Bitcoin Forum

Yes, the subject is correct! Everything you see about centralized exchanges is bad for you. You may think they are cool because of the promotions and bonuses you get in exchange
 for ease KYC, documents you give them are all just easy routes to identify you and by the time you step into their foolish trap(they called it policy), sometimes you don't even have to do anything before they come for you.

I was going through theblockcrypto (https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/143016/binance-agreed-to-share-data-with-russian-government-agency-report) and I saw one interesting article that featured how Binance agreed to share user data with Russia Government. This is the snip and quoted below:

Source: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/143016/binance-agreed-to-share-data-with-russian-government-agency-report

There is more to what was been discussed, they claimed Binance will not share anyone's data unless when law enforcement directs them to do so just like the way banks do comply. Now imagine how many local regulators that will be disturbing Binance for who they suspect or feel to torment.

Everything about KYC is wrong in crypto and so you should avoid it, you don't have private keys meaning what you are viewing is just data on the server, not your real coins, your privacy is at risk, and the government has the ability to change and do anything at any moment.

Not sure how true the shared story about binance handing users' data to the russian government is but one thing am sure about is that when you send your coins to a centralized exchange, they are no longer yours (not your keys, not your coins).
If you want to exchange your couns then do it P2P or find a decentralized exchange which does not ask for kyc and does not hold you coins in its custody.
If you have no other choice but to use a centralized exchange then make sure to withdraw all your funds as soon as you complete the trade.

Even there's no proof whether the story above were true or not, I always consider when we already submit any KYC to any sites, everyone already know who I am since I don't know what does Binance or any sites do with my identity. I wouldn't surprised if I see my face appeared on a websites, project etc because I can't do much about this, complaint and making a report to Binance would cost a lot and wasting to much times.

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Don't forget even you've used a centralized exchanges without giving up your KYC, they can still recognize your IP, email, password, phone number and your name. Perhaps when they saw you're Russian citizens, they will track your name, email, phone number, and your transactions. If they can combine various information and cooperate with other website/social media, they could find you.

Anything you see centralization, there are pretty much the same risks involved. It doesn't matter if it is an exchange or any other service like that. They always comply with the governments and won't need that much pressure either, as long as the simplest request comes they jump to obey. As I said this is not just for CEX either, we saw how the privacy oriented tool called Wasabi wallet obeyed and started censoring transactions in their CoinJoin coordinator!

They share it with all governments of all countries that demanded it because they don't want to be shut down or lose any portion of the market.

Any company which is legally register may share your details to the government at anytime so either use the centralized exchange and compromise your privacy or use the decentralized exchange which is not really convenient compared to these centralized exchange. But we care about the data qe share with cryptocurrency exchanges but we also should care about the data we are sharing with Facebook, Google, Apple and KYC details in your bank, etc.

It’s better to invest in a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, SafePal, Trezor, SecuX, etc. to store your crypto assets. Although that I feel much safer in Binance than Metamask or Trust Wallet (because they’re very vulnerable to malware that resulted me to almost lose everything), but we don’t have the full custody of our assets. It’s just that Binance can freeze our accounts and preventing us from withdrawing for certain reasons, that is if we don’t have at least one hardware wallet. The cheapest one is SafePal, so it’s better to grab at least one.

Safepal secure element is close source
Safepal software app is close source
Safepal software app only available on phone device (not available on computer)
You can not use it for multisig
Not supporting coin control
Can not be used with other software wallet like open source Electrum wallet.

Safepal price can be cheap but it is a hardware wallet not worth going for.

Binance is one of the monopolistic companies, and just like the rest of the giant companies such as Alphabet and Meta, all they care about is profit and therefore expect that your data will be shared with third parties whether you know or not, agree or disagree.
Some countries give the user more privacy and it is possible by court order that your data will be deleted but the problem is that they share it with a third party and then they blame the third party regulations that may not delete that data.

Binance can deny that it has shared data and it would be difficult to verify this, but I wouldn't rule out that they did.

Just watch this Youtube video "Why privacy matters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcSlowAhvUk)" by Glenn Greenwald.
To know how important privacy is to us.

Any legal financial businesses that involve any cash flows are entitled to have KYC because this is how the government combats the possible money laundering or any criminal act that is against the law, they know their customer.
It seems there are cons and pros to using an exchange platform that required KYC and it might the only option to choose a reputable one but I can't point out which is better.  So KYC is necessary to us or are we safe on this?  The answer depends on our points of view.

If you're scared of KYC, DEXs are the best for you, but it doesn't mean you're safe in DEXs, there's still a report of scams from them.

