How to Protect your ID during KYC in ICOs/Bounties?

[Castlereagh]

Hi there. I've been a fairly prolific investor for the last 6 months or so, and sunk a lot into quite a few new ICOs (as well as doing the odd bounty here and there).

Now, the increasing requirement to undergo KYC each time is starting to get me worried. I mean, the possibility of hacks and leaks is concerning enough when big exchanges like Coinbase or Binance ask for KYC verification - but the idea of uploading a passport etc. to 20+ different little crypto startups, probably all with variable levels of security seems like it's asking for trouble in the long run. I mean, when ID thieves can open credit cards in your name using this stuff, run up debt or go around investing using your ID document to participate in other ICOs, and other bad intentioned stuff... It seriously feels to me like it might not be worth investing in ICOs until something like SelfKey (or one of their competitors) becomes standard.

Does anyone have any practices they use to try and protect their documents? Maybe watermarking or obscuring some information? Although, I know a lot of projects will reject any edited or redacted document...

Seems totally counter to the spirit of distributed ledger technology, which is all about PRESERVING privacy.

[bob3772]

I really don't think there are many options right now. It's either take the risk or don't invest. It's sad that that is the case, hopefully as you said, SelfKey or something similar will become a standard in the future. This is one area I do feel like regulation will be a big improvement on things. Right now there's so much in the way of KYC from ICOs but there's very little the other way in terms of proof of legitimacy.

[Benarand]

More and more ICO projects require the passage of the KYC procedure. They have such rules. But no one can protect you from the leakage of your data. You send your own confirmation at your own risk. Therefore, you do not protect yourself. It is worth to rely only on the honesty of the developers of the project in which you are investing.