Proton doesn't really support anonymous payments. Let's demand that they do

NOTE: This post is a compilation and refining of criticisms I have shared before about Proton across multiple comments since last year. I am putting it all together here in a single place so that it is easy to find and reference. I’ve been working on it for a long time and it’s finally here.

In addition, this thread contains reporting on Proton 's apparent relationship with the Proxy Store , based on my past interactions with both, such as the fact that last year, Proton’s legal team allegedly sent notice to the Proxy Store demanding they stop selling their vouchers (Part IV-B ).

TL;DR:

Proton does not support anonymous payments for the following reasons:

1) They don’t accept Monero. 2) Cash payments require you to disclose your username. 3) Neither cash nor Monero are accepted for the purchase of gift cards. 4) Proxy Store vouchers are limited and exclusively for free Proton users. 5) Proton gift cards are not available on the Proxy Store or any other privacy friendly reseller.

These privacy gaps are significant but easy to fix. Let’s raise our voices and demand it from Proton.

INTRODUCTION:

In the last couple of years, Proton has received negative publicity due to multiple controversies involving their handover of user information to authorities. The most recent one was reported by 404 Media and involved the FBI.

Stories about how Proton users get their identity exposed via legal warrants are valuable regardless of if these people are good or bad or anything in between. These stories are insightful because they reveal Proton’s shortcomings. It’s a teaching moment for both Proton and its users, and we should all take pause, and react proactively if we value privacy.

One of the common ways that a Proton user can be identified is through their payment information, which is typically their credit/debit card or their PayPal account. As a counter to that, Proton claims to support anonymous payments, but this is not true, because, as I’m about to explain, all the “anonymous” methods they offer are compromised or limited.

I. PROTON DOESN’T ACCEPT MONERO

Monero is the only anonymous cryptocurrency by default, and Proton doesn’t accept it as a payment method. I have said in the past that I personally understand Proton’s declared reasons for not accepting direct payments via Monero. Monero is unfairly associated with crime by the most powerful international auditors, and Proton does not want to take the risk of getting delisted by them, as it could damage their reputation. I do not hold it against them. The fact remains, they don’t accept Monero.

II. PROTON’S CASH PAYMENTS ARE NOT ANONYMOUS

Cash is the easiest way for the average person to pay for something anonymously. Unlike using cryptocurrency, it doesn’t require technical skills and knowledge that, for most people, are difficult to grasp. Even more so when you consider that buying cryptocurrency anonymously requires advanced proficiency.

Proton cash payments require that you declare your Proton username, which compromises your privacy.

Many Proton usernames are linked to real names (jordan.smith@pm.me). Even if you disclose a pseudonymous username (SexyDoor@pm.me), if it is part of the same account with the address containing your real name (Jane Smith), it makes no difference. Your real identity is still exposed.

When Proton receives a cash payment, a human agent has to manually add the payment to your account. Why? If I can pay Proton via credit cards without human interference reading my profile, I should be able to do the same with cash.

Plenty of privacy companies, like Mullvad , IVPN , and Posteo , accept cash directly without requiring you to declare your username. They found creative ways to achieve it.

Why can’t Proton copy their model? Or the model of Tuta and Addy, that accepts cash and Monero indirectly?

III. PROTON GIFT CARDS CANNOT BE PURCHASED ANONYMOUSLY

Gift cards are another way to buy subscriptions anonymously, especially when they are bought from privacy-friendly resellers. They work like cash except they can only be spent in one place.

Proton sells gift cards in their online shop. They cannot be bought anywhere else. They also cannot be purchased with cash or Monero, which are the only forms of anonymous payments. Proton gift cards can only be purchased with credit/debit cards, PayPal, or traceable cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. None of these methods are anonymous, and hence they can all expose your identity.

Do you know which privacy companies allow their gift cards to be bought anonymously with cash and Monero?

Tuta. Addy. SMS Pool.

This is extremely poor implementation when you compare Proton to its peers and competitors in the privacy community who have been doing it well for years.

IV. PROTON’S PROXY STORE VOUCHERS ARE SEVERELY LIMITED

Another way to accept anonymous payments is via privacy friendly resellers like The Proxy Store, who accepts cash and Monero as anonymous payment. However, Proton’s offers in the Proxy Store are severely limited.

A/ Proton’s Proxy Store vouchers are exclusive to free users.

An existing Proton subscriber cannot use them to renew their subscription. If they want to use them, they have to cancel their current subscription, which means losing any discount if you’re on a lifetime discount. This also applies to SimpleLogin vouchers.

Any existing Proton or SL subscriber should be able to renew their current subscription anonymously and automatically. And any new subscriber should be able to do the same.

Even if you are a new user and you purchase a subscription anonymously via the Proxy Store, you cannot renew it via the Proxy Store. You will always have to cancel your current subscription or wait for it to expire in order to purchase another one the same way. That is not practical at all.

Any active paying subscriber to Tuta, Addy, or SMSPool can renew their current subscription via the Proxy Store. That is because their gift cards can be added as credit. Which means you can anonymously top up your account in advance, so that when your billing cycle comes, your subscription with them will be automatically renewed via your credit. Proton should follow this model. Native Proton gift cards work as credit, but they cannot be purchased anonymously.

B/ Proton vouchers in the Proxy Store are not consistently available

NOTE: This section is specifically about vouchers for native Proton services and doesn’t apply to SimpleLogin, whose availability on the Proxy Store has been consistent and predates their acquisition by Proton.

Some services that Proton once supported (Proton Mail) have disappeared multiple times from the Proxy Store, suggesting they are no longer supported. It seems as if Proton is deliberately withholding vouchers from the Proxy Store. Their relationship appears shaky, and I don’t understand why. Most of my confusion lies with Proton.

