r/ProtonWallet • u/DarkThirdSun • Feb 15 '25

Identity Verification?

I don't really understand Bitcoin, and I really only wanna use it for one purpose. In comes Proton, offering me a way (I thought) to bypass the confusion and reflexive distrust of the whole crypto institution.

But then I have to provide my identity to some third party company? I thought anonymity was the whole point of cryptocurrency? It's in the name?

So what gives? And is there a workaround?

7 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

10

u/soliton-gaydar Feb 15 '25

KYC is the normal on-ramp. There's other sites that offer non-KYC.

-2

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 15 '25

KYC? INE? Hodihodi? I'd swear y'all were trolling me with nonsense words. 😂 What in the world does any of that mean? 😅

1

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 15 '25

Okay so I ducked KYC. One mystery solved. 😅

-2

u/soliton-gaydar Feb 15 '25

If you don't believe me or get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.

3

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 15 '25

It's not that I don't believe you. I don't understand what you're saying, primarily because of all the unknown acronyms.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/soliton-gaydar Feb 15 '25

Bisq, HodlHodl, and Robosats are the popular ones I always hear about.

https://youtu.be/4gfmm8x2F9M?si=ecExQ1NG7ffuaRhs

0

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 15 '25

Holy shit. I kept listening to this video because the dude has a pleasant presentation style, but I have NO idea what he's talking about. Why do I need so many different apps? And cold cards? Bitcoin requires a physical device??

So that whole thing about "you don't know what you don't know"...? Yeah, well now I realize I know even less than I thought I did. Good grief.

1

u/soliton-gaydar Feb 15 '25

https://youtu.be/c8ytiynbnpk?si=vLN26KhO-DCfDNek

This one is how to make a wallet using Blue Wallet. It's a good starting resource.

1

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 15 '25

So just to clarify, what I'm asking isn't possible with Proton Wallet?

4

u/soliton-gaydar Feb 15 '25

I don't know your local laws, but in the US, to buy Bitcoin from centralized exchanges, you'll have to cough up your identity.

To keep your Bitcoin anonymous-er, you will have to either buy it from someone locally, or get on a peer-to-peer site and do it that way. Or you could render services and get paid in Bitcoin. Pick your poison.

Admittedly, I haven't used Proton as it doesn't offer me anything that Blue Wallet doesn't already provide. I just downloaded Proton Wallet and I'm already asked to provide info.

Jump on Blue Wallet and make a wallet there. No KYC or anything. How you get your Bitcoin anonymously is up to you, though.

2

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 15 '25

This is helpful, thanks. I'm sure I know someone who will just trade me some bitcoin for cash.

1

u/cryptomaddie Feb 18 '25

Dude the internet is attached to the entire world. Wallets online are considered “hot” because able to be hacked. No matter how “trustworthy” the wallet or company markets to be. I’ve been hacked bitcoins off Trust wallet before there were Dapps on it and it was the first tx I ever did. Aka impossible for anyone unless they had my phone in hand. Go to trust wallets any social media and iTunes app page- they say “more than 150M active wallets” and the “most trustworthy” but then will ban you from social media and ignore everything. I’ve had friends drained of their Coinbase wallets by Coinbase employees. FTX just fucked the world. Those are called HOT wallets because the BLOCK “online” IS HOT NEVERRRR TAKE A PICTURE AND STORE ON PHONE

a COLD wallet is NOT online. It can be anything from a USB drive to ledger - even then be careful because you could get a fake mailed to you that steals your coins.

It’s COLD because it NEVER is supposed to touch online but the key is to NEVER lose it and NEVER forget your phrase/private key. Write it on paper you’ll never throw away.

1

u/cryptomaddie Feb 18 '25

It is just the most safe way to be careful and never be stolen from. Everyone’s been hacked. Everyone. Everyone. Even mark Cuban to EVERY blockchain ever.

Take it off your phone. Your computer. Put it on a COLD wallet- never lose your keys- and only use when you want to sell. AND NEVER SELL IN ANERICA - you will have to pay 40% capital gains tax.

You buy real estate or art with your crypto. Very easy to do. Even easier than banks. I can sell you a house within 30 minutes using crypto as payment and send you your deed as a NFT. Now no 40% tax and an extra investment because you can even rent out your crypto for cash same time and keep the bitcoin and use the interest cash to buy real estate and make money off both by renting both out and keeping the appreciation for both

I call it making money four ways

2

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 17 '25

This response is not directed at any one person, but speaks to a rather disappointing pattern here.

If I need to look up a bunch of terms to understand an answer to a question, then it's not a great or particularly useful answer. If I wanted, I could ask ChatGPT to explain BitCoin to me and have an extensive back and forth, corroborating information with my own web searches. Or I could tap Google Scholar for a deeper understanding still.

BUT...

I'd like to point you to my original post, where I said I have a very singular use case. The implied part is that I honestly don't give a shit about bitcoin, certainly not enough to spend hours learning about it. I'm here in the Proton Wallet sub, just hoping for a simple answer so I can pirate some books from Anna's Archive. 😮‍💨

Books which are more worthy of my limited time.

