Filecoin founder Juan Benet blasts KYC rules: SSN and face checks for sub-$1,000 credit card purchases
KarlMozurkewich · x · 2026-10-19
Filecoin founder Juan Benet ranting about KYC requirements: buying under $1,000 of digital goods online with a credit card — especially developer tool credits — now demands name, address, ID, SSN, and face verification, even though the payment processor already holds the card and bank info. He calls it completely insane and notes the irony of KYC databases themselves being leak-prone.
Follow-up details: the screenshot was from the Filecoin Pay Console, with the SSN popup provided by Privy. One reply argued it's a misconfigured merchant account (SSN isn't required for a SaaS top-up), while others countered that fiat-to-crypto rails force every project into this gauntlet due to government regulations.