How to Improve Your NoKYC Score: A Guide for Operators

Your grades come from what your own terms, privacy policy and documentation say, scored by a public formula. Nobody can pay for a better grade, and editors do not set numbers by hand. That also means the fastest way to a better score is in your hands: change how the service works, write it down on your own site, and tell us where to read it.

Each listing has two separate grades out of 10. Privacy measures how little your service learns about the people who use it. Safety measures how likely they are to get their money or service. They are never averaged, so improving one does not hide a weakness in the other. The full points table is on the methodology page; the biggest levers are below.

Start by claiming your listing

Claiming is free and takes a few minutes: add a DNS TXT record or a small file on your domain, and press verify. No email and no documents. A claimed listing:

• shows that the operator is reachable and accountable,
• lets you reply in public to every review and incident,
• sends your correction requests to editors marked as coming from the verified operator,
• shows a personal list of the changes that would raise your grades, computed with the formula.

Open your listing and choose Claim this listing.

The KYC level matters most for Privacy

The KYC level is read from your terms, not from your homepage. It carries the largest single weight in the Privacy grade:

KYC level	What your terms say	Privacy points
0	Identity checks are ruled out, or impossible by design	+20
1	No identity requirement is mentioned anywhere	+12
2	ID only in exceptional cases, such as a court order	+4
3	Funds can be held and ID or source of funds demanded after a risk flag, or above a limit	−14
4	ID is required from everyone	−32

Moving from level 3 to level 1 or 0 is the biggest improvement most swap services can make. It is only honest, and only recorded, if your terms say so and you operate that way: for example, a flagged deposit is always refunded to the sender without documents. If your liquidity partner can still demand ID, your terms should say that, and the listing will reflect it.

Changes that raise your grades

These are the facts the formula rewards. Each one counts once it appears on your own pages.

• Refund without ID. Commit in your terms that a stopped or flagged order is refunded without identity documents. Privacy +2, Safety +6 points.
• Name the operating company. Publish the legal entity and its jurisdiction. Safety +5, and it removes the anonymous-operator penalty (−4).
• Publish an onion address. Link an official .onion mirror from your site. Privacy +4.
• No account, no email, no phone. No registration is worth Privacy +6; no email +3; no phone +1. Requiring a phone number costs −10.
• Open-source the code that matters, and link the repository. Privacy +2, Safety +8, and it removes the closed-source penalty.
• Publish an independent audit of your code or no-logs claim. Privacy +2, Safety +8.
• Never hold user funds. A truly non-custodial design is worth Safety +12.
• Trade from your own reserves rather than passing orders to an upstream exchange. Own liquidity is Safety +6; third-party liquidity costs Safety −6.
• Accept Monero (Privacy +4), cash (Privacy +4) and Lightning (Privacy +1).
• Work without JavaScript, so Tor Browser users on the safest setting can use you. Privacy +1.

What lowers grades, and how to recover

• AML screening and “may request ID” clauses cost Privacy −7 each and also lower Safety. If you no longer screen deposits or ask for documents, remove the clauses from your terms and tell us.
• Incidents. A documented incident, such as held funds, a hack or an exit, lowers Safety by 4 to 30 points depending on severity. Resolving it, for example by paying the user, cuts the penalty to about a third. Penalties also fade over two years. Reply to the incident on your listing with what happened and how it was resolved, and send us the proof.
• Unanswered disputes. A listing under dispute shows a warning until the facts are settled. A clear public reply with evidence is the quickest way to close it.

Earn the “Tested” evidence tier

Every grade carries an evidence label. “Documentation reviewed” means an editor read your terms. “Tested” means real transactions were completed and published with their transaction IDs and times. Services that complete tests at several amounts without asking for ID show the strongest evidence on the site. Keep your service responsive and your published limits accurate; tests follow the facts you publish.

How to get your listing corrected

1. Make the change on your service and publish it in your terms, privacy policy or documentation.
2. Open your listing and choose Request a correction, with a link to the page where the change is written.
3. An editor checks the page and updates the recorded facts. The grade recalculates automatically, and the change appears in the public listing history.

Requests from claimed listings are marked as coming from the verified operator. Our target is a first decision within 14 days.

Show your score

Once your grades are where you want them, put them on your own site. The Embed button on your listing opens a kit with live widgets you can colour to match your brand, an image card for forums and READMEs, a badge, and social images. They update themselves when your grades change, so they stay accurate.