Getting payed to Kraken address with MiCA

Node Operators
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I use the Kraken Storj address for receiving payments from my nodes. I received this email from Kraken. I don’t get payed above 1000 $/euro/month, but they say for “new wallets” also.
So do we need to whitelist/identify STORJ INC wallet that sends us the payouts? Are you going to do it for all of us, Storj Inc.? Thanks!
(I removed the hyperlinks)

"We’re reaching out to let you know about upcoming updates to how crypto deposits and withdrawals are processed. As we have recently acquired a MiCA license, these changes are designed to align crypto with the security standards already in place for traditional financial systems.

What’s Changing

Beginning August 1st, 2025, some deposits and withdrawals will require additional verification steps. These updates are part of the EU’s broader regulation of crypto assets.

Here’s how we’re keeping it simple:

Wallet Verification for deposits from private wallets: If your private wallet deposit or withdrawal exceeds €1,000 in value, or if you’re using a new wallet address, you’ll be prompted to verify your wallet ownership.

Future Ease: Once a wallet is verified, future transactions with that same address won’t need further verification.

Seamless Verification Options

We’ve made the verification process straightforward and secure through one of three methods:

Self-Certification: Verify ownership with a simple one-click process and a quick 2FA security check.

Satoshi Test: Send a small transaction from your wallet to confirm ownership. We’ll guide you every step of the way.

Digital Signature: Connect your wallet and sign a unique message we generate. The message is non-transactional: signing it doesn’t move any funds. It simply confirms that you control the private key for the address.

What This Means for You

Starting August 1, 2025, when making a qualifying deposit or withdrawal, you’ll be guided through the wallet verification process. With verified wallets, your experience remains fast and seamless for future transactions.

If you have any questions, Kraken Support is here to help.

We’re committed to providing you with a secure, reliable, and user-friendly crypto experience."

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This sounds like it’s for Kraken users to verify some of the wallets they have control over. So… nothing to do with Storj?

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Its for users getting crypto on to their address and not for someone who SENDs the crypto to your wallet. They can’t control who sends the money to their users but they can lock the ill gotten funds of the users IFF necessary.

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Well, you receive crypto in your Kraken account from an exeternal wallet that is not from another exchange, so how do they know who belongs to?
It’s just a private wallet, if nobody claims it, that sends you funds. They want to know who sends you funds. That is what EU wants. Total control!
They reffer to both deposits and withdrawals.

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No, you are misunderstanding. They want to KYC. They cannot control who sends assets. They can only control their own customers. So, to let you, a customer, to use their platform (including to send and receive assets, send money to banks, etc) they want to know who you are. Storj is not their customer, they don’t need to do a thing.

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I guess it’s Kraken applying the EU travel rule. Kraken customers have to give details of the depositor.

Coinbase does the same:

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That’s crazy. Putting a burden on consumers.

So they want to know who the sender is? Why would name of the company and corporate address not surfice?

It’s still dumb. This information cannot be consistently verified, and therefore it’s a security theater.

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They forces users to deposit money only from their wallets, where they can verify the ownership. This is again suggests that you now forced to specify your own wallet in the node and then send from it to the deposit address.

1 Like
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Which means a duplication of transaction fees which we all know can be crazy high and unpredictable.

There is more and more controlling pressure on the crypto currency market. Regulators want to gain the same kind of control like they have over the regular financing market. Receiving and sending anonymously? Regulators don’t want this anymore because it can be used by criminals, for money laundering and evading of taxes and sanctions.
Those glory times of unregulated markets will be over in no time now that regulators are aware of it. It was foreseeable that the rising of Bitcoin, those huge gains and adoption of cryptocurrency will lead to this.

So now it is on the SNO to prove that the funds he has received from an anonymous wallet address are legit and seemingly the address the funds are coming from are under his control? Many more reasons why I think the system how SNOs are paid has become dysfunctional and there will be more pressure on anything that is not in line with the traditional banking system to come. We see already here with some banks how crazy they have become. If you cannot prove sources of fund they lock you out of your account and even terminate it.

Storj should at least have a section on their website where such information required for regulation is publically obtainable, maybe even downloadable as PDF so it can be passed to whatever entity that questions the legitimacy of source of funds received from the Storj wallet(s).

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Or do not specify the exchange deposit as a wallet in the node, which is already posted so many times including the documentation.

Seems it’s now a requirement for EU SNOs, not a recommendation.

1 Like
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A self hosted wallet address is likely not to be a sustainable solution. Because it still does not verify that the funds are received on a legitimate basis. It only proves that the person has control over the sending address. It can still happen that the bank/exchange needs proof how the funds have been received.