In July of last year, I made a comment complaining about the fact that Proton did not support payments via the Proxy Store. Months later someone notified me that they finally were. I was ecstatic by this news and had the urge to immediately reply to express my joy. However, I refrained from doing so because I wanted to ask Proton about it first, and what transpired in my exchange with them astonished me.

Proton support explicitly and repeatedly denied to my face that they supported payments via the Proxy Store. Against compelling and irrefutable evidence, they affirmed to me that it was not true. The evidence included:

a) The Proxy’s Store’s announcement on their website (Sep 9th, 2025) b) Confirmation by David Peterson, Proton VPN’s General Manager (Sep 15th, 2025) c) Confirmation by Proton on PG (Sep 16th, 2025) d) Confirmation by Proton on their website (Oct 1st 2025) e) Confirmation by Proton on Twitter (Oct 1st, 2025)

Much of this evidence was provided to me directly from the Proxy Store. Yet Proton support kept denying it. We went back and forth for MONTHS.

You know what Proton said to me the first time they denied it?

That their legal department had reached out to the Proxy Store to have them removed. It’s almost like they had learned the information from me and were not aware of it, which of course is impossible given the evidence.

When I reached out to the Proxy Store for comment, they were as confused as I was. They had not heard from Proton’s legal department, and assured me they would never sell Proton vouchers without their explicit authorization. They have a formal agreement with all of the companies whose service they sell. I was inclined to believe the Proxy Store.

Since my earliest exchanges with the Proxy Store on this matter, Proton vouchers have disappeared and reappeared in their store, presumably because they were running out and Proton was slow to provide them with new stock. To my understanding, there were long silences from Proton after multiple attempts from the Proxy Store to reach out to them.

Last month, the Proxy Store announced that they would stop selling Proton vouchers, because Proton had not responded to any of their requests after 5 months of attempts This was not the first time this happened. The news was also reported here on PG. When I inquired the Proxy Store about it, they said that someone from Proton had finally reached out to them and they were in talks. Now the vouchers are back again.

What seems clear is that Proton is very slow to respond to the Proxy Store’s requests, and all indicators point to it being deliberate.

The course of these strange events leads me to believe that Proton and the Proxy Store’s relationship is not on the strongest grounds and that Proton has reservations about selling their products and services on the Proxy Store for unknown reasons. Even the Proxy Store seems to be in the dark about Proton’s motives.

V. PROTON GIFT CARDS ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN THE PROXY STORE

Unlike Proton and SimpleLogin vouchers, Proton gift cards can be used to credit your account and renew an ongoing subscription, which is fantastic! But for some inexplicable reason, Proton gift cards are not available in the Proxy Store, when this is unquestionably the best way to anonymously renew an ongoing subscription or purchase a new one.

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WHAT PROTON SHOULD DO AND WHAT WE SHOULD REQUEST:

1. Allow privacy-friendly resellers like the Proxy Store and Cake Pay to sell your gift cards.

Only allowing subscriptions to be sold via vouchers is extremely limiting. Proton gift cards can be used as credit, which allows users to renew an ongoing subscription in advance and automatically or purchase a new one, all anonymously. They should focus on the Proxy Store first, because they accept cash which is the most privacy friendly payment method.

In my opinion, Proton should stop selling subscription vouchers altogether and only sell gift cards with amounts that correspond to the price of the subscription, but also in other amounts like their $20 and $50 gift cards, because many users have discounted lifetime subscriptions.

1. Support direct cash payments that don’t require users to share their username or any personal information. That includes payments for gift cards.

2. Allow SimpleLogin vouchers to be used as credit like Proton gift cards.

That allows SimpleLogin subscribers to anonymously renew their ongoing subscriptions automatically and in advance instead of having to cancel or wait for them to expire.

1. Allow Proton and SimpleLogin gift cards to be used interchangeably.

In other words, allow Proton credits to be used on any native or non-native Proton service. That means allowing Proton gift cards/credits to be used for SimpleLogin, and allowing SimpleLogin gift cards/credits to be used for any native and non native Proton product. That means they can be used for Standard Notes too.

1. Anonymize credit card payments

Proton should follow Posteo’s example .

In 2009, Posteo found a way to anonymize credit card payments so that your credit card payment is not actually linked to your account or any account. I don’t see why Proton can’t do the same. Or why they didn’t start doing that from the very beginning since Proton Mail launched 5 years after Posteo implemented this infrastructure, in 2014.

CONCLUSION:

Payment method is one of the most common ways authorities identify the users of a private online services. Hence, paying anonymously is an important feature to have if you want to protect your users’ privacy. Proton claims to support anonymous payments, but they actually don’t.

Proton doesn’t support anonymous payments because most of their alternative payment methods are traceable and hence compromise their users privacy. Moreover, the one payment method that is actually anonymous (Proxy Store vouchers) is extremely limited because it is exclusive to free users and not available to ongoing subscribers. Proton vouchers are also inconsistently available.

There are very easy ways that Proton can remedy this problem and actually support anonymous payments. Chief among them is to make Proton gift cards available on the Proxy Store in small ($20) and larger amounts ($100), because they can be added as credit to your account, whether it’s a free account, or an ongoing paid subscription.

If we truly value privacy, we must demand this from Proton and we must be loud about it. We have more power collectively than as individuals in our little corners, so let’s raise our voices!

I’d rather Proton get attention for frustrating authorities because their privacy infrastructure prevents them from identifying a user than them getting attention because complying with a Swiss warrant facilitated the identification of a user.