bitcoin

I was one of the first to [complete a bounty](https://github.com/NYDIG/bitcoin-task-bounty/pull/11) for [NYDIG's new list of bitcoin development bounties](https://nydig.com/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.

A warning about NYDIG Bitcoin Bounties

How to Identify Common BTC Address Formats

This is a post I made a few weeks ago that gives a taxonomy of the common bitcoin address formats and versions seen in the wild at the moment -- hope you enjoy :).