A credit card transaction is a promise to pay, not a payment. That promise is what you sign when you sign a receipt in a store. The merchant and its credit card

A credit card transaction is a promise to pay, not a payment. That promise is what you sign when you sign a receipt in a store. The merchant and its credit card processor need to identify someone who can be legally compelled to make good on that promise in order for the system to work. This is not a corporate conspiracy, just the nature of credit. Increased risk of fraud calls for more reliable identification; DigitalOcean is asking for a second factor to confirm that you actually own that CC. (Otherwise, they are at risk of eating the loss in case of a chargeback. An ID document, like a signature, gives them something to show in court to hold you responsible for the payment even if you chargeback.) It is the nature of the credit card payment system that legitimate transactions are never anonymous. In any situation where you keep your identity private from your creditor, then either your creditor is brain-dead or you are committing fraud. If you wish to purchase VPS hosting without revealing your identity to the seller, use (tumbled) BitCoin. If your concern is for the security of your ID document (rather than the fact that DigitalOcean will know your identity) then insist on using email encryption or send via snail-mail.