I was now officially a “digital resident” of Palau, despite never stepping foot in the country.
[…]
I could use it as my identity document on cryptocurrency exchanges.
That is exactly what traders in the U.S. are doing in order to bypass restrictions on the amount of cryptocurrency they can withdraw and the exchanges they can use
[…]
with a Palau ID, U.S. traders can skirt that issue, and claim they come from Palau. The ID is so ripe for abuse that major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Kraken have already banned use of the ID from their platforms.
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There’s a paywall on that link, but the web archive without a paywall is here:
I wasn’t aware of a Palau ID or Estonian e-residency, but I’ll look into it now.
Article says Author used this site for ID - if your looking into it.
My first thought was, wow, this could be a neat solution for all sorts of privacy-invasive situations where you need an ID, even outside of cryptocurrency.
Seems pretty shady nonetheless lol
edit: it does seem to have all the attributes you’d have on any regular passport card, making its usefulness for privacy fairly limited.
I am still confused over the purpose of e-residency sometimes. But hey, at least people can incorporate their business there!
It appears you have to use real id to get one, so if you’re not using it for a cryptocurrency exchange, it’s only use is to make it seem that you are a resident in another country.
I could see a use case for that. E.g. if you are somewhere and claiming you are staying at a hotel, you can show the Palau ID and say you’re a tourist. It could avoid some situations where you don’t want to give an address in the country.
But it’s a fairly specific use-case, so it depends on the person and situation. The use-case has to be worth the $248.
Just a reminder that cost only covers a 1 year trial.
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For a European like myself, Estonian e-residency could be useful as I could have a fairly ‘local’ business (local in an EU sense), but still have it registered with physical distance.
So for example, car licence plates could be registered under the business. In the event of a road rage incident, the person who notes your licence plate so they can ‘come after you’ will find a business in Estonia and not your real home address in your real country.
I think there can be some value in having a business address physically far away from your real location.
Offshore residency, second passports, and offshore corporations are very useful for privacy - especially financial privacy.
Although typically most options are fairly expensive and out of reach for most individuals.
The possibilities are endless.