Hi Monero community! Three months ago, we launched our service with automated virtual cards. It was a successful launch but we needed to close our VCC service for new orders after the first month due to issues with the provider. After 2 months of manual-only delivery, we're happy to announce that prepaid cards are automated again.

⭐ VISA International Prepaid Card (3D secure, Google Pay, Apple Pay)

💳 MasterCard EU/US Prepaid Card (Google Pay, Apple Pay)

🇺🇸 VISA Gift Card (US only)

Currently maximum limit is $200 for automated cards, we plan to increase it to $1000 this week. For higher amounts you can use our manual services for now.

Also, if you need an anonymous virtual phone number, you may check our virtual number service too:

📲 Virtual Phone Number (valid for 1 year)

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[–] Saki@monero.town 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] stealths@monero.town 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Saki@monero.town 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] stealths@monero.town 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Saki@monero.town 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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.