Anonymity

[otandelapaz]

One of the "pros" of Bitcoin or crypto-currency in general is you can be involved (trade, buy and such) in it ANONYMOUSLY. But in the past few months, looks like that's not the case.

Some Exchanges are now requires you to fill-up forms about your identity and even requires you to upload photos of your identification. Other ICOs have KYC (know-your-customer) requirements too.  

Is this a good thing or not? You thoughts?

[1714158076]

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[beskid]

I believe that the requirement of personal information breaks the basic principles of crypto currencies. If this goes on and people around the world do not resist it, then the crypto currency will not differ from the fiat money in any way and will simply be of no interest to anyone.

[DesmondHayes]

Everything depends on - what you have to hide. Anonymity is a great benefit that the Bitcoin is providing but in the end even if the user isn't revealed the trace on the blockchain remains. Fear not if you are clean. Exchanges are securing the contract between you and them with the private documents you are giving them. Even if I am not very fond of giving private information to be able to trade properly I am putting my trust to the reputable sites.
There are many new sites which are being revealed later as a scam ( Watch out for those). Not all exchanges are searching for ID so if you are searching for full anonymity search some reputable site (small percentage!) that can provide you the disguise of your identity.

[JPCain]

There are lots of alternatives for anonymity though. Monero, Verge. DeepOnion etc. I do see a place for these coins. The argument against is you can transfer crpto into these coins when you want anonymity but then why not use as a store as well.

[Reid]

Merited for a good question.
This had been one of the problems now.
Before you are unknown to anyone but recently the secrecy have been shattered.
I dont blame exchanges for forcing users to do it, they need to abide by the countries rule.
But the main problem is why not let people know that they would need to fill that information for withdrawal.
Why not before the deposit?
Your coins are already stucked in their end while you cannot withdraw it until you do the steps and it takes another 24-48 hours before it is approved.

[TimtheYoutuber]

I made a thread that has a Medium post that goes in depth regarding anonymity : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2674762.msg27308071#msg27308071


I think it is the only way governments will allow it, without the KYC bitcoin would likely be illegal in places like the US. Bitcoin still gives users enough privacy for individual payments, and doesn't allow a centralized platform to shut their account down. 

[Aveatrex]

One of the "pros" of Bitcoin or crypto-currency in general is you can be involved (trade, buy and such) in it ANONYMOUSLY. But in the past few months, looks like that's not the case.

Some Exchanges are now requires you to fill-up forms about your identity and even requires you to upload photos of your identification. Other ICOs have KYI (know-your-identity) requirements too. 

Is this a good thing or not? You thoughts?

Thats called KYC (Know your customer).
That's not Bitcoin or cryptocurrency fault, it's the exchanges being under the pressure of governments and laws that makes them forced to have a list of users using their exchange as they fear money laundering or/and illegal traffic such weapons and drugs.Keep in mind that exchanges aren't decentralised, they are centralised which cannot provide anonymity

[just_Alice]

One of the "pros" of Bitcoin or crypto-currency in general is you can be involved (trade, buy and such) in it ANONYMOUSLY. But in the past few months, looks like that's not the case.

Some Exchanges are now requires you to fill-up forms about your identity and even requires you to upload photos of your identification. Other ICOs have KYI (know-your-identity) requirements too. 

Is this a good thing or not? You thoughts?

It isn't a good thing, bitcoin supposed to be if not completely, then in some way anonymous and another huge advantage - it was easy and convenient to use. If you need to fill-up the forms it makes the whole process longer and more complex, people will just use other cryptocurrencies or exchange methods. If bitcoin isn't anonymous, the transaction process is pain in the ass and transaction fees aren't so low as they used to be - what special about it will be left?

[Yaunfitda]

One of the "pros" of Bitcoin or crypto-currency in general is you can be involved (trade, buy and such) in it ANONYMOUSLY. But in the past few months, looks like that's not the case.

Some Exchanges are now requires you to fill-up forms about your identity and even requires you to upload photos of your identification. Other ICOs have KYI (know-your-identity) requirements too. 

Is this a good thing or not? You thoughts?

Well this is what we call regulations. It really breaks one cadence of bitcoin and crypto's to remain anonymous. I think this is not a good move for some trading platforms to really require their users to submit personal identification. But as I have said governments are strictly intimidating exchange to implement it, otherwise they will be shutdown.

