Glossary

Stable definitions of the terms used across the directory. Cite this page if a downstream summary needs an authoritative one-paragraph definition.

KYC Know Your Customer #

Identity-verification obligations a regulated business has to meet when onboarding a customer. The global baseline is the FATF Recommendations; jurisdictions implement those locally — the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, the EU AMLD series, the UK MLRs.

The concrete asks are usually a government-issued photo ID, proof of address, and in high-volume cases source-of-funds documentation. The directory's KYC required label means the service asks for at least the first two.

AML Anti-Money Laundering #

The broader regulatory framework that KYC is one part of. AML rules require financial-services operators to monitor transactions, report suspicious activity, and freeze funds linked to sanctioned addresses. For users, AML is what causes instant-swap exchangers to hold an output and demand identity verification before release — even when no KYC was asked at signup.

No-KYC #

On this site, a service is no-KYC if at the time the entry was last verified the normal signup and use path could be completed without disclosing a government identity document, a selfie, or a bank-linked identity. Self-chosen identifiers (a username, an email you control, a phone number you control) are not KYC.

See methodology for the full label set: none, optional, tiered, enforced, unknown.

Tiered KYC threshold KYC #

A service that does not require identity verification up to a defined threshold (daily withdrawal volume, account age, product type) and enforces it above. MEXC, BingX, CoinEx, BTSE, BloFin, and KCEX historically operate this way; the thresholds change without notice and vary by jurisdiction. The directory tags these tiered rather than none or enforced.

CoinJoin #

A Bitcoin transaction with multiple participants who pool their inputs and split equal outputs, breaking the deterministic on-chain link between any one participant's input and output. CoinJoin is collaborative — it requires several users coordinating either via a coordinator (WabiSabi / Wasabi) or peer-to-peer (JoinMarket).

Post-2024, the Wasabi coordinator screens inputs against a sanctions list; JoinMarket does not. Forks (Ginger Wallet) operate Wasabi-style coordinators without screening.

Churning (Monero) #

The practice of sending Monero to yourself across several transactions before spending it, to break the timing-and-amount correlation between an incoming swap and an outgoing one. Churning is a user-side pattern, not a service. Three to ten self-spends with random delays is the conservative posture in Monero-community guides.

Ring signature #

A cryptographic primitive used in Monero that signs a transaction on behalf of a group of possible senders, making it computationally infeasible for an outside observer to determine which one of the group actually signed. The Monero ring size in 2026 is 16 (one real and fifteen decoys per input).

Stealth address #

A one-time-use destination address generated from the recipient's public keys. In Monero, every received payment lands on a stealth address that only the recipient can scan; an outside observer cannot link two payments to the same recipient by address. Combined with ring signatures and RingCT, this is what gives Monero protocol-level privacy.

RingCT Ring Confidential Transactions #

The Monero feature that hides transaction amounts behind cryptographic commitments while still allowing the network to verify that inputs equal outputs. Active since 2017. With ring signatures and stealth addresses, RingCT covers sender, amount, and receiver.

zk-SNARK Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-interactive Argument of Knowledge #

The class of zero-knowledge proofs used in Zcash's shielded pool. Allows a prover to convince a verifier that a statement is true without revealing the witness. Different threat-model trade-offs from Monero — strong cryptography, opt-in privacy, smaller anonymity set in practice.

Atomic swap #

A cross-chain trade in which both sides retain custody of their funds until the swap completes, enforced by hash-time-locked contracts on both chains. No intermediary holds funds at any point. Implementations include Komodo Wallet (AtomicDEX), the BTC↔XMR COMIT protocol, and Haveno-style markets.

P2P exchange peer-to-peer #

An exchange where buyer and seller settle directly, typically with the venue providing escrow rather than custody. Examples in the directory: Bisq (decentralized, multisig), Hodl Hodl (operator-mediated multisig), AgoraDesk (custodial-escrow), RoboSats (Lightning hold-invoice), Peach Bitcoin (mobile, on-chain escrow).

DEX Decentralized Exchange #

An on-chain exchange protocol with no central operator and no account model. Includes constant-function AMMs (Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Curve), on-chain order books (dYdX, Hyperliquid), and cross-chain native-asset protocols (THORChain, Maya). Privacy is wallet-hygiene-dependent — protocols are permissionless but on-chain history is public.

CEX Centralized Exchange #

A traditional account-based cryptocurrency exchange operated by a single company. Holds custody of user funds during trading. KYC posture varies — Binance, Coinbase, Kraken enforce identity at signup; MEXC, BingX, CoinEx have historically operated tiered models.

Custodial #

A service that holds your funds (or your keys to funds) on your behalf. CEXes are custodial. Instant-swap exchangers are custodial during the swap window. Non-custodial means you hold the keys; the service never has them.

Sealed sender #

A Signal feature that hides the sender's identifier from the Signal server when delivering a message. The server knows who the message is for but not who it's from. One of several metadata-minimization measures Signal has shipped over the years.

Onion service hidden service #

A network service reachable only over the Tor network, using a self-authenticating .onion address. The address is derived from the service's public key, so no certificate authority is needed and the service's location is hidden from clients. Many privacy services on this directory expose an onion endpoint alongside their clearnet site.

WHOIS #

The public registry that records a domain's registered owner, contact email, and registration date. ICANN requires WHOIS accuracy, which is why anonymous domain registration is hard. Njalla's model — register the domain in the registrar's own name and license it back — is the cleanest legal solution.

Lightning Network #

A second-layer payment protocol on top of Bitcoin that enables near-instant low-fee transfers via payment channels. The Lightning routing graph is private to the participating nodes; this makes Lightning attractive for small no-KYC payments. RoboSats, SideShift, JMP.chat, and Bitrefill all support Lightning.

eSIM #

A SIM that lives in the device's secure element rather than as a physical card. Activated by scanning a QR code from the carrier. Anonymous eSIM services like Silent.link can deliver an activation code in exchange for crypto with no account — the cleanest no-identity mobile-data path in 2026.

FATF Financial Action Task Force #

The intergovernmental body that sets the global AML/CFT standards. The FATF Recommendations are the baseline that national KYC and AML laws implement. The 2019 "Travel Rule" (FATF Recommendation 16) is what causes regulated crypto exchangers to require identity for transfers above a threshold.

Geofencing #

Operator-side blocking of users based on IP geolocation. A geofenced service does not ask for ID — it refuses to serve users in the blocked jurisdiction at all. The directory tags a service as no-KYC if its served users do not have to identify, even when others are geofenced.

Glossary reviewed January 2026. Suggest corrections via the contact form.