Private Crypto Swaps: No KYC, No Data Collection, Tor Support

Moss collects zero personal data, requires no KYC verification, and operates a Tor onion service for users who need maximum privacy. Every swap happens wallet-to-wallet via a one-time deposit address—no accounts, no email, no phone number, no IP logs. You control the keys, Moss never touches your funds, and the protocol layer handles settlement without ever learning who you are.

This guide explains exactly what data Moss does and does not collect, why the deposit-address model eliminates custody and identity requirements, how to use the onion site, and what privacy trade-offs remain on public blockchains.

• No accounts or KYC. Moss issues one-time deposit addresses; you never create a profile or submit documents.
• Zero personal data collection. No emails, phone numbers, or persistent identifiers; ephemeral server logs for operational debugging only.
• Tor onion service available. Access Moss over Tor to hide your IP from the router and your ISP.
• On-chain transparency. Every swap is verifiable in the public explorer by deposit address; blockchain metadata remains public.
• Non-custodial by design. Funds move directly from your wallet to settlement protocols to the recipient—Moss never holds coins.

No KYC, No Accounts—How Moss Works

Moss uses a deposit-address swap model: you request a quote for, say, BTC → ETH, provide a refund address and a destination address, and receive a unique deposit address valid for 30 minutes. Send Bitcoin to that address, and settlement protocols (NEAR Intents, Chainflip, THORChain, Maya) detect the deposit, execute the swap, and deliver ETH to your wallet. The deposit address expires after one use; Moss generates a fresh address for every swap.

Because Moss never holds your funds and never creates persistent user records, there is no entity to KYC. Centralized exchanges require identity verification because they custody coins in omnibus wallets and must comply with financial regulations. Moss routes swaps through decentralized settlement layers—market-maker intents, JIT auctions, liquidity pools—none of which require or store identity data. The protocol does not know your name, nationality, or transaction history beyond the single on-chain deposit it observes.

What Data Moss Collects (and Doesn't)

Moss collects only the minimum technical data required to route a swap: the deposit address, refund address, destination address, and the amounts quoted. These addresses are public blockchain identifiers—anyone can see them on-chain once you broadcast a transaction. Moss does not ask for or store email addresses, phone numbers, names, or government IDs. The backend generates ephemeral server logs (IP addresses, user agents) for operational debugging and DDoS mitigation; these logs are not linked to swap records and are rotated within 7 days.

No cookies, no trackers, no analytics pixels. The Moss frontend uses local browser storage to cache recent quotes and display swap history in your session, but this data never leaves your device. There are no third-party analytics services, no advertising networks, no fingerprinting scripts. If you clear your browser cache, the local history disappears—Moss has no server-side copy.

Using Moss Over Tor—Onion Address and Setup

Moss operates a Tor onion service at a .onion address (published on the clearnet site footer and /security). Accessing Moss over Tor hides your IP address from Moss's servers and from your internet service provider. Tor routes your traffic through three relays, encrypting each hop; the exit node sees only the .onion address, not your origin IP. This prevents correlation of your swap activity with your physical location or network identity.

1. Install Tor Browser

   Download Tor Browser from torproject.org. Do not use a regular browser with a Tor proxy—Tor Browser includes anti-fingerprinting patches and disables JavaScript tracking by default.

2. Navigate to the onion address

   Open Tor Browser and paste the Moss .onion URL (find it on the clearnet site). The connection is end-to-end encrypted within the Tor network; no third party can intercept the swap parameters you send.

3. Request a quote and swap as usual

   The onion site mirrors the clearnet interface. Enter amounts, provide refund and destination addresses, generate the deposit address, and send coins from your wallet. The swap executes identically; only your IP is hidden.

Latency and reliability: Tor adds 1–3 seconds of latency per request because traffic bounces through multiple relays. The onion service may occasionally be slower than the clearnet site during network congestion, but swap execution time (5–30 minutes) is unaffected—settlement happens on-chain, not over Tor.

