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Comment by rozenmd | Hacker News Reader

Almost every VPS provider does this.

Including GCP and AWS, even: you need to open support requests to gain access to the larger instance types (and to raise the quotas.)

Some let you enter more KYC data, and maybe use a different form of payment, to bypass this.

Why?

Fraud, its very likely people doing that are using stolen cards and will not pay, so the provider will be slapped with a loss for the service rendered and then a dispute on the card.

Why let them rent a cheaper server? What will the discover in a month or so that they don't know at the start?

> What will the discover in a month or so that they don't know at the start?

That at least the card they're paying with is not stolen (the real owner would start a dispute).

It will start to build a positive reputation for the client, prompting the provider to take the greater risk.

Whether theyre paying their bill or not

Are bank cards that bad compared to cash or cryptocurrency? Why don't they let pay with cryptocurrency which cannot be charged back?

With crypto you would need to pre-pay... And with many of the charging models of cloud offerings that is actually quite complex thing. Same really goes for deposited credits of fiat. What should happen when you run out? How fast should your resources be killed?

So it means you won't get charged a ridiculous amount if someone DDOS'es your server. Cryptocurrency is definitely superior.

It prevents the other kind of HN headline: I tried AWS for the first time last week and got a bill for $3 million this week. Help

Because if you pay with a stolen credit card and use the server to do a bunch of fraud/spamming etc there's nothing but downside for the provider. If they ask you to start out slow, and you establish yourself with them as a good client, then they will give you more freedom.

Why not demand payment with cryptocurrency then?

Because, in the words of the parent, "if you pay with [stolen cryptocurrency] and use the server to do a bunch of fraud/spamming etc there's nothing but downside for the provider"?

Because most cryptocurrency-paying clients are spammers, drug markets, or child pornographers.

And if you only ask for this after denying a fiat payment, then the fraction of those clients who also have cryptocurrency is near zero so it's not worth doing. Corporations won't buy crypto to buy their servers with, because they consider it a high risk.

And you still have to give back the crypto if a court finds it was stolen.

fraud prevention

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