why kycnot.me?
Cryptocurrencies were created to revolutionize the way we pay for goods and services, aiming to eliminate reliance on centralized entities such as banks and governments that control our economy.
Exchanges that enforce KYC (Know Your Customer) operate similarly to traditional banks. Users are required to provide identification, such as a photo of their ID, to use these exchanges. Moreover, most of these exchanges are centralized, meaning that users do not own their keys. In short, this implies that the cryptocurrencies belong to the exchange and not the user. These requirements go against the decentralized and self-sovereign nature of cryptocurrencies.
With KYCNOT.ME, I hope to provide people with trustworthy alternatives for buying, exchanging, trading, and using cryptocurrencies without having to disclose their identity, thus preserving the right to privacy. I want to help preserve the original ethos of cryptocurrencies.
what's KYC?
KYC stands for "Know Your Customer", a process designed to protect financial institutions against fraud, corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. Or at least this is what they want you to believe.
The truth is that KYC is a direct attack on our privacy and puts us in disadvantage against the governments. True criminals don't care about KYC policies. True criminals know perfectly how to avoid such policies. In fact, they normally use the FIAT system and don't even need to use cryptocurrencies. Banks are the biggest money launders, the HSBC scandal, Nordea or Swedbank are just some examples.
Chainalysis found that only 0.34% of the transaction volume with cryptocurrencies in 2023 was attributable to criminal activity. Bitcoin's share of this is significantly lower with 25%. Illicit transactions with Euros accounted for 1% of the EU's GDP or €110 billion in 2010. [1] [2]
KYC only affects small individuals like you and me. It is an annoying procedure that forces us to hand our personal information to a third party in order to buy, use or unlock our funds. We should start boycotting companies that enforce such practices. We should start using cryptocurrencies as they were intended to be used: without barriers.
other acronyms of interest
why only Bitcoin and Monero?
Bitcoin: it's the initial spark of the decentralized money. A solid project with a strong community. It is the most well-known and widespread cryptocurrency.
Monero: if digital cash was to exist, it should be like Monero. Fungible, private by design, fast and pretty low fees. Also, one of the oldest cryptocurrencies around with a very active community.
No other currencies will be added. Most sites listed here also accept other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum or Litecoin.
listings
request
You can request a new listing by visiting the Request page. The request form requires javascript to avoid spam. Read more about the PoW captcha in this section..
listing process
The listing process is usually slow. I first need to review the service, read online reviews, gather evidence and history of good reviews / opinions, test it myself (i can't always do this), read the terms of service, privacy policy, etc...
I do this on my own free time, so I'm slow at it. If you feel like a pending service deserves to be listed, you can contact me and I will try to speed up the review process.
what is an attribute?
An attribute is a feature that a service has. An attribute can be either good, a warning, bad or informational. Attributes are not limited, the list of attributes will grow if needed, you can see a full list of the attributes available on the Attributes page.
You can click on any point to see a detailed description of what it means. The point page also shows all the listings that have that point. This is also a useful way to find listings that have a specific feature.
search
Filtering services in kycnot.me is very easy. In the main page, you will see 3 possible filters:
kyc Levels
KYCnot.me has a KYC level system. These levels allow you to quickly identify the kind of KYC practices a service may have. There are 4 levels going from 0 to 3. The higher the level, the more invasive the KYC practices are.
scoring
Each listing has a score that is calculated based on the attributes that it has. The score does not reflect how good an exchange is overall, but it seeks to give a score in relation to its KYC practices. An exchange could have an awful UI/UX, but if it is very NO-KYC friendly, it will still get a high score.
The scoring algorithm is open source, pull requests to improve it are welcome. It runs once every hour, meaning scores cannot be manually modified since they will be recalculated by the algorithm hourly. You can visit a service's score breakdown to see how it is calculated.
order
The listings are sorted in a decreasing order by score. For listings that share the same score (tie), the order is random every time within that score range.
pending
You can find the list of services that have been requested and are pending for approval here: /pending
verification
You will see that some services show a blue badge with a tick. This means that the service has been tested personally by me.
To check the service, I make a trade on the site, or test the service manually. With this, I can verify that the service does not perform KYC practices on regular basis, and that it is not a scam, at least at the time of the verification.
These checks are done randomly and without prior notice to the service. For this reason, and as the list is in constant growth, not all services have been verified yet and it takes me some time to verify them.
A verified service does not mean that the service is safe to use blindly, it just means that at the time of the verification, the service was not performing KYC practices on regular basis, and that it was not a scam. It is still recommended to do your own research before using any service, since I can't test all the services frequently enough.
terms of service auto-reviews
KYCnot.me features an AI-powered tool that automatically reviews Terms of Service (ToS) for all the different services. It breaks down the ToS content, highlights the main points, and translates them into easy-to-understand language, aiming to simplify the comprehension of any service's ToS.
For this, I am using OpenAI's GPT4-turbo model, which proved to be the most reliable and provides the best results.
Important note: The automated tool generally delivers reliable and solid results. But it might flag false positives or irrelevant lines, if you find something's off, please contact me.
support this project
If you like this project, or any of my other projects, you can support me through these methods:
> If your wallet supports OpenAlias, you can use kycnot.me in the address field.
{{.Xmr}}
Click for QR Code
Bitcoin via silent payments
> If you want to donate without Silent Payments, request an address via any of the contact methods.
{{.BtcSilent}}
Click for QR Code
contact
If you have any queries or concerns, you can connect with me on any of the listed social media platforms below.
For confidential communication (e2ee), please reach out via SimpleX link.
(matrix) comments
Each service has a dedicated comments section. The comments are suppored by Matrix, an open network for secure, decentralised communication, thanks to Cactus.
To comment on a service's page, you just need a Matrix account. This method gives users full control over who hosts their data. Users can log in using any Matrix server they choose.
You can read and post comments in your browser, or continue the conversation using any other Matrix client. Comment sections are accesible from any homeserver on the Matrix network.
The source code for the web client is LGPLv3 licensed, and the backend service is AGPLv3 licensed.
transparency
In order to increase trust from visitors, KYCNOT.me strives to be as transparent as possible. Here are some of the ways in which I try to achieve this:
privacy
KYCNOT.me does not have trackers and never will. It does not make any third party connections from the frontend. No user data of any kind is collected. A "no-referrer" policy is enforced. Tor and I2P sites are available (check the footer).
javascript
KYCNOT.me does not require Javascript. Everything is rendered server-side. You can use KYCNOT.me with Javascript disabled.
Only things that do require JavaScript to be enabled are:
api
KYCnot.me offers a public API to get its data.
If you make use of the API data, you should mention kycnot.me as the source of the data.
example: /api/v1/service/bisq
example 2: /api/v1/service/bisq.network
rate limit: 5req/min (with bursts of 5)
referrals
Referrals help me cover the site and maintenance costs. The default website link is the referral, if there is any. But there's always a referral-free option, that is shown with a icon. Feel free to choose.
disclaimer
This website does not provide any financial advice. Always do your own research before using any service. This site is for informational purposes only. I'm not responsible for any loss of funds or any other damage that may occur by using any of the services listed here. Use at your own risk.