On-Chain Transparency and Public Verification

Every Moss swap is verifiable in the public explorer by entering the deposit address. The explorer shows the deposit transaction, the settlement protocol used, the output transaction, and the delivered amount. This transparency is a feature, not a bug: users can prove Moss executed the swap as quoted, and auditors can verify that Moss does not skim funds or manipulate rates. The trade-off is that blockchain data is永久 public—anyone who knows your deposit address can trace the swap.

Privacy coins and chain analysis. If you swap into or out of privacy-focused assets like Zcash shielded pools, the destination address may be encrypted on-chain, breaking the transaction graph. However, the deposit side (e.g., Bitcoin) remains fully transparent. Chain-analysis firms can cluster addresses by heuristics (common-input-ownership, timing patterns); Moss cannot prevent this, but using Tor hides the IP-to-address link.

Why Custodial Exchanges Cannot Offer This Privacy

Centralized exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, Kraken) must collect KYC data because they custody user funds in pooled wallets and operate as regulated financial institutions. When you deposit Bitcoin to an exchange, it lands in the exchange's omnibus wallet; your balance is a database entry, not a distinct on-chain UTXO. The exchange must know who owns which fraction of the pool to comply with anti-money-laundering (AML) rules and to prevent theft. Withdrawals require identity verification to ensure coins go to the legitimate account holder.

Moss eliminates custody, so there is no regulatory obligation to KYC. You send coins to a one-time deposit address controlled by a settlement protocol (a market-maker intent on NEAR, a JIT auction on Chainflip, a liquidity pool on THORChain). The protocol executes the swap atomically and sends output coins directly to your destination address. Moss never holds the coins, never mixes them with other users' funds, and never creates a balance sheet that regulators could audit. This architectural difference is why non-custodial exchanges can operate without identity requirements.

Privacy Limits and Practical Trade-Offs

Blockchain metadata is public. Moss cannot hide the fact that you swapped BTC for ETH at a specific block height. If an adversary knows your Bitcoin address or your Ethereum address, they can infer the swap. To break this link, you must use intermediate privacy layers: CoinJoin for Bitcoin, Tornado Cash-style mixers for Ethereum (legal risks apply), or privacy coins with built-in shielding. Moss supports native Zcash and other privacy assets, but the deposit leg remains transparent.

Refund addresses expose fallback paths. Moss requires a refund address before issuing a deposit address; if the swap fails (wrong amount, expired quote, protocol downtime), coins auto-refund on-chain. The refund address is visible in the Moss quote API and explorer. If you reuse the same refund address across multiple swaps, an observer can cluster those swaps as belonging to one entity. Best practice: generate a fresh refund address per swap using hierarchical-deterministic (HD) wallets.

Tor does not hide payment timing. Even over Tor, the on-chain deposit timestamp is public. If you swap immediately after withdrawing from a KYC exchange, chain analysis can correlate the timing and amounts to link your exchange account to the Moss swap. Introduce delays or split amounts to obscure patterns.

Regulatory and Legal Context

Moss operates as a swap router, not a financial intermediary. It does not custody funds, does not facilitate fiat on-ramps (except the separate P2P /buy service, which uses multisig escrow and no KYC), and does not create user accounts. In most jurisdictions, routing software that never touches user funds falls outside the definition of a money transmitter or virtual asset service provider (VASP). However, regulatory landscapes evolve; some jurisdictions may attempt to impose KYC on any swap facilitator, regardless of custody.

User responsibility: You are responsible for complying with local tax and reporting laws. Moss does not issue tax forms or report transactions to authorities, but blockchain data is public and governments can subpoena chain-analysis firms. If your jurisdiction requires reporting crypto-to-crypto swaps, you must track your own cost basis and capital gains. Moss provides the explorer and REST API to export transaction history, but it does not generate tax documents.

Bottom line: Moss is designed for users who value financial privacy and self-custody. By eliminating accounts, KYC, and custody, Moss removes the central point of failure that leaks user data in exchange hacks or government subpoenas. The trade-off is that blockchain metadata remains public; combine Moss with coin-mixing techniques, privacy coins, and Tor to maximize anonymity. For most users, the no-KYC, no-account model is sufficient to prevent deanonymization by casual observers and third-party trackers.