I will never feel safe with any centralized exchange, Binance is one of the giant companies that is widely known for trading but while Trust wallet is a closed source, I will choose them since I can have my recovery seed but there are plenty of open-source wallets to choose from, I wouldn't settle for less that is why you see others here always recommend a hardware wallet for maximum security of your coins.  if you can do crypto, you should be able to choose a better wallet as well, it isn't that difficult hun!.

Safepal is also the hardware wallet device that I currently use. Apart from storing assets safely, safepal also has many features that will be very useful and there are several airdrops that can be followed specifically for hardware wallet holders and users of the safepal application.

Apart from using safepal as storage, Binance is the exchange I use only to trade, and I'm not worried about the KYC that Binance implements. Although some people don't agree with KYC, but it's optional, avoid it if you don't want to use it because of KYC.

About malware that had attacked your wallet in Truswallet and Metamask, indeed it is more vulnerable to attack, and it also depends on how you use it, if you download or get stuck in an application that is identified as malware you certainly need extra defense in the form of an antivirus on your device to be able to do it. safer. It all depends on the user.

Soon as exchanges asked kyc, automatically exchanges was inforced by the authority where they're based/ what country they operates to do it for AML, obviously they will comply.

Idk how true the news is, but this is not only about binance but all the CEX.

If you're really against how this exchanges work then at least give us some recommendations where to exchange crypto to fiat with ease, with higher volume of crypto, higher volume of users, plenty of option/faster to exchange/trade, anything about user-friendliness, lower fees, and the list goes on. I doubt if you can. Coz most of these can only be experienced in CEX.

This news gets to Binance attention very fast, people are already throwing words at the Binance team on twitter, now I know why people said that words travel faster than anything in this world, the funny part is Binance said all this is FALSE.

Centralized exchanges have have one pro: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-22/binance-recovers-stolen-disguised-crypto-loot-from-mega-hack

I am completely against Kyc because it is not safe, our personal details were not safe anywhere because, as many have said and according to the OP, the government can force Binance to give them data of many users related to there nation and if we all remember how we did kyc, we submitted our personal data correctly and everything we submitted can be used to get us within seconds.

I trust Binance and I don't care what they do with my KYC because I know they won't hurt their customers, Centralised exchanges have more disadvantages than a dex and the only thing dex claimed to do better is privacy, do you know how many hackers that binance dealt with? Do you know how many stolen fund that binance have recovered.

Well don't surprised if you see a police knock your house and force you to follow them or even imprison you since they suspect you're crypto scammer. Binance already hurt many clients (Scam) Binance Block Users Withdrawals - You could be the next Victim. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5371666.0). I know Binance has suffered hack on 2019 and they can recover the funds with SAFU, but if the hacker can stole all the funds including hot wallet and SAFU, what does Binance do next? They will collapse like Mt.Gox.

lol...which government will force binance to release data, binance is one of the most known and populated exchanges in cryptocurrency if I'm not mistaking, KYC is to identify who you are and if you are trustworthy to be merge with and it signify who you are because you can be recommend to someone with potential or qualify details and it will make away with your funds, so what I'm saying in essence is that binance have high security data like apple industry, it's hard before apple release their customers data for you, because it's very obvious that if they do, it will lead to elimination of their platform or degradation of their exchange.

I would hardly call censorship a "pro". Sure, they may use that power to seize some hacked coins, but they also use it to seize coins that governments tell them to, that trigger one of their arbitrary algorithms, that they deem to be too risky, sometimes entirely by mistake, and so on. If they can censor someone else, then they can censor you. If they can steal other people's coins, then they can steal your coins.

Incredibly naive.

I mean, they've already been hacked for thousands of their customers' KYC data and then lied about it. So that's just not true.

You have no idea how good or bad their security is. It has been breached many times in the past, resulting in both stolen coins and stolen data.

if it's the aspect the of stolen of data or hacking of database, i will agree. Because i know that binance has been hacked before and also other exchanges, but the situation where by pressuring binance exchange to release their clients data to government or group of organisation, i think it's unethical and no platform that wants to stand firm will release their clients data.

Of course they will. Every centralized exchange does it and does it regularly. If a government comes along and says "Hand over the information of all the citizens from our country using your platform or we will ban you from operating here", then every exchange will comply immediately to safeguard their own profits. Coinbase do it. Binance do it. Kraken do it. They all do it.

You should assume that any and all information you give to a centralized exchange can and will end up in the hands of various governments and associated agencies.

They will always comply with the regulation of the government because they know if they don't certain restrictions will be imposed on them and hurdles will be passed on with their system.But more importantly they also don't care about users as they have setup these CEX for primary motives of profit and it doesn't matter if comes at the cost of privacy of the users.