Here is a list what some exchange wants to prove the legitimacy of obtained funds:

**Income from services (e.g., affiliate income) (Send all of the following)**
  • A detailed description of the service provided, and
  • Invoices paid with cryptocurrencies showing names, addresses, contact details, and information of the involved companies, as well as the VAT number, and
  • Cryptocurrency addresses of both the sender and recipient, Transaction ID (Hash), and screenshots of your wallets showing your realized income, and
  • Bank statements showing receipts and transactions, and
  • Screenshots of your account showing that you are an affiliate, and
  • Screenshots of your transaction and payout history, and
  • Explanation of the origin of the cryptocurrencies used in the payout process.

You know my opinion that I am proposing a different way how SNOs get paid. All these hassles add to it. Not the STORJ token, the SNOs are fundamental and integral part of the network. If they cannot receive funds or are unable to use them then the data on the network is at jeopardy. So maybe it is not the best idea to keep sticking on experimental ways of paying those who supply the space for customer data.

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Same thing happens when you deposit in your bank account a huge amount of money. They can block your bank account until you provide info about the origin of these funds. All this info is sent to the local AML entity.

1 Like
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But we are not talking about huge amounts here:

But I agree that it should be made easy for an SNO to provide the required information to avoid problems for him. The cryptocurrency approach with just a rather anonymous sending address does not help much with this. With traditional banking you would at least a name from the sender of funds.

For a serious operation, Storj would have to provide for each transfer a statement/invoice to the SNO with all required information that he can pass to anyone who asks questions.

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You can easily track the origin of the STORJ tokens sent to your wallet from the Storj Labs multisig wallet within 2-3 txs.
They moved the remaining tokens under Storj Labs’ custody to a new wallet so maybe there is an additional tx, but always trackable.

1 Like
15

That is not the issue. If I deposit anything to an exchange that will trigger a new rule. The exchange has to verify that the sender address belongs to me. It doesn’t help to prove that the sender address belongs to storj.

The exchange needs to make sure there is no money laundering. A transfer from one exchange to another is fine because they both have to follow the same rules. They both identify the user and basically just shake hands. You identify your deposits and I keep care of mine. Any transfer between us is therefore safe.

Storj doesn’t identify storage node operators. I don’t know if we can even get on that whitelist.

My solution to that problem would be to create my own invoice. The storagenode dashboard shows me all the relevant informations. For the VAT number I would enter my tax number. In the past that has worked for me but I believe it wasn’t a request from an exchange.

Well ofc I send my payout to a wallet that I control to not get into that situation in the first place.

2 Likes
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Everybody has similar problems when regulation strikes:

With such kind of affiliation, it is very common that the payer provides a payment receipt for every payment like stated in the linked answer. Such a receipt would then contain all necessary information including payers company and tax information and whatever else is required or useful.

17

At least in Coinbase, when you receive the deposit and mark it as a deposit from a auto-custody wallet there is no need to fill any form or give any futher info. Maybe it’s different with Kraken.

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response from Kraken support:

Thank you for your patience while we investigate this for you.

Moving forward we believe the best way to proceed would be to make those small mining deposits go directly into your personal wallet to avoid any holding issues. (it is also important to mention that any deposit that is below the minimum amount accepted will unfortunately be marked as “Failed” and the funds will be permanently lost.)

Once the funds are on your personal wallet you will be able to deposit on Kraken as usual, and if by any chance you are needed to provide proof of ownership from the wallet you would not encounter any issue as the funds would be coming from a private wallet that you control.

I hope this helped clarify your query, should you need anything else, we are here 24/7 to help. Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time!

Regards,
Nick
Kraken Support

6 Likes
19

So buy ETH to pay fees, install third pary wallet, that can be easily hacked by a gazzilion of fake apps/plug-ins, pay fees for transfer to Kraken, watch your payout shrink by the minute… nice!
You know we receive the payout at night, in Europe, when everyone is asleep. Untill morning, the token value drops, because US operators already sold at market price. Add to this the delay to transfer the funds to Kraken, and you will loose more than 10% for each payout.
Just add an option to be payed in stable coins, like USDT/USDC that are supported in Revolut, and we can receive there the payment and change it to fiat whenever we want.
If the stablecoin payout is offered as an option, alongside with Storj token, I would gladly accept a 10% reduction to the payout, for the stablecoin option.

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Blockchain Stablecoin Example Gas Fee Paid In
Ethereum USDC, USDT, DAI ETH
Solana USDC, USDT SOL
BNB Smart Chain (BSC) BUSD, USDT, USDC BNB
Polygon USDC, USDT MATIC
Avalanche USDC, USDT AVAX
Arbitrum/Optimism USDC, USDT ETH (native to L2)
Tron USDT TRX
Stellar USDC XLM
Algorand USDC ALGO
Near USDT, USDC NEAR

Do you see that you end up paying fees in native token of the network ? This is the same as paying with ETH for Storj token. It could be more or less fees but you still pay it.

1 Like