Are You Afraid of KYC?

[bct_ail]

nowadays too many Exchanges & project required kyc without reason

The AML5 directive in Europe gives the exchanges no other chances than to implement KYC if they have a Fiat gateway. So if they don’t want to exclude the European market they have to do it. No matter whether we like it or not.
The only thing we can do is to do as little KYC as possible and collect enough information about the exchange we want or need to register with.

[joburgtaxi]

yes in case I would ask some scholarship they will try to find out everything about me

[ven7net]

I can see that soon almost exchanges and even ICO programs will be requiring us to do the KYC procedures where we are required to pass copies of our legal documents before we are granted entrance or the use of the services or programs we are interested with. This can be as common as having a password or 2FA.

Now, personally I have no big problem with it though just like anybody else am also concerned that my personal information can be divulged to anybody or a group that might use it for any illegal purpose. This is one risk we are facing once we are actively living in the online world. Evil people who can be thousands of miles away can now be just one click away.

What are your apprehensions about the KYC procedures that will soon be as popular as noodles?

Personally, I treat KYC calmly and with understanding. I will give an example, if you come to the bank with a copy of the documents and want to take out a loan, then you will not succeed, if you have someone else's passport, it will also not work, for this you need a passport and a passport holder. What are your passport copies for? Perhaps for other things we do not know about, but again without you and your original document, the copies are not valid. As for KYC itself, I believe that no matter how much they talk about decentralization and its security, serious companies will always use KYC to at least get rid of scammers and bots. Don't you worry when you invest in a crypto project about the founding team of which nothing is known? I believe this is a greater risk. KYC is definitely necessary and not so scary, but if there is an opportunity to do without it, then this is also very good.

[witcher_sense]

I only do KYC for big exchanges like Binance and Kucoin. Because in my opinion, both exchanges can be trusted to maintain the confidentiality of their users' identities. But I will not do KYC on the ICO program or for small exchanges. I am worried that in the future my data will be used for illegal actions.

Both exchanges have already been hacked at least once and most likely will be hacked again in the future. Because unlike in decentralized systems, all centralized exchanges have a single point of failure. Unlike bitcoin, which is robust and decentralized, centralized exchanges are weak and vulnerable by design.

By the way, that is how binance maintain your confidentiality:

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, said it’s investigating the alleged leak of its customers’ verification information. The leak could affect up to 60,000 individual users who sent KYC information to the company in 2018 and 2019.

https://www.coindesk.com/binance-kyc-issue

[bct_ail]

Both exchanges have already been hacked at least once

I know from the KYC leak from Binance but not from one at Kucoin.

[witcher_sense]

I know from the KYC leak from Binance but not from one at Kucoin.

I am not aware of any KYC leaks where Kucoin was involved: i was talking about a recent hack or "security breach" https://www.coindesk.com/hackers-drain-kucoin-crypto-exchanges-funds

On the other hand, given that Kucoin has partnered with Chainalysis, it already sells all of your data to governments and surveillance companies. That is worse than leaks, that is an attack on bitcoin principles, fungibility, and freedom. https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/kucoin-partners-with-chainalysis

[Argoo]

I can see that soon almost exchanges and even ICO programs will be requiring us to do the KYC procedures where we are required to pass copies of our legal documents before we are granted entrance or the use of the services or programs we are interested with. This can be as common as having a password or 2FA.

Now, personally I have no big problem with it though just like anybody else am also concerned that my personal information can be divulged to anybody or a group that might use it for any illegal purpose. This is one risk we are facing once we are actively living in the online world. Evil people who can be thousands of miles away can now be just one click away.

What are your apprehensions about the KYC procedures that will soon be as popular as noodles?

Personally, I treat KYC calmly and with understanding. I will give an example, if you come to the bank with a copy of the documents and want to take out a loan, then you will not succeed, if you have someone else's passport, it will also not work, for this you need a passport and a passport holder. What are your passport copies for? Perhaps for other things we do not know about, but again without you and your original document, the copies are not valid. As for KYC itself, I believe that no matter how much they talk about decentralization and its security, serious companies will always use KYC to at least get rid of scammers and bots. Don't you worry when you invest in a crypto project about the founding team of which nothing is known? I believe this is a greater risk. KYC is definitely necessary and not so scary, but if there is an opportunity to do without it, then this is also very good.

The example you gave is not very good.  If we come to the bank for a loan or to resolve other issues, as well as if we apply to other state or even non-state bodies, we know who we are contacting and in case of any problems, we can always solve them in the future.  If we participate in ICO bounty campaigns, we are absolutely not sure that these are the people they claim to be.  As a rule, they are in another country and we will never see them.  The difference is huge.  In addition, a significant part of ICO project teams in the end still turn out to be scammers and therefore our fears are not groundless.  I am not afraid of KYC, I hesitate to provide my identification data to persons who may turn out to be fraudsters or simply leak them.

[Bitum]

Personally, I don't find KYC acceptable for the crypto industry, we all didn't want that, but if it continues like this, it looks like the entire industry will play the forced game of states, I don't like that at all. For 2-3 years, the state has had no interest in crypto, and now suddenly they want to influence and control the area. That sucks ...

[Mistafreeze]

I can see that soon almost exchanges and even ICO programs will be requiring us to do the KYC procedures where we are required to pass copies of our legal documents before we are granted entrance or the use of the services or programs we are interested with. This can be as common as having a password or 2FA.

Now, personally I have no big problem with it though just like anybody else am also concerned that my personal information can be divulged to anybody or a group that might use it for any illegal purpose. This is one risk we are facing once we are actively living in the online world. Evil people who can be thousands of miles away can now be just one click away.

