Gemini is not supported in my region, so I’ve created an uphold account. 2 days later they suspended my account without any reason. Below you can find their latest respond to my ticket;
"Based on a recent review of your account, we regret to inform you that we can no longer offer you an Uphold account.
We’re unable to discuss the specific reason for this review, or the outcome, but can point you to our [FAQ] section which provides general information which you may find useful."
As far as understand from other topics, it’s not possible to withdraw to brave wallet either which is very very funny. I don’t understand why we can’t do this, both reward and wallet modules are you own modules.
Not really. I’ll be a bit blunt in my answer here:
You can continue using for another month or two where you can earn Rewards, but wouldn’t have any way of withdrawing them. KYC/AML is required to withdraw and there’s reasons why Brave isn’t doing this directly. It’s best for us and them to go through custodial partners, such as Uphold or Gemini.
Back in June it was mentioned a new custodial partner was in the works, but they haven’t spoken on it since then. So no idea when or if that’s going to happen. In the meanwhile, come February, you’ll no longer be able to earn BAT if you’re not verified.
So I guess just comes down to either participating in Rewards but tipping/contributing it all away, turning off Rewards, or just hodling for the distant day another option becomes available for you.
If you haven’t done so already, you could contact Uphold to appeal the suspension. It’s especially awkward if it happened just days after you opened the account, unless you failed to provide documentation they had requested, provided fake ID, etc.
It may sound a bit weird for anyone not familiar with blockchain why it is not possible to withdraw to Brave wallet. But there is an explanation.
Brave wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet. All transactions are performed on-chain and de-fi.
Brave rewards are a virtual token that it is only valid while you watch ads in your browser. It is not a crypto token and it is not managed on-chain.
If you connect Uphold or Gemini to your rewards wallet, then, at the end of the month, those virtual tokens will be credited into your custodial wallet. Which, by the way, it is still off-chain. The balance only exists on their accounts.
In order to transfer to your Brave wallet, you must withdraw from your Uphold or Gemini account. This is the moment the transaction is performed on-chain.
So, technically, it is not possible to transfer a virtual token off-chain into a wallet that only works on-chain.
On top, due to regulations, it is not possible to withdraw without a KYC verification. Thus why Brave uses Uphold and Gemini.
There is a possible work around for this. If you have a trusted creator that you know and are close with personally, you can speak to them about your situation and see if they would be willing to help you by tipping all of your BAT to them through the browsers tip function, then have them either send the BAT to any working exchange you are KYC verified through or to a cold wallet you have for BAT. That’s just about the only way I can think of for your specific situation and I imagine the gas/transfer fees might be too much for only a month or two of earned BAT to make this happen. Besides this, just trying to inquire into why Uphold suspended your account is your best bet. The reasoning for it has to be listed in their FAQ and is possibly something you could easily fix and then reopen with them, although I can’t imagine a rational reason to not explain their decision to suspend… Like just explain the issue. But I had a similar problem with Gemini. They for some reason couldn’t verify my identity and kept asking me to send them a wire transfer (my bank doesn’t do wire transfers) and they refused to work with me on it. I am KYC verified on several other exchanges and brokerage sites, never had any other verification issues, offered to provide any physical documents you can think of that work without a hitch for several other financial institutions I have used, and/or video chat to prove I am who I say. But nope. They said wire transfer was the ONLY way to verify my identity. Meanwhile, my girlfriend easily verified through KYC and a normal bank ACH transfer? Not only that, but all of my previously earned BAT that i accumulated was automatically deposited to Gemini before they brought up this “verification issue”. Meaning the only way to withdraw it was to either apply for a whole new account with a bank that offers wire transfers JUST for this situation and pay the banks expensive transfer fee (which was more than the BAT in my Gemini account was even worth). Since that was obviously unreasonable, they told me my only other option was to forfeit the BAT in my Gemini wallet and close the account, or I guess just leave it in there in limbo to never be used (until they inevitably get charged with fraud or go under like all the other exchanges around them lol) If it weren’t for the Upside option actually working out for me, I would have no other way to withdraw my BAT either. In other words, Gemini can bite me.