Or are there countries where IDs and maybe phone numbers are required before making purchases physically? Imagine how strange it would be to present your ID before buying or selling in physical world. Not sure I've ever been required to present ID before buying or selling, even physical foreign currencies offline. The kyc phenomenon seems to be peculiar to online world and bank transactions.
Physical currency exchange is already quite regulated and KYC verification is almost always required for exchange.
A small digression: when the machine counts banknotes in a currency exchange office, does it record serial numbers on each currency? If so, then in conjunction with a KYC, cash is also partially deanonymized.
I think human right to privacy shouldn't be violated in anyway unless the human is involved in serious crimes or some suspicious activities. And even when ID becomes necessary, it should be handled with care to prevent it from going into the wrong hands.
Can a person's privacy be violated by the state and government? They also require KYCs everywhere.
There are some countries where the collection of personal data is prohibited by law, of course, except for government organizations.
As for careful handling of personal data, you need to tell this to the government that collects this data, and then, suddenly, this data ends up in the public domain or is sold on the darknet.
By the way, the kyc issues could make thriving online economically alot difficult for people in certain remote places who probably prefer to have little to zero contact with modern world. This are the kind of people crypto would be more suitable for, unfortunately they will be denied access to lots of cryptocurrency exchanges in existence today.
There are not many people who prefer not to have any contact with the modern world, relative to the general mass.
Using cryptocurrencies is not at all equivalent to using cryptocurrency exchangers, which, in fact, you can do without. Have you heard of bisq, for example?