The launch of the “loyalty program” announced by the developers of cryptocurrency exchange service ShapeShift, became the object of harsh criticism. The community has split into three parts: some accuse the company — most of them, others defending and others looking for an answer to the question — why?

We will remind, on Wednesday it became known that service users will provide personal data, in fact, by following the procedures of the system “Know your customer” (KYC), and this year the conditions will be mandatory. Given the special status of the ShapeShift as an eternal Bastion of anonymity, financial independence and security of person, the decision was perceived by the community as a betrayal of its core values.

“ShapeShift important news for our users! We now offer a new membership program which will provide users with great advantages and the best service. Find out why we have such a change, from our CEO @ErikVoorhees: http://bit.ly/2Q2dYAy”

As noted by CEO Eric Voorhes (Eric Vorhees), the reason for this decision was as the desire of users to use the functions based on the account because it is convenient (transaction history, continuing address, email) and the intention of the developer to fully comply with the concept of “tokenization” having the ability “to create licenzirovanie loyalty program, when the interaction between the enterprise and the client itself becomes an asset.” Another factor was the regulation.

“The practice demands from the users of sensitive personal information is something we have fought since creation. Given the fact that the technology of digital assets remains a grey legal area, we must be prudent and careful in our approach as we orientirueshsya on regulations,” explained the CEO of the popular exchanger.

Probably this turn alerted some users, however, the most interesting was to come:

“Membership involves providing basic personal information. Today, the membership Program is optional, but soon it will become mandatory. Yes, this last part sucks. We would prefer that the collection of personal information was not a required element,” writes Voorhes.

As expected, the company immediately came under a barrage of criticism; among those who responded was the well-known figures.

So, one of the first to the opinion voiced entrepreneur and cryptoanalysis Andreas Antonopoulos (Andreas Antonopoulos):

“Very disappointed that @ShapeShift_io introduces KYC. This proves once again that any centralized company push in this direction, that’s why LN (approx. Lightning Network), atomic swaps and decentralized exchange is the only way to resist the surveillance economy.”

Well-known defense attorney in litigation in the field of securities cherwinski Jake (Jake Chervinsky) published in his Twitter the whole review, having concluded that the situation is nothing like the invisible invasion controllers in cryptoprocessor.

“Some considerations about decisions @ShapeShift_io start collecting personal information of users through a program of compulsory membership. In a nutshell — that’s the way the regulators quietly invade cryptoprotection”.

Czerwinski said: throughout its history, ShapeShift secured the trade on condition of anonymity, reflecting the principles of its CEO Eric Purchase, “true bitminer, passionately appealing to privacy in the financial sector, as well as the separation of money and state.”

Recall that in 2013, the U.S. division of the Ministry of Finance to combat financial crimes (FinCEN) issued guidance stating that all regulation establishing rules for companies in financial services, fully apply to crypto-companies — is not a signal about the backstage compulsory regulation?

“Unfortunately, regulation often works here in DC. Regulators accuse the company of violations, referring to the weak, but plausible theory, which may fail in court, but the company would be too expensive/risky/destructive to fight in public, and here, the company goes on cooperation”, — the lawyer continued.

Well, the statement Purchase ends with a cheerful “we are delighted with the launch of the [membership program], as a new set of features and benefits to our customers.” However, to countless messages from criticizing the exchange service Twitter added a succinct formulation of Reddit: they took the news is not better than twitterena, leaving comments like “Shapeshift dead to me”, “Shapeshift lost its moral principles,” “So sad. Time to move”, “farewell forever!”

When asked, don’t you think the company that its customers are stupid, the developers referred to the response Eric Purchase to another user, who asked the CEO ShapeShift “to write honest blog-post” and “to convince” community:

“What I write very closely. Please give us time.”