Its one way for the government to hunt and track you down in case you are thinking of using it as a blanket for your illegal activities. But I guess if you have nothing to hide then its not gonna be a big concern.

[pushups44]

Bitcoin was never anonymous, but rather is pseudonymous. All transactions can be tracked, though what's tracked are identifiers in the form of public addresses. Once a public address is linked to an identity, there is absolutely no privacy.

[Bitbratt]

I believe that the requirement of personal information breaks the basic principles of crypto currencies. If this goes on and people around the world do not resist it, then the crypto currency will not differ from the fiat money in any way and will simply be of no interest to anyone.

On the other hand, it has also an advantage. This is for security purpose so that possible fraud and theft will, be traceable  but you are right. It breaks the basic principles of cryptocurrency which is anonymity. Maybe sooner or later they will also implement centralization which is totally irrelevant to crypto.

[mrcash02]

It's bad. Bitcoin was working fine without these regulations years ago, now they want to introduce some uncomfortable requirements to control Crypto enthusiasts and watch them step by step. It's like Sauron's eye, always watching your movements.

At least let it be pseudo-anonymous like before...

[avikz]

One of the "pros" of Bitcoin or crypto-currency in general is you can be involved (trade, buy and such) in it ANONYMOUSLY. But in the past few months, looks like that's not the case.

Some Exchanges are now requires you to fill-up forms about your identity and even requires you to upload photos of your identification. Other ICOs have KYC (know-your-customer) requirements too.  

Is this a good thing or not? You thoughts?

Exchanges generally have to comply with the local laws, that is the reason some of them are asking for KYC documents to remain compliant with the regulatory requirement. Even though it is against the idea of decentralization, but to run the business they are deviating from the ideal operating procedure. That doesn't possess huge risk unless you are trading in large volumes which doesn't go along with your income profiling.

However, I really don't support ICOs asking for KYC documents. Even though ICOs can be a legal entity and they also need to comply with the local regulations, but I don't see it safe just at this moment. A majority ot the ICOs are scam and mostly run by a programmer sitting at their home computer. Not all of them are legal entity. But there is hardly any way to ascertain that fact. So we really don't know what those ICO owners will do with our PII data.

I think all ICO owners should produce their own KYC documents to the public before they can ask the same from us. There's no way we can stop the misuse of our data if an ICO owner decides to do so. So for me, ICOs asking for KYC documents, is definitely not a good trend to see. It possess significant risk of data breach.

[Alert31]

   In my country you need to fill up forms with complete identy and even your address,and photos before you can widraw your bitcoin in exchange to local money. So,it breaks the law of anonymity.Bitcoin is decentralized but if you can see during every transaction specially in widrawal process you need to put your identity which is against decentralization.

[TheySeeMeHodlingTheyHatin]

i think you can still buy bitcoins from a atm machine anonimously

[arlington]

in one perspective it is a contradiction to the mission of crypto world but on the other hand it would be a good thing to stop the btc usage for illegal activities (the reasons that most use against btc)

[Rozita]

Sadly this is exactly the opposite of bitcoin creation goal. Now most of the people who have invested in bitcoin are not anonymous, specially when people want to trade cryptocurrencies with fiat.
It is bad because bitcoin has been created to being anonymous. But we cannot ignore illegal activities that can be made using bitcoin.

[Hexah]

It probably break some laws the anonymity features has never been achieved fully because of that new regulations. It sure really a good thing for the company since they know who are their costumers are, but probably on the costumers/investors their part really has vulnerabilities because it probably gives them some risk to publicize their true identities. Risk is accounts will be vulnerable to some hackers.

[darkangel11]

It's of course bad that exchanges want us to verify but there are two sides of the story. They have to comply with the law if they want to run a business and the law says that if you're allowing people to exchange money you need to ask them for their names. Fiat money is owned by the country and they can require identification from people who want to buy or sell their money because, I'll repeat this, it's not your money!

If they want your full name to allow you to exchange virtual tokens then it's an abuse IMO, but if this is only to allow you to buy fiat it's understandable.

[h55]

BTC is controlled by governers! they said satooshi created BTC! but please think: did only 1 man create BTC? I think BTC is a huge technology, so it could not create only 1 person.