I trade every day. I also keep up on crypto forums and social media.

Something that comes up on a regular basis are discussions about KYC, or Know Your Customer or Client, 2FA (2 factor authorization), and generally the issues people have with protective measures.

Crypto is still very young. Despite the fact Bitcoin has been around for over a decade, most of the market hardly even existed until 2016-7. The world outside of crypto hardly ever hears anything unless it is rare, huge news, or extremely bad news. The outside world gets to know ahout billions or dollars lost on Mt. Gox, and it hears about Bitcoin hitting $20,000. Rarely does the outside world hear of daily ups and downs of $300, industry building up in the hundreds of millions of dollars based around blockchain, deals with Microsoft, IBM, Starbucks, MoneyGram and the list goes on.

So, there is a divide. Perhaps that will change with time; we shall see. But, if you are a grown-up and you have a bank account, a debit card, a credit card or 7, or for that matter, have set up bills with the electric company, phone company... okay to include you Millennials, let's add running into a problem with your Netflix account- hehe. In the world outside of crypto, it's almost a guarantee, in the U.S., one of the first questions, before you get assistance, is "last 4 digits of your social security number". As if the strange on the other side of the phone... let's admit it, likely other side of the globe, should know your account number, name, address, phone, and last 4 digits of your social. Is that, or is that not enough, likely for a stranger to start running off with your personally identifiable information, once compromised, that could take you months to rectify if used by a stranger?

In fact, when the social security issuance was first introduced, it was promised it would never be used as a force means of identification. So much for governments and promises, eh?

Inside the world of crypto, most people don't mind the idea of using 2FA to protect their account. But, I do ask, is it giving far too much trust to one of the most bloated entities the internet, and the world, have ever known? 2FA usually centers around using Google Authenticator on a specific phone to complete log-in credentials. It probably works for 99% of the crypto people 99% of the time. If you run into an issue where it doesn't work or you switch phones thinking you can set it up after the swap, you are sorely surprised at the pain in the nether region when you can't get into any of your crypto accounts. Just who are we protecting ourselves from? Ourselves?

That's just an inconvenience, given that Google doesn't have the world's largest breach, or all this time it has been doing something devious with out online profiles, so robust with Google drive files, emails, authenticators holding the gateway to all of our crypto funds. But, then comes KYC. If you search it on Google, (hehe, yeah Google), you will see months back the king of exchanges Binance had a security breach where all of it's customers' KYC details were stolen and held for ransom. Binance did the right thing and did not pay; good for them. But, bad for them to leave the responsibility of all of that customer privacy in the hands of some 3rd party trusted firm.

So, in order to use your own funds, you are expected to share your picture i.d., license number, name, address, age, and a picture of yourself holding up the current date and the name of the exchange. This is enough information for any stranger to make your life a living hell. Forget your credit, forget your presence online, and everything that goes with it. And, who are the strangers given license to review and approve your account? Who's to say the security companies who process this information aren't just storing up a huge pile of identities to sell off the moment the company doesn't give them a holiday bonus? I just don't think we have arrived at the ideal way of "protecting" our identity on these accounts. Is it just me, or does anyone think that the real criminals are still not gonna use KYC? And, if they do, what are the chances they already stole the identity from someone else?

So, outside of crypto, they know your deets. Inside of crypto, you may be able to stay anonymous a few months before it gets more strict. But, in the end, don't we want the freedom to be responsible for our own safety and security? The truth is that, in crypto, 2FA is about your safety, but KYC is about governments knowing who is doing what. It is about control, under the guise of protecting us from laundering and naughty goings-on.

This is a thought piece, so I am ending here, at the end of the thought. Perhaps I got 'ya thinking, and maybe you just opened this to send yourself most of my tip- hehe. Either way, I hope it served your purpose and you have a great day!

For the funny stuff, go here:

https://www.publish0x.com/crypto-satire-fake-news-ripped-from-the-headlines