Table of Contents

  1. Why no-KYC?
  2. Where to buy no-KYC?
  3. Other options
  4. Trade-offs

Why no-KYC?

KYC or ‘Know your customer’ is a regulation that any businesses with a banking relationship has to abide by and Bitcoin exchanges are no different. These rules are imposed worldwide and are geared towards ensuring that a business acting as a money exchange and/or transmitter has ‘suitable’ information on every customer they serve.

95% of Bitcoin on-ramps today require KYC information. If you purchase through one of these regulated entities, you essentially tag your bitcoin addresses to your personal identity. This makes it much easier for chain surveillance firms, the companies they work with or worse, governments, to potentially…

  • Track your spending habits
  • Prevent you from using other regulated services
  • Confiscate your bitcoin
  • Come after you for tax liabilities
  • Generally know more about you than they should

If you already own some bitcoin from a KYC source, you can decide on the best course of action and read more on the risks of KYC here. At the very least, ensure that you keep your KYC and non-KYC stacks of bitcoin completely separate.

Given these risks it seems logical that step 1 of your Bitcoin privacy journey should be to ensure that when obtaining bitcoin, the fewer people who know, the better. Buying from a no-KYC source facilitates this.

Where to buy no-KYC?

Easy

  1. Sign up for Hodl Hodl
  2. Click ‘Buy BTC’
  3. Select desired payment method
  4. Select the offer you wish to take
  5. Specify the amount you wish to buy (if the seller is offering a range)
  6. Enter receive address to which you want the bitcoin to be sent
  7. Generate an escrow password
  8. Wait for seller to deposit their bitcoin to the escrow and for 1 confirmation
  9. Send the funds using your chosen payment method and confirm this on Hodl Hodl
  10. Once the seller confirms receipt of payment, the bitcoin will be sent to your address

More in-depth

  1. Download Bisq onto your computer, run it and wait for it to sync
  2. Click on account and add the payment method you intend to use to purchase bitcoin with
  3. Go to ‘Buy BTC’ and search for sellers offering bitcoin in exchange for your chosen payment method
  4. Click ‘Take Offer’
  5. Specify the amount you wish to buy (if the seller is offering a range)
  6. Fund trade wallet with BTC
  7. Confirm trade
  8. Wait for 1 blockchain confirmation
  9. You will then see seller’s payment details to send to
  10. Once the seller confirms receipt of payment, the bitcoin (including your deposit) will be sent to your Bisq wallet

Other options

Trade-offs

Whilst buying from a no-KYC source will undoubtedly give you far more privacy, going down this route is not without its limitations. Some of the challenges you may face include…

  • Higher premiums for instant purchases (this can be mitigated by creating your own buy offer and having patience)
  • You may struggle to buy larger amounts in a single transaction
  • If you are limited to one payment method, liquidity may be limited
  • The user experience is not as easy as centralised KYC offerings

Now you know how to obtain bitcoin privately, lets secure it.