The things is there is no privacy at the first part due to all the kYc norms and then more and more documentation depending on the withdrawal so they acts same like central banks agencies who are sensoring you for each and every transaction.Recently we have seen Binance also restricting Russian users to trade/deposit above €10k under the EU sanction and they have clearly stated they will work in accordance with the government.

Now this selling of users data came as of no surprise to me seeing the past working of these centralised exchange.According to me having your funds over CEX is similar to like giving someone access to your lockers having your funds and they can anytime go rogue or be hacked.So be safe from them.

They are government puppets and can track any transaction and block the funds if they wish to do so as they already possess the keys for them so actually they own the funds on your behalf which is far more risky than you could imagine.

This over self belief on them could be dangerous and you sound like one of their team members defending them on security issues but have some research man.

Yes that's the case people ignore these things because they are running successfully and leading in the industry but that doesn't protect them from hacks and the funds gone will be of users not owners.


And speaking of KYC you don't know how your documents are being exploited by them as we have already heard about data being sold on dark web which you never know and the risk lies on your end.The facts don't lie.

These exchange needs to be equipped with latest technology but the problem again lies with the centralised control and how can you blindly trust them?

See this is their security model architecture :


But do you think it's hard for hackers to crack these and have access of your funds.The only thing is they can track it but you know hackers are also smart.So why put yourself in such situations in the first end?
You have no idea how good or bad their security is. It has been breached many times in the past, resulting in both stolen coins and stolen data.
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The top rule of using an exchanges is never leave any fund or assets on them, I use binance exchange most times as its the only exchange I can use to exchange crypto to fiat, trust me if you don't leave coins or tokens on exchanges you won't have any problem.

But we know that Centralized exchanges have more features for trading and have higher liquidity than any decentralized exchanges.But when it's about security of funds we must avoid Centralized exchanges and should use Decentralized exchanges.

But if as a trader you don't keep some assets on an exchange like Binance, then there won't be a good trade. I have assets on Binance and I am actively trading them, I left some of my assets because some of them are still waiting for the price to go up.
It's actually not a problem to leave some assets on the Binance exchange, as long as they are not your primary asset or all of the assets you own. Binance is also getting more secure as the security system is constantly being improved.
most importantly take your capital from every profit and leave it in exchange for some trades.

If the concern is about Binance govern to sharing the personal details of their users with Russia, how are we supposed to stop people from using and promoting Binance? It was regretting but still seeing Binance as one of the top exchanges and continue to increase their users.

It has to see that many never mind their personal identity or they are not aware of the situation of what would happen to them after complying with the KYC that most exchanges are now requiring users. We've been trusting Binance so much, If this scenario really happens to Binance, obviously they are just playing us and these CEX exchanges do.

Nowhere is safe online, decentralized or centralized we are still in for some real risks, decentralized projects that are scam still use the utility (dex) to rob people, do all kind of shot behind the cotton all in the name of a decentralised platform, I refer transparency over privacy.

It does not come at the cost of privacy of our users and we do care about them. That's exactly why we introduced blacklisting: so we can continue to operate and users can still have privacy using Bitcoin. If we wouldn't care about our users, then we would not have sacrificed our reputation, just shut down the service and nobody would have got any privacy.

Those users are conscious about their coins don't like centralized exchanges. Because in every custodial wallet we have risks to lose our funds or to be hacked or stolen. But decentralized exchanges are fully decentralized and there you only have the access of your wallet. So it's safe to avoid using a centralized exchange.

Stop using Binance, stop recommending Binance, point out just how shady and corrupt Binance are when other people recommend Binance.

It is entirely possible to buy, sell, and trade bitcoin without every touching any centralized exchange. If you do want to sacrifice all your privacy and security by using a centralized exchange, then there are literally hundreds to choose from, many of them far better, more secure, more ethical, more customer focused, and with better fees than Binance. There is no reason anyone ever needs to use an untrustworthy and profiteering exchange as Binance.

Proper decentralized exchanges such as Bisq or LocalCryptos are exponentially more secure than any centralized exchange. If you are being scammed, that has nothing to do with the fact the exchange calls itself decentralized (when it probably isn't) and is entirely to do with you not using reputable exchanges.

Right. "We are spying on you and censoring you because we care." ::) What kind of gaslighting bullshit is this?

I don't believe it. However, it is true that if you keep your funds in a Centralized exchange, then it is under the control of someone else. If you have any such type of doubts then you can keep your assets in decentralized exchange or your convenient wallet address.