What is KYC?
Basic information
KYC means “know your client/customer”. In the financial world, it is a set of standards and requirements used in the investment and financial services industry. This ensures the availability of information about clients, their risk profile and financial situation. This process usually takes place when opening an account. Typical KYC queries on cryptocurrency exchanges includes the following:
- Full name.
- Date of birth.
- Residential address – in some cases, a verification via invoice is required.
- Identification number – ID card, driver’s license, or passport.
- Photo – sometimes a photo from the ID is enough and sometimes it is necessary to take a photo with the application during the KYC process.
In the world of cryptocurrency platforms, KYC is not required. Nevertheless, exchanges implement KYC to protect themselves primarily against regulators, who sooner or later will make it mandatory for all exchanges anyway. The most famous exchange Binance even creates a financial profile of the client when it asks you to fill out a short questionnaire before letting you start trading.
In the cryptocurrency world, KYC has become a bogeyman above all else. Many people enjoy anonymity and the knowledge that it is difficult for the tax office to trace them. However, this may not be entirely true. It will probably be possible to track you anyway, especially when withdrawing profits to a bank account or anywhere when you spend a lot of money. However, some exchanges have not implemented KYC yet, so it is still possible to trade on an account without KYC. Below, we provide a link to a relatively new article with a list of exchanges that have not implemented KYC yet: https://bitshills.com/best-non-kyc-crypto-exchanges/.
Previous
Next
