KYC Emails Galore

I got an email from Bittrex today saying I need to provide "more details" about my identity by, well, today. It turns out that they'd been emailing me for a while about this, but since I haven't used Bittrex in close to two years, I wasn't looking out for any email from them, or have been subconsciously filtering them out. LOL. Out of curiosity, I filtered by some crypto terms and, lo and behold, a list of emails asking the same thing. Virtually all the centralised exchanges I've ever signed up for have sent me KYC emails.

The government has been enacting crypto related regulations at lightning speed it seems. The KYC requirements must be very thorough because even exchanges that I'm already KYC'd on want more! Coinbase, for example, already knows my home address, have my ID photo and everything else. Yet there's an email from them to provide "more details".

It makes you wonder why a normally snow moving government can suddenly get on their skates and enact laws and regulations like their lives depended on it. That's just it, their lives do depend on it. They have seen the future, like many of us, and have to move fast. Despite all the BS FUD they're putting out, they know that crypto is not only the future, but the NOW.

The government is bullish on crypto, and so should we.

The lady from the bank

I got a call from a bank that froze my account two years ago and held on to my money despite numerous hours spent on the phone and in a couple of their branches. She finally came out with it, as if I didn't already know. She was from the "security" team and wanted to "understand" some "transactions" that took place on x and y dates.

"I bought crypto with the money." I said, interrupting the script she was reading at me. "It's obvious isn't it? It's a transfer to Coinbase, it says that in the statement. Coinbase is a crypto exchange. What is it you don't understand?".

She then went on wanting to "confirm" my employment and where the "source" of my income is from. I declined to provide any of the info, since I already did when I was setting up the account just two years prior to the freeze. Instead I pointed out other transactions of equal amounts that, but where just cash withdrawals from an ATM.

"Do you wonder what I did with the cash?" I asked her rhetorically. She paused, apparently acknowledging the irony. "I don't remember you freezing my account for taking out cash. I could have bought drugs or whipped my bum with it for all I care. It's my money right?". She laughed.

"Is crypto illegal?". I continued. She didn't reply.

"Listen. I'm not applying for a bank account with you. I just want my money taken out. If you're not happy doing business with me anymore, then release my money and let me go. Right now, you're making money out of my money while denying me the opportunity to invest it, especially during a pandemic, all arbitrarily based on nothing. Sounds like a case for legal action."

They don't like to hear "legal action". As expected she wrapped up the call and said they will "get back to me". I don't think the call went as she expected. I also hope she realised that the days of calling people up on the phone demanding their private info are numbered, as are the days when banks exploit the masses, an dis looking for alternative employment.

Peace & Love,

Adé