Wang Chun Slams KYC System as 'Feudalism'
F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun has spoken out against the Know Your Customer (KYC) system, calling it 'feudalism' in a recent interview.
The criticism comes as exchanges and custodians continue to invest heavily in KYC/AML compliance systems, passing the costs on to users through fees or service thresholds. This has led some industry voices, including Wang Chun and Erik Voorhees, to advocate for greater user recognition and funding flow into decentralized infrastructure.
The issue of excessive compliance costs being passed on to end-users is not new to the crypto space. Traditional banking systems have faced similar criticism in the past, with widespread exclusion of homeless populations, refugees, and small merchants from the financial system due to 'de-risking' caused by KYC/AML compliance.
The crypto industry's ongoing struggle with traditional financial frameworks is a result of the mismatch between the structure of crypto assets and their user groups. Regulatory agencies tend to apply existing compliance standards indiscriminately, resulting in what should be inclusive and borderless crypto financial tools setting additional barriers for specific populations.