![\"Palau](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-1.jpg\")
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Before getting into the details of its digital residency program, it\u2019s probably good to start with the basics, such as where Palau is located. You can find this nation in the southwestern corner of Micronesia<\/a>, with New Guinea to the south and the Philippines to the west. It consists of 340 islands and is known for its fabulous scuba diving, due to its close proximity to a huge barrier reef system. It has a tiny population of only 18,000.<\/p>\n With Palau\u2019s main draw being tourism, the Covid pandemic and resulting massive decrease in travel highlighted the importance of having other streams of revenue. Thus, the concept of the digital residency was born.<\/p>\n Using Estonia\u2019s e-residency program as inspiration, Palau sought to create its own program to attract global citizens, which they officially launched in January 2022 via the RNS.id<\/a> platform.<\/p>\n There are three Palau Digital Residency options available at different price points and durations:<\/p>\n The current main benefits of the program are:<\/p>\n And here are some future benefits Palau is working towards offering:<\/p>\n In 2023, both the Canadian and American governments imposed more regulations onto crypto platforms, causing many of these platforms to completely ban citizens of those countries. I actually wrote<\/a> about this at the time, as it affected me in real time when I first attempted to invest in crypto In May 2023. I had successfully transferred my funds to the crypto platform, only for them to immediately tell me the same day they could no longer work with Canadians.<\/p>\n This was all in response to the whole FTX debacle<\/a> and served as a convenient way for these governments to prove how risky crypto is. (It definitely has nothing to do with them feeling like their absolute control is under threat<\/a>.) Once again, they swoop in to save us from ourselves. Hurray!<\/p>\n While there are still some platforms that enable people from Canada and the U.S. to trade crypto, the options have become more limited.<\/p>\n But this is where the Palau Digital Residency comes in, and why it has gotten crypto investors so excited. Because the Palau ID is a quick and affordable option they can potentially use for identity verification on these crypto platforms, instead of their Canadian or U.S. ID, thereby sidestepping these bans.<\/p>\n The identity verification process is called KYC, which stands for Know Your Customer, and it has become a real issue for crypto investors. But does the Palau ID actually work for this? And, if it\u2019s pretty common knowledge that the vast majority of people using the Palau ID are using it for this purpose, wouldn\u2019t that cause the platforms to ban the use of the Palau ID for KYC? Is it a threat to the program itself?<\/p>\n How successful this approach is seems to depend heavily on the platform. It was highly publicized that the founder of crypto platform Binance was initially in support of the program, however he withdrew his support<\/a> after doing his \u201cdue diligence\u201d.<\/p>\n Applicants for the Palau Digital Residency are required to provide ID and undergo anti-money laundering checks, so certainly due diligence is being done within the program. Given that Binance is one of the platforms that does not have a license to operate in the U.S., I think there is a strong possibility they knew U.S. citizens, in particular, were using the Palau IDs as a work-around for these rules.<\/p>\n That being said, according to this same article<\/a>, 90% of crypto platforms will accept the Palau ID for identity verification. Some of the platforms mentioned were Kraken, Crypto.com, Huobi, and, oddly enough, Binance itself.<\/p>\n As you browse the internet looking for information about the Palau Digital Residency and its usefulness in the crypto space, you are going to come across people that love it and think it\u2019s amazing, and people that think it\u2019s a total scam. Here are a few of the resources I looked at that I haven\u2019t yet cited in this article, that you may find helpful in your research to see if the Palau Digital Residency might be a fit for you.<\/p>\n As with everything, you should do your own research to see if the Palau Digital Residency might be a good alternative for you. If you are looking at using it as a workaround for KYC on crypto platforms, I would use caution. It looks like it can work for this purpose, but if these IDs are on the SEC\u2019s radar and they choose to crack down on the platforms allowing them, you could find yourself unable to access your account or with your funds frozen.<\/p>\n If you plan on taking a chance on it, perhaps just go for the 1-year digital residency option first, and make sure you test it on a crypto platform with a small amount of funds. That way, if things go sideways, you won\u2019t have exposed yourself too badly.<\/p>\n There\u2019s always a certain amount of risk when we are investigating new investment strategies, just make sure it is an amount of risk you are comfortable with and can afford to lose if things don\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s about it for this piece on the Palau Digital Residency. Would you ever try it out? I have to say, I find the concept very intriguing, but I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m willing to take the risk to give it a go, at least right now.<\/p>\n As I wrote this article, I got to wondering if this and the Estonia E-Residency are potentially the early adopters in a trend towards these sorts of digital residencies, sort of like what we saw with the adoption of digital nomad visas all over the world. It will be interesting to see what happens next in this realm, and I\u2019ll definitely report back when we see some more developments occurring.<\/p>\n Wanting to stay on top of all the offshore trends? Looking for inspiration to build your Plan B? Then make sure you subscribe to Escape Artist Insiders magazine<\/a>. Arriving right to your inbox every month, it is packed with great information and resources to help you on your offshore journey. Subscribe today<\/a> for amazing value and insights from our offshore experts!<\/p>\n Thanks for reading and see you next week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Palau has made waves recently with their new digital residency program, with many people touting it as a potential workaround for crypto platforms that have banned users from certain jurisdictions such as Canada and the United States. But is it the real deal or too good to be true? Let\u2019s discuss. Where is Palau? Before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":705,"featured_media":48732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[39819,1795,6869,39817,38510,5200,15440,23978,21570,13801,39816,39814,39813,39815,26917,2738,39820,39818,1887,3202],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/3-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48727"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48737,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48727\/revisions\/48737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48727"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}About the Palau Digital Residency program<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Palau](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOptions available<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Current program benefits<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Future program benefits<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Why are crypto investors so excited?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Palau](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/3-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDoes the Palau ID work for KYC?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Palau](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDiffering opinions abound<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Palau](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/5-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
My thoughts<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Palau](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/6-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nConclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Palau](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/7.jpg\")
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