Seems legit, I ordered a 5$ card and I got it without problem
I haven’t tested it yet but the website that provides the card seems legit (tremendous.com)
A bit annoying to have that fixed 5$ fee on every purchase, but it is what it is
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Exactly how does you activate it? Ordering itself is kyc-free (and even Tor-friendly?) but you’ll need to show your IP to activate it, of course?
Yup. Just use a vpn.
You receive a tremendous gift link, and when clicking on it you have to enter a name and email address. No verification, but I advise entering a real mail.
It's required to enter a real email, otherwise you may face problems when adding to digital wallets. Protonmail or Skiff should work for that.
Thank you so much! These minor details are really helpful :D Happy holidays!
Hi, yes card provider is a legit brand on the market. We are just reseller. $5 fee is unfortunately high for small amounts, but for high amounts such as €1000, it's less in percentage.
I love that you have EU options ^^
Just to make sure I understood how this works:
- Buy Preloaded Master/Visa Card with Monero
- Get Card details (what about name etc.?)
- Buy stuff (online) until card is empty
Can the card be refilled, or are the last few cents wasted?
- Yes, you can buy a prepaid card with Monero.
- For International VISA Prepaid and Mastercard Prepaid Card, you need to activate the card after payment. You can put any name on the activation. For VISA Gift Card (US only) it's auto activated, you can use any random name on checkout.
- None of these cards can be refilled, you may use last few dollars to topup your phone credit or similar thing.
Thanks you for the answer.
If this works, that’s very interesting and potentially very useful.
- International Prepaid Card: Supported Countries even include China, Turkey, Turkmenistan. Feels rather unlikely. Is this actually tested well? Or you just listed countries where in theory this might work?
- What if that 3-D Secure thing is required?
- To test this for a small amount like $5: “Total fees: $5.14 ($5.00 + 2.50%)” means I’d pay $10.14, i.e. fees are 102.8%, higher than the card value itself?
- It's the allowance list provided by card issuer, it means transactions in those countries won't be declined by card provider. For example Russia is not in the list, that means payments will be directly declined on Russian merchants. We haven't tested on all countries yet. But I can confirm that our client was able to use the card on Turkish merchant.
- 3D secure is available on VISA International Prepaid, 3D challenge gets approved automatically (without in need of 2FA code).
- You are right about that, it's because of $5 fixed fee. It's reasonable for higher amounts but much on small amounts. I will see what can we do for small amounts.
What exactly does one need to do for “activation”? A phone number and/or GeoIP are involved?
This item in you FAQ page is also cool :)
The product I want to buy is not listed, can you help?
Yes, please contact us to create a special order. We can buy any digital & physical products for crypto.
I truly hope this will become a popular and convenient element for the Monero community and your business will be fruitful. You may want to consider talking to Kycnot.me; if recognized and listed there, that may mean a lot. Thanks for joining monero.town and sharing this interesting news. It’s still iffy, but it does sound great if it works 😊
On the other hand, your blog article, How to Buy a Domain 100% Anonymously?, suggests that you may not be very familiar with these privacy topics. The most obvious and easiest options (Njalla, Incognet) are not mentioned—both directly accept Monero. Also, your knowledge may not be up-to-date, unaware of the ramifications of “Thick Whois”, esp. NIS2, Article 28.
This is different for each product, it's explained in the product descriptions. For activation of VISA International Prepaid, only a valid email address and cardholder name (any name is accepted) is required.
For MPC MasterCard, valid email and phone number is required. But as explained in product description only email address must be valid, all other data could be random.
The most obvious and easiest options (Njalla, Incognet) are not mentioned—both directly accept Monero.
We don't suggest using Njalla, because of this reason we won't promote them. Thanks for thoughts tho.
Re: anonymous domain. Your suggestions aside, here’s a bit more neutral view. Which is better?
- Option A: A pro-privacy, proper company is willing to cooperate with you so that you can legally get a domain anonymously and use it for e.g. VPS. (A proper company in general. Not necessarily about Njalla.)
- Option B: Using a fake phone number, etc. lying both to the registrar/reseller and the hosting company. As soon as they know that, you may lose your domain.
The said blog post is actually an ad. The author is a business person who wants to sell their virtual phone numbers; understandably their suggestions are biased.
Purely logically speaking, using a fake name/address and a temp phone number to get a domain is an option one can try, especially if they don’t need to renew the said domain (e.g. exit scamming within a year). That said, it will be safer and better if a hosting company is cooperative, willing to register your domain under their name without asking your personal info at all. It’s understandable that some people are not sure about Njalla, though they do have a long track record. Now, IncogNet is a newer option, not Njalla.
Apparently the owner of IncogNET is pro-free speech and truly believe in privacy and anonymity, even if it’s US based [Ironically, recently the EU has more oppressive]. But this is not a recommendation, DYOR.
They provide onion and i2p in their hosting plans, which is cool (get an anonymous domain/a hosting plan there, and anyone can get an onion version of their website for free). Afaik IncogNET is based on Fran’s (Frantech/BuyVM), which are generally trusted among privacy advocates, with a very long track record. However, there is one bad thing about IncogNET: while they do accept Monero, currently you can’t p2pool on their VPS.
When you say there's no KYC, does it mean that you don't require it or that both you and the card provider don't require KYC?
We don't require KYC and we don't sell products which require KYC. So, our card providers don't require KYC either.
Cool.
And what about identifiable and personal information? Such as physical address, phone number, full name etc? Is there any requirement to provide it to you or them?
Only valid email address and cardholder name is required to activate cards. You can put any cardholder name.
Good to know. Thank you for your answers!
Visa International (Just fyi): The supported country list by Stealths and the similar list by Tremendous are slightly different. The differences (if real) might be mostly relevant to Chinese users.
These three are included in Stealths’ list, but not included in Tremendous’ list:
China, Hong Kong (*Taiwan is in both lists), Swaziland
These countries/areas are not inluded in S’s list, but are included in T’s list:
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Congo (*Flag of Congo-Brazzaville is shown), Eswatini, Pakistan, Panama, Saint Helena, Saint Pierre and Miquelon
That Tremendous list is where you can redeem the card, which is different than where you can spend the card balance. As explain in the old comment, our list is directly fetched from Tremendous's FAQ (this is shown after card activation). The list hasn't been manually edited by us.
@stealths@monero.town Thanks for clarification!
- For example, a user in China can buy a card from you, redeem (activate) it and use it internationally, except they can’t use it in shopping at an online shop China?
- A user in Pakistan can not activate it and use it at all, though others can use it for shopping internationally incl. at at online shop in Pakistan.
It that what this means? I assume activation then includes GeoIP? I’m very happy that a few user reviews are positive anyway. You know, some “services/companies” advertising here tend to be a bit sketchy or iffy. Your prepaid card business seems a honest one, at least now! Thanks for joining monero.town :) I hope this can be convenient & fruitful for both users and you 🐱