About dontkyc.me

Cryptocurrencies were created to change the way we pay for goods and services - without depending on central institutions like banks controlling our finances.

Providers that enforce KYC (Know Your Customer) essentially behave like traditional banks: users have to disclose their identity just to use the service at all. With many of these providers, users don't even retain control of their own private keys - the cryptocurrency effectively belongs to the provider, not the user.

With dontkyc.me, we want to highlight trustworthy alternatives - services that let you buy, swap and use cryptocurrencies without having to reveal your identity. Our goal is to preserve the original idea behind cryptocurrencies: financial self-determination.

KYC stands for "Know Your Customer" - a process officially meant to protect against fraud, corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing.

The reality is more nuanced: KYC requirements mostly affect ordinary users who simply want to buy or use cryptocurrencies - not the actual targets of the regulation. Anyone with genuinely criminal intent usually finds other ways in practice, regardless of whether a service requires KYC or not.

Regardless of where you personally stand on this debate: we believe people should have the free choice of whether to disclose their personal data in order to use cryptocurrencies - and that reliable, well-documented alternatives are needed for that.

Every service gets three metrics:

• KYC level (0-3): How strictly is the user's identity checked? 0 means no identity verification required, higher values mean stricter requirements.
• Privacy score (0-10): How well does the service protect user privacy - independent of KYC, e.g. through Tor support, no logging, or open-source software.
• Trust score (0-10): How trustworthy is the service overall - history, user feedback, known incidents.

These values do not reflect how good a service's user interface or customer support is. A service can have a poor user experience and still score highly if it consistently prioritizes privacy.

On every service page you can view the exact breakdown via "ⓘ How scores work" - including the individual factors the score is made up of, and the ability for the community itself to vote on individual factors.

On many service pages you'll find an "AI summary" with clearly separated pros and cons. These condense researched information compactly, so you don't have to work through long description texts.

Currently 341 out of 398 listed services have such a summary - we're continuously expanding this.

Important: the summaries are based on research and publicly available information. They do not replace your own due diligence - especially for services with a less-known track record, you should always research independently before larger amounts are involved.

A green "Verified" badge on a service means the listing has been reviewed and confirmed by us. This is not a guarantee that a service will remain safe at any later point in time - services can change, so we always recommend doing your own additional research (DYOR - Do Your Own Research), especially before larger transactions.

Providers can also request verification of their own listing themselves, to confirm they are the official point of contact for their service.

We currently list 398 services, of which 248 have no KYC requirement at all.

Anyone can suggest a new service through the directory. We review submitted suggestions before they become publicly visible - including a look at the terms of service, known user reports, and our own testing where possible.

Existing listings can be updated by logged-in users via "Suggest an edit". These suggestions are also reviewed before being applied - keeping the directory current without letting anyone push arbitrary changes live directly.

dontkyc.me is more than just a list - in the forum, the community exchanges information, warns about current scam patterns (see our "Scam Pattern of the Week" series), and discusses individual services.

In the marketplace, users can trade directly with each other - with escrow handled via fixed, transparent wallet addresses, so neither we nor either party can unilaterally control the funds.

Every service can be rated and commented on by logged-in users. Comments are visible immediately; we only moderate for clear rule violations like spam or insults - but always verify claims in comments independently before trusting them.

We use no Google Analytics and no third-party tracking services. Our own privacy-friendly visitor statistics never store raw IP addresses - instead, only a daily-rotating, hashed value is used, from which individual visitors cannot be traced back.

No email address is needed to register - your account is based on a private key that only you know.

The newsletter sign-up prompt that occasionally appears also only remembers a hashed value of your IP, to avoid showing it multiple times on the same day - never the IP address itself.

dontkyc.me is funded independently and without advertising. If you'd like to support the project, you'll find Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses along with QR codes on our donation page.