptomarket.

Yes however now it seems there are also more and more bounty that asking for their participant to use KYC or they wont receive their token so it also become a nuisance for us bounty hunters, so i also suggest that you look carefully when choosing a bounty as if there are lots of ICOs bounty outside from US but also asking us about that, some ICOs might be asking KYC when we purchase the token but none will be asked when joining bounty but the others will ask for both KYC

If a KYC is demanded  and your country are among those not partaking I guess the only thing left is for you to seek an alternative. Any trusted fellow you know can buy on behalf of you. That's the only way out.  I won't suggest using vpn, the now demand ID proof.

This usually do not happen much for strong coins, but at the end of it all, this can actually be a very good option to get the coin at a cheap price even if it is not as cheap as the value you could have gotten it from the ICO.

Some investors may just want to take their profit immediately, and for someone who really believe in the growth of the coin or token, that would be an awesome time to pick it up from there. The only issue you may have is getting the coin listed in a top exchange as they usually have some form of rally, so you may want to consider buying bit by bit.

You should doing some research on the ICO bench and try to make advanced search with filter for No KYC and Restricted Country
there is still some ICO which still support USA residents and also no need for KYC

If you want to participate in an ICO project which accept US citizen, you need to find out an ICO project that don't require KYC. All ICO project that require KYC because they don't accept US citizen participate in their project so they want to make sure that you're not US citizen. But I think to find out a project don't require KYC at the moment is really hard cause as I know almost ICO project at the moment always require KYC with their participants.

Any roundabout ways? I don't think its something that would be cheap other than getting someone trustworthy in a country that its allowed and the investment is made on your behalf. Because even if you fake the IDs or you use VPN and you were able to get registered and participate during someone form of clean ups when VPN is no longer active or not strong enough just as you have rightly noted, then the promoters would be right to deny you of any profit that could accrue as a result of such investment because you have clearly violated the Terms of Agreement which you agrees to for participating.

Another way round is the long route which is putting pressure on your government to relax the rules concerning the participations of US citizens because that is the only way you can get to be part of it freely and reduce the risk you can control to the barest minimum.

VPN will not even work as long as you have to go through the KYC unless of course you have a dual citizenship. Also, using a fake ID is the most wrong thing anyone one to do, that is totally against any law and we all know the extent at which that can cause anyone.

Anyway, the simplest option is just to find some knowledgeable close relative who is honest and knows a lot about ICO investment or cryptocurrency in general to always help you out.

Yeah! I have heard of a lot of citizens doing this and that seems like the only way for now. Most times, I really pity the US citizens as they are being cut off in a way from the ICO world. However, this solution suggested should really be done with an extreme caution and also, where problem may surface is also having to find someone who is very familiar with the whole cryptocurrency space but if these two can be found, then you will be a very lucky dude.