I find Soft-KYC equally harmful as KYC, if not more so, since it may give a false sense of security to inexperienced users. Although not as direct as traditional KYC, data points such as bank accounts, credit cards or phone numbers can still be used to trace a user's identity, often with minimal effort by authorities or determined third parties.
Thank you for for all your comments. I will maintain the decision not to list such services.
nostr:note1hmq2s702wz46dk8388ywafdqyktvfs0eajmgdeual8sg4sgzc3csjts7fu
Well, it is considered soft because the party that offers the service won't know your identity unless they take action (which they can easily can). There's an extra step for them to get to you. Your bank has the KYC, and the does not, but there's a very easy step to fully identify you if required.
I see more like: I can kill you, or I can break your spine and put you on a wheelchair. Soft KYC is the wheelchair option.
Should services like relai.app and dfx.swiss be listed on kycnot.me?
These services allow users to buy/sell cryptocurrencies for fiat (card/transfer) without KYC under certain limits. However, using a bank account (or card) is considered "soft KYC":
While the service doesn't require a formal KYC process, the bank account used for fiat transfers is typically linked to the user's identity. This allows the bank and the provider to potentially identify the user if needed.
If listed a warning would be displayed informing the user about this issue. Also, a new attribute for services would be set up to reflect this.
Thank you for the heads up. I have not reviewed Relai for some time. Either way, with this post, I'm not referring to those two services in particular, but to this kind of "soft-KYC" services, where there is no formal KYC, but the identification is implicit in the interaction with the service.
I want to ask the community, since I have never listed any of these services yet I've been asked many times to do so. Of course, if any were to be listed, they would have low scores, a new "soft-KYC" attribute, and maybe a warning. For now, I am still leaning towards not listing them.
I find Soft-KYC equally harmful as KYC, if not more so, since it may give a false sense of security to inexperienced users. Although not as direct as traditional KYC, data points such as bank accounts, credit cards or phone numbers can still be used to trace a user's identity, often with minimal effort by authorities or determined third parties.
Thank you for for all your comments. I will maintain the decision not to list such services.
nostr:note1hmq2s702wz46dk8388ywafdqyktvfs0eajmgdeual8sg4sgzc3csjts7fu
PayPerQ (@PPQdotAI) has been listed:
https://kycnot.me/service/ppq
Use GPT4 (and more) without accounts, subscriptions or credit cards. The interface runs on a pay-per-query model via Lightning.
https://blog.kycnot.me/p/four-years
This month is the 4th anniversary of kycnot.me. I wrote this blog post not to celebrate but to remind that, as a community, we must stand up against anti-privacy and anti-freedom regulations.
BasicSwap has been listed:
https://kycnot.me/service/basicswap
"Privacy-first, cross-chain trading exchange (DEX) with no central point of failure that lets you freely swap cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Monero without restrictions or the need for third-party involvement."
#KYCNOTME automatically analyzes all Terms of Service (ToS) and FAQs every month for all listed services using #AI.
Read the new #blog post:
https://blog.kycnot.me/p/ai-tos-analysis
#KYCNOTME automatically analyzes all Terms of Service (ToS) and FAQs every month for all listed services using AI.
This provides a comprehensive overview of a service's ToS, flagging any suspicious sections related to Know Your Customer (#KYC) and user #privacy
Check out an example: https://kycnot.me/service/changenow
#btc #xmr
Beware of scams. Always double check URLs with trusted websites.
Exch has published an investigation about a scammer that was cloning known anonymous exchanges, and stealing user funds:
https://anir0y-scams.info
KYC regulations in crypto compromise privacy, undermine decentralization, and deter innovation by imposing traditional financial barriers in a space designed for openness.
Always avoid KYC.
#privacy #freedom #nokyc
Seems like MajesticBank continues having issues with their clearnet site. It was delisted for the last 24h, now it's been relisted as Tor-Only.
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MajesticBank has been temporarly delisted, their site has been down for more than 24h.
It will be re-listed when the service is back up.
https://m.primal.net/Hfzw.png
Downtime issues have been solved. Sorry for this! The new version had a bug that caused the web app to go down after some weird request was made. Should be solved now.
The reason the "pending" list remains static is that I won't be reviewing new services until the update is published.
The review process is both tedious and slow; I can't simply list any service, as there are numerous scams and sketchy services. It's essential to filter out these scammy services.
The new version is ready; I'm currently making minor adjustments and need to transfer the existing database. It will be live in the coming days/weeks.
The kycnot.me update is almost ready!
Lately I have fewer time to invest on my personal projects so development has been slow, but I'm sure you'll like the update!
I am currently working on a new update for kycnot.me which should improve upon the latest changes, making the site more reliable in many aspects, as well as more maintainable. I will write a blog post about the decisions taken.
Expect the update to be ready around the end of this year!
I am thinking about decentralizing kycnot.me making use of #nostr. I need to think this further, but sounds interesting.
I would like it to be self-sustainable from and by community contributions, without needing my supervision. So anyone could host a nostr-kycnot relay and make the database even more distributed, or even host an exact mirror that would take the data from available relays.
This has some challenges, like spam or fake reviews/votes, but I think this would be great.
Notes by kycnotme | export