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I wanted to quickly sign up for a cryptocurrency exchange today to act on some info I found out about a low-cost coin (hahahah, quickly. how naïve). In signing up for the account, I got to a step asking me for my SSN, which is pretty normal. But then it asked for high resolution photos of a picture ID AND a proof of residency document??
I have MULTIPLE online bank accounts and brokerage accounts, with tens of thousand of dollars being held and traded in various forms, and I've never had to provide such information. Why the heck is the supposedly "anonymous decentralized currency of the future" requiring me to send in my firstborn and the results of my latest colonoscopy??
Right, which is why I included the fact that I have many US based banking and brokerage accounts that have NEVER asked for such info. So there has to be a better answer than this. – WakeDemons3 – 2018-02-14T17:59:59.627
@WakeDemons3 Bitcoin is also considered an international trade by many governments whereas banking and brokerage is (probably?) just domestic trade. They hold your local regulated currency and trade on the domestic stock market, otherwise, they are probably international and not subject to the regulation of the US. – Willtech – 2018-02-14T18:02:32.227
You can seamlessly trade international markets on any brokerage account without additional levels of identification or verification. – WakeDemons3 – 2018-02-14T18:05:03.557
@WakeDemons3 I also have challenged one specific US-based cryptocurrency exchange service on this in the past and was told specifically that it is a regulatory requirement - I am not US-based. – Willtech – 2018-02-14T18:05:51.250
2@WakeDemons3 I would bet that the somewhat uncertain regulatory environment that bitcoin exchanges operate within would incentivize exchange operators to go ‘above and beyond’ the sort of verifications you are used to, in order to more fully cover themselves with respect to KYC/AML regulations. – chytrik – 2018-02-14T23:09:28.453