I was one of the first to complete a bounty for NYDIG's new list of bitcoin development bounties, and after going through the claiming process I think it may benefit others to have this warning:
If you are not a taxpaying US citizen, the KYC/AML requirements on you to claim a bounty are extremely and unnecessarily onerous.
While they make it clear that they do require KYC to claim a bounty, what is not clear is the amount of work and private information necessary to satisfy their KYC demands, especially for non-US citizens, and triply so for those without a tax number in your local region (e.g. for full-time students not earning any money).
So a fair warning, the KYC process can take up to several weeks and they will likely require all of the below:
  • Official ID
  • Official passport
  • Signing several documents and declarations with NYDIG regarding KYC/AML items, with different forms requiring the same personal information
  • Tax number
  • Filling out one of several IRS forms, depending on where you live outside the USA
With various issues, discrepancies, and other problems one might encounter depending on what you have available in your country, the back and forth for this KYC stuff and learning the proper way to fill in IRS forms can take longer than the task the initial bounty was on. Perhaps this is the norm for companies in the USA, but comparing it to local KYC crypto exchanges (e.g. Luno) and even traditional banks in my country, it has been ridiculously burdensome.
TL;DR: while KYC always sucks, for NYDIG bitcoin bounties it is particularly and needlessly onerous, especially for those outside the USA. If you are not a taxpaying US citizen already intertwined with the KYC of these sorts of megacorps, make triple sure the bounty you are considering working toward is worth the overhead effort and privacy implications of their KYC process.
Why would you need to KYC for a bounty? It's not like you're going to do a bunch of bitcoin development just to launder money.
reply
A very good question I would also like to know the answer to. They claim it is for regulatory reasons, but one never truly knows with these types of corps, especially when their requirements seem much more than over institutions I've interacted with :/
I doubt that KYC has anything to do with a desire to prevent money laundering. The bankers and their government puppets are all money launderers. I see a lot of these sites and they have different levels of KYC, some having none if your transactions are less than x dollars (as much as 1000). Their KYC varies in onerousness too.
Unfortunately the vast majority just go along with it, so it looks like it is here to stay. We can just support the ones who don't do it and ignore the compliant ones. What we each of us do is what matters, what others do it not our responsibility.
When I worked for a US company as a contractor, they required almost none of those requirements. I think even my official ID was not sent to them.
They only required my digital signature, bank account to pay me and my full name and phone number. And it was a big company.
Nuts that they want all that from you.
reply
note: I am neither a US citizen nor a resident for tax purposes.
reply
Disappointing
I guess they are just trying tgo avoid any trouble that might come their way in the future.
Should definitely warn about this beforehand
reply
That sounds more like a contract job than a bounty, perhaps they just need to rename it then call it a bounty which in my impression is you can be nym as long as you complete the tasks you get paid
reply
Well said.
reply
Smells spooky.
reply
See I knew this NYDIG bounty stuff was bogus. All the capital they have and offering such low payments and now this!
reply
KYC = Guilty until proven innocent.
reply
Big ooof! Don't know if this has been added afterwards but they do outline it here: https://nydig.com/bounties#process-payment
Hope you find other bounties to work on that doesn't require KYC for payouts. You probably know about it already but https://bitcoinbounties.org/ has some Bitcoin related bounties!
reply
“He’s no good to me to dead.” - Boba Fett
reply
This is real shrigma
reply