What are your apprehensions about the KYC procedures that will soon be as popular as noodles?

Yes I am not comfortable with kyc. It also defeat the very purpose of cryptocurrency because it doesn't makes it anonymous.
That's why I prefer dex over cex but unfortunately dex exchanges have low liquidity.

[hv_]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-23/u-s-warns-crypto-stablecoins-on-money-laundering-risk-controls

[cheezcarls]

It depends if we trust the platform or not. Like for example, if a wallet or exchange is regulated by the central bank, I would trust them in doing KYC. However, if it’s something new and never heard before of them and not being backed by an existing legit firm or supported by the government or bank, I would clearly had doubts in submitting KYC (especially passports). But just remember that when it comes to airdrops and bounties, it’s not a good idea to submit KYC if they require (unless if you trust them, that’s your own risk). I would rather protect my integrity than just chasing money in exchange for our important info.

[Karartma1]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-23/u-s-warns-crypto-stablecoins-on-money-laundering-risk-controls

They are running after Tether and the ticking time bomb can be listened at a distance. Only regulated stablecoins will be considered safe after USDT will be taken down.

Backers of stable coins should also be able to obtain and verify the identities of all parties conducting transactions, including those involving so-called unhosted wallets, the officials said.

Don't trust, avoid verify (in this case).

[ene1980]

They are running after Tether and the ticking time bomb can be listened at a distance. Only regulated stablecoins will be considered safe after USDT will be taken down.

The authorities will be imposing heavy fines on multiple markets and i am not aware of any regulated stable coins. USDT is trash and i am really surprised that they are still being traded in all the exchanges and majority consider them as a stable currency even though they are not transparent with their backings and this year we saw them minting new coins flooding the market and they will cease to exist in the near future as the authorities will shut them down.

[Karartma1]

Tether is convenient and I bet the majority of newcomers don't even know about the whole so-called USDT drama which we saw in the last few years. Many will be caught off guard if, eventually, Tether will blow up: and they will blame the lack of regulation and such. That is the main reason I believe USDT has caused a lot of damage to crypto already due to the fact that will be used as an excuse to tighten the already heavy rules on crypto.

[skyline65]

Actually i agree with you what you are saying. They only show the white paper of that project only , do not show the balance sheet where the investment and expenses are going . So i am too afraid of doing KYC while dealing with these kind of ICO.
Now a days how a person's photos are used with the help of deep fake software, So there is a high probability that they ca misuse our document. 

[acquafredda]

Related to the are you afraid of KYC topic the following comment is truly interesting

On top of the wallet rule now only three days from final adoption, FinCEN just announced ANOTHER rule.
https://www.coindesk.com/fincen-foreign-crypto-exchange-disclosure-rule
With a bare three weeks before leaving office, it's impossible to have a public comment period that complies with the Administrative Procedure Act.
Treasury hasn't even provided a timeline yet. 
We only know that this new midnight rule will have an illegally short comment period, just like the last one.
The fact that the procedure is done illegaly won't prevent the rule from being enforced.  This is a standard administrative procedure whereby government agencies like Treasury write regulations into law without actually having to go to Congress.  Once these new regulations go into effect, overturning them involves a politically difficult congressional procedure; the incoming administration can't simply rescind rules that went on the books before they came to office.
In other words, we're fucked.
There's still time to comment on the wallet rule, though
https://beta.regulations.gov/commenton/FINCEN-2020-0020-0001

Meanwhile Mnuchin expects us crypto people to party instead of paying attention.

For some ideas to make your comments effective, I found Jake Chervinsky and Ben Davenport helpful
https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1340135041746300932
https://twitter.com/bendavenport/status/1344341036412203014

Watch out as they are coming to you very close. They expect you to give your privacy on every level! Read Ben Davenport's letter to Fincen, it says it all.

[demonloso]

A decentralized or Anonymous things are slowly changing, this KYC makes this market a more centralized. We will surely afraid on this thing because in the first place we are here to remain anonymous, and then suddenly KYC takes in to change the tradition. Hopefully this thing will be use on its real purpose. 

[omarabid]

My biggest mistak was to fully verify myself at Bitstamp, where my mistake isn't specifically targeted at Bitstamp, but just the general fact that people I don't know have access to very precious personal information. I sent Bitstamp an email a while ago, asking whether or not it was possible to have all my details be erased from their system, including my account, but the answer was that they were legally not allowed to do so. In other words, my personal information is stored on their servers for ever, and I am now forced to pay tax because there is no way to move around it. I promised myself to never ever make the same mistake again, and I will stick to that.

They are based in the EU. What happened to GDPR? Maybe try sending a legal request asking them to remove your details.

For tax purposes, if you are american, maybe they are required to send your details by FATCA.

[ShowOff]

Previously I was a bounty participant, some of them asked KYC to receive coins or tokens and verify their customers. I have done it and I can say it looks like something is wrong on my part after realizing that our level of identity security is completely out of control.

 However, after I realized it, I have decided not to have any more contact with the bounty which requires participants to verify KYC because of the vulnerability of identities that can be misused. But specifically for exchanges, I have to do it to comply with government rules in my jurisdiction and I need not fear that. So for a thing or two, KYC will go a long way toward preventing criminal acts involving crypto assets via exchange. But no one required me to send my KYC on a bounty project which turned out to be fraudulent.

[acquafredda]

Considering the huge amount of scams and dubious projects that were releasing useless erc-20 tokens, can you imagine what the impact would be if the customers' data they gathered via mandatory KYC will go either public or for sale on the dark web?
I wonder how many people will see his/her digital identity stolen because of this. Scary uh?