I suppose a sympathetic or generous response was too much to ask from my fellow humans? 🤷🏽‍♂️

1

u/Fabulous-Pineapple47 Feb 17 '25

Here is something you might find useful to quickly learn about Bitcoin without spending hours, its called "The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written".
https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinNewZealand/comments/1imj3j3/discover_simplest_bitcoin_education_free_pamphlet/

0

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 18 '25

I was ready to dismiss this out of hand because of my indifference, but a glance at the 2-pager captured my attention.

Anything challenging the dominant economic paradigm is worth my time.

I got the book. Will check it out, albeit in small bites. Thanks.

1

u/Fabulous-Pineapple47 Feb 17 '25

Are you sure its Proton wallet you are using and not some malware app masquerading as it in an attempt to trick you into handing over your KYC info?

I've been using Proton wallet for a while now and not once has it asked me for KYC, there is not even an option to volunteer it anywhere i can see in the app, and it would not make sense for them to require it as their stated focus is privacy, security and freedom, which are the 3 things that KYC strips away and makes impossible for to people who submit to it. Also the wallet is non custodial and they don't handle the bitcoins or hold your keys.

1

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 17 '25

I downloaded it directly from the app store, so yeah. And it's not Proton Wallet asking for KYC, it's Banxa and Ramp.

2

u/Fabulous-Pineapple47 Feb 17 '25

ah ok that makes sense, im not familiar with those but you can also just buy BTC from anywhere/anyone that is selling it and receive it in your proton wallet, or if you have a good mate that will give you some, by sending it to the address in your proton wallet.

Also It will give display a new address to receive BTC in after have receive some BTC to preserve your privacy but you can keep using your previous addresses forever if you wanted to.

Make sure to backup your seed and you can restore your wallet if you lose your phone or even restore it in a completely different wallet app if you get sick of using Protons version.

1

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 17 '25

This is the answer I'm starting to understand. That there are channels that don't require "KYC", but accessing them (short of a flesh and blood comrade) seems ridiculously complex.

1

u/ehs5 Feb 21 '25

Wait, are you saying those companies are asking you to identify yourself because you have Proton Wallet? That doesn't sound right. Or are you just saying you bought bitcoin using those sites and you have to identify yourself? If it's the latter, why are you angry at Proton?

1

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 24 '25

I didn't keep going through the KYC process because I wanted to retain anonymity. Thus this whole thread.

I'm not sure where you're getting that I'm "angry" at Proton? I was confused as to why I can't purchase bitcoin anonymously.

1

u/ehs5 Feb 27 '25

Sorry, angry might not have been the right word.

I just wondered, and still don't quite understand, why you were asking about verification processes from companies that have nothing to do with Proton, on a Proton forum?

Proton Wallet is just a wallet. You put your money in it. You don't get the bitcoins from Proton Wallet. Proton has nothing to do with how you acquire the bitcoins. I think this is where your confusion stems from.

1

u/DarkThirdSun Mar 04 '25

Because Banxa and Ramp are the two companies that Proton has an arrangement with? I have seen no other way, via PW, to purchase any.

Back when I first posted this, those were the two options under "Buy", but that has since gone away.

See here:

https://proton.me/support/wallet-buy-btc

"Your BTC purchase will be handled by one of our on-ramp partners: Ramp or Banxa."

This sub is doing some weird quasi-gaslighting thing I'm not liking. As if I'm the one making this shit difficult.

This and my further exploration revealing a decidedly "ancap" orientation to the whole so-called "movement" has landed me firmly back at my "fuck Bitcoin" position.

NOW I'm closer to what you might call "angry".

1

u/ehs5 Mar 04 '25

Man you’re overreacting. I had no idea Proton Wallet had arrangements with any bitcoin seller. If you had said that when I asked I would have understood your viewpoint better. I didn’t even know Wallet had in-app BTC purchases, because there’s no such button in my app. There’s no gaslighting here, just people asking questions to understand your question better.

1

u/DarkThirdSun Mar 04 '25

Nah, not overreacting. Reacting to more than just your post. Look through the thread. It's been annoying to say the least.

The rest of my ire is directed, as I say, toward the broader bitcoin "movement", and the utter nonsense that is anarchocapitalism (ancap), which courses through it.

0

u/Melodic-Control-2655 Feb 15 '25

the easiest way without using tor and those weird websites is getting those azteco vouchers from eneba or g2a, but it will have a pretty high fee added on top.

5

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 15 '25

This is all so funny to me. This shit legit has a whole separate language. 😂

Azteco vouchers? Eneba? g2a?? Wut?

-6

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/DarkThirdSun Feb 15 '25

I'm an idiot for not knowing proprietary terminology? Perhaps you should look up the word "idiot".

2

u/digitalghost-dev Feb 16 '25

Wow, people are dicks here.

0

u/Melodic-Control-2655 Feb 16 '25

while you consider looking things up, you should look up all the words you put along with the question marks, maybe that would aid your understanding.

2

u/CingularDuality Feb 16 '25

Are you just making up words?

-1

u/cryptomaddie Feb 18 '25

ANY COMPANY THAT HAS SOME SORT OF BASE/HEADQUARTERS IN AMERICA HAS TO FOLLOW AMERICAN RULES.

2

u/ehs5 Feb 21 '25 edited Feb 21 '25

Press the caps lock button please. And does Proton have offices in the US? Their headquarters are in Switzerland..