Anti-Money Laundering. A set of regulations and procedures governments use to track and block financial flows they suspect fund crime or terrorism. Banks, exchanges, and payment processors are legally required to implement AML—KYC verification, suspicious activity reports, transaction monitoring, the works.
Why it matters: AML is why most domain registrars demand your identity and freeze your account if a transaction looks weird. It's also why crypto exchanges ask for your passport and proof of address. Bunkerdomains skips KYC entirely and accepts anonymous crypto—we don't file reports, don't freeze accounts, and don't ask questions.
The jurisdictional reality: AML is a global compliance framework (FATF standards), but enforcement varies wildly. Some countries ignore it. Others weaponize it against political opponents. For domain registrants, AML is why mainstream registrars are hostile to journalists, dissidents, and anyone operating in gray legal zones. If you're doing something perfectly legal but your government disagrees—or your payment method has a bad reputation—AML compliance becomes a liability, not a feature.
Related: KYC, which is the identity-verification engine AML runs on. Also relevant: GDPR and CCPA, which sometimes conflict with AML by restricting data retention.