The post I’d rather go broke than contribute to KYC’s grip on society appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial. Today’s traditional banking system has become too comfortable in encouraging society to overshare while underdelivering on security guarantees. Never has a financial system demanded such a sacrifice of an individual’s personal data. KYC requires legal identity, biometric data, address history, and device fingerprints, which are all bundled together and stored indefinitely by third parties.  Summary KYC turned privacy into collateral damage: Banks demand passports, biometrics, and device data — then store it in breach-prone databases that individuals can never truly reclaim. Finance has shifted from neutral infrastructure to permissioned gatekeeper: Access can be frozen, revoked, or denied — turning participation into a conditional privilege. Zero-knowledge tech offers a third path: Prove eligibility without surrendering identity, enabling transparency for systems and privacy for individuals. Once that information leaves an individual’s control, it can be copied, breached, and sold to anyone. Even when companies act in good faith, the data itself becomes a liability. You cannot replace a passport the same way you can replace a lock. If we lose control of our fingerprint, address, and name, then who do we become if not a prisoner to an interdependent hive mind of capital structures that feed off the intelligence of the masses? For those who value privacy and autonomy, KYC isn’t a quality of life feature; it’s subconscious theft. KYC: The irreversible surrender KYC is often justified in the name of safety, but centralised safety is still a centralised risk. Large databases of sensitive information become magnets for attackers, insiders, and state actors alike. Recent incidents include Coinbase insiders exploiting customer data for extortion and Finastra, a software provider to 45 of the world’s largest 50 banks, losing 400gb…

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Filed under: News - @ February 16, 2026 1:23 pm