i just bought a $100 amazon gift card through the bitpay wallet a few moments ago. no KYC required. also bought $500 in gift cards ~12 hours ago on egifter through bitpay---same.
Do you think Bitpay could have found enough information about you through one of the many possible channels such that they decided not to bother to ask you for KYC?
that seems rather doubtful. i've never used bitpay to pay a service where i've KYC'd, and i really don't think browser/IP/blockchain analysis is a functional replacement for a KYC program that demands official photo ID. i don't think a legal compliance-minded company like bitpay would operate that way, but i could be wrong.
i have a couple theories:
1. they are rolling out region-specific policies based on things like IP address and it's not clear yet which regions are affected
2. they had not/have not fully rolled these policies out, so there are inconsistencies happening right now
we'll probably know a lot more in a couple weeks as more reports come out.