Private hosting, explained
No-KYC VPS hosting. What it hides, and how to keep it private.
The less a host collects, the less there is to leak. Here’s exactly what we keep, what we never ask for, and how to keep the rest of your setup just as private.
- LiteKeepYour email, payment IDs, what you order, keyed hashes of your login IPsNo name, address, phone or ID
- Everyone, on the blockchainEach payment: amount, time, the address it came fromTrue for every coin we accept except Monero
- Your exchangeYour ID, and that you withdrew to our addressIf you paid straight from one
- Everyone, in certificate logsEvery hostname you get a public TLS certificate forPublished by design
- Networks on the wayThe IP addresses you connect fromLike any website or server
The short answer
A no-KYC VPS keeps your identity out of your host’s records. At LiteKeep you sign up with an email, a password and your country. We never ask for your name, address, phone number, ID or card, so there is no passport scan or card number of yours for us to store, lose or hand over.
Privacy is a chain, and the host is one link. Pay in Monero, use a separate email and name your server neutrally, and you close the other easy links too.
“No KYC” means a host doesn’t check who you are. That’s worth a lot: one less database with your passport in it, one less form, one less company holding your card number.
Here’s the thing: privacy is a chain. The host is one link. The others are your payment, your exchange, your domain, your keys and your habits.
We built LiteKeep to be the strong link: we collect the minimum and say exactly what it is. This guide goes link by link, so you can make the rest just as strong.
In this guide you’ll learn
- What a no-ID sign-up hides, and what’s up to you
- Is it legal? Why hosting isn’t a bank
- What your payment shows, coin by coin
- What we keep, field by field, and what we never collect
- Five details to keep private yourself
- A checklist for a more private server
Chapter 1
The short answer
Here’s what a LiteKeep account keeps out of our records, and what you control yourself.
| At LiteKeep | Your move | |
|---|---|---|
| Your name, address, phone, ID | Never asked | Nothing to do |
| Your card or bank details | There is no card to give | Pay in crypto |
| The IP you sign in from | Stored only as a keyed hash | Choose where you connect from |
| Your payment | Only what the blockchain shows | Pay in Monero to keep it off the public record |
| Your exchange account | Not ours to see | Withdraw to your own wallet first |
| Your server’s hostnames | Your choice | Name things neutrally |
| Legal requests | Handled as our transparency page sets out | Read it before you need it |
Chapter 2
Is no-KYC hosting legal?
Identity checks are a rule for banks and crypto exchanges, not for renting server space.
- Banks, exchanges and payment firms must verify customers. That’s why your exchange asked for ID.
- Hosting is generally not in that group. Renting a server without an ID check is generally legal, everyday business.
- What you run is what matters. A no-ID account doesn’t change what’s allowed on a server. Our acceptable use policy lists it in plain words, and our transparency page says how we handle abuse reports and legal requests.
That’s why we keep sign-up to an email and a password. We never ask for your passport, so it can never leak from us.
Chapter 3
What your payment shows
Paying in crypto keeps your card and your bank out of it. What the payment itself shows depends on the coin.
| Public on the chain | Links it to you | |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | Amount, time, sending and receiving addresses | Your exchange, if you withdrew from one; any reuse of your addresses |
| Ether, BNB, XRP, SOL, TRX, and USDT or USDC on any chain | Same: amount, time, both addresses | Same |
| Monero | Hidden: sender, receiver and amount | Your exchange, if you bought it there, and the proof you send us to get credited |
- Bitcoin and most coins run on public ledgers. Privacy comes from keeping your addresses unlinked from you, for example by not paying straight from an exchange account.
- Exchanges know who withdrew. Move coins to a wallet you control first, then pay from there.
- Monero hides sender, receiver and amount by default. We accept it: you send us a proof (the transaction ID and key) and a person on our team credits it, around the clock.
Chapter 4
What we keep, and what we never collect
From our code and our privacy policy. Any host should be able to give you this list. Here’s ours.
| What | Kept | |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Email, password hash, encrypted two-factor secret, SSH public keys you add | While your account is open |
| Logins | For each session: a keyed hash of your IP and your browser’s name | Sessions end after 30 days unused |
| Security log | Logins and account changes, with the same keyed IP hash | See the privacy policy |
| Payments | Transaction ID, coin, network, amount, our receiving address | As long as accounting law requires |
| Servers | What you order, where, hours and outbound traffic | Deleted servers are gone |
| Support | Your emails and our replies | See the privacy policy |
What we never collect
- Your name, postal address or phone number. Sign-up doesn’t ask for them.
- ID documents. No passport, no selfie, no utility bill.
- Card numbers or bank details. We take crypto, so there’s nothing to store.
- Your IP in plain form. Only a keyed hash, which our records can’t turn back into a list of IPs.
- Tracking. No third-party analytics and no advertising cookies.
About the IP hash: it’s an HMAC with a secret key. If someone gives us an IP, we can check whether it matches a record, but the database itself holds no readable IP addresses.
Who else touches your data: our infrastructure provider runs the hardware; SMTP2GO sends our emails; Cloudflare sits in front of our website and our support mail, so it sees the IP addresses that connect, as any network in front of a website does.
Chapter 5
Five details to keep private yourself
None of these is about the host. All of them take a minute to get right.
MythMy hostnames are private.
Every publicly trusted TLS certificate is written to public Certificate Transparency logs. Get a certificate for my-name-vpn.example.com and that name is public once it’s issued. Use neutral names.
MythAn SSH key is just a key.
New keys get a comment, set to “user@host” by default: often your real name and your laptop’s name. It travels with the key to every server you add it to. Strip it before you paste.
MythA fresh email is enough.
Not if you reuse a username or sign your support emails with your usual signature. Keep this account separate from your everyday ones.
MythDomain privacy hides the owner.
It hides the public WHOIS entry. Your registrar still holds what you gave it. Give it as little as it allows.
MythEvery crypto payment is private.
Bitcoin and stablecoin payments are public on their chains. Monero hides them by default, and we accept it.
Chapter 6
A checklist for a more private server
For journalists, activists, people keeping a side project separate from an employer, or anyone who simply prefers fewer traces.
Use an email for this alone
A new address, not forwarded to your usual inbox and not used anywhere else. It’s the only contact detail we ask for.
Pay from a wallet you control
Withdraw to your own wallet first instead of paying straight from an exchange, or pay in Monero.
Strip your SSH key comment
Open the
.pubfile and delete the text after the key before you paste it. To change it in the key files themselves:ssh-keygen -c -C "" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
Name things neutrally
Server names, hostnames and certificate names end up in places you don’t control. Leave your name and employer out of them.
Watch where you connect from
Signing in from home links the session to your home connection for whoever sees the traffic. Your own VPN on a LiteKeep server solves that: see WireGuard on a VPS.
Know how requests are handled
Read our policy on legal requests and notices before you need it. It’s on the transparency page.
Now it’s your move
The strongest privacy step is the simplest: don’t hand your identity to your host in the first place. At LiteKeep you never do. The rest comes down to how you pay and how you work, and you now have the checklist.
Sign up with an email and a password, pay in crypto, and deploy. See how paying with crypto works here, or read our privacy policy and security page in full.