First, people ask why I still use an exchange.
The answer to this is simple: because I need money in my bank account to pay my bills, just like any other normal person.
Second, people recommend just using P2P services.
But P2P services are even worse. Small frequent amounts from random people paid into your bank account will get you banned from any bank immediately as it throws an instant AML flag.
Third, people blame the exchanges.
Every exchange this has happened to me on (apart from one) has been exceptionally helpful and constructive. This is not the exchanges fault.
So lets blame the banks!
Also wrong. This is not the banks fault - it is the fault of laws that have turned banks into undemocratic policing vehicles. The banks hate these laws as much as we do - because it causes them to spend billions of $ on braindead compliance bros.
I think its important to direct our anger where it matters:
against the system that has been built to make this happen, and not against those enforcing it, as they mostly have no other choice ✌️
quotingMy money has once again been frozen by an exchange.
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As always, I try to explain that I am a journalist and make my money through donations. I send them my donations page – and of course that's not enough.
"Please show us receipts of when you purchased the bitcoin," they say. Because the concept of using bitcoin as money simply does not exist in the mind of a compliance bro.
Its not illegal to receive anonymous donations – in theory. In practice, the bank will freeze your accounts until you KYC every donation you receive. This is the problem with AML:
You can obey the law as it is written, and the bank will still penalize you without any chance at due process.
All this, of course, while Jeffrey Epstein and friends move hundreds of millions through the banks for human trafficking.
1$ left in the bank account. Let's see how long this process takes this time.