Andreessen Horowitz-backed Jumio, an identity verification company, has announced a partnership with eight leading bitcoin companies in order to form an identity security network.
Dubbed the Bitcoin Identity Security Open Network (BISON), the system works by allowing partners to collect and verify a customer’s identity during a transaction using any connected device.
Customers simply need to hold up their government-issued I.D. or Passport in front of their camera, and Jumio’s Netverify validated the I.D., extracting the user’s information and auto-populating it into the appropriate field.
It’s all done in real-time, and according to Jumio, will net higher completion rates.
“We believe that crypto-currencies, and Bitcoin chiefly among them, are an important new part of the payments world, however, to reach their full potential it’s time to instill a higher degree of confidence in the system,” says Daniel Mattes, founder and CEO of Jumio. “The vast majority of Bitcoin users are honest and engaging in a range of legal transactions, but a small minority are not and that threatens the entire ecosystem especially during this formative period. BISON is designed to minimize the problem by weeding out those who use false or manipulated IDs which is a strong indicator of intended fraud or other illegal activity.”
Initial BISON partners are: BitAccess, SnapSwap, CoinMkt, Digital Currency Exchange of Texas, CoinRnr, Hashop.io, NoveltyLab and Bitnet Technologies.
“Since our inception, we’ve placed a great emphasis on KYC processes and other regulations,” BitAccess co-founder Moe Adham said. “That’s why we chose to work with Jumio in the first place and it’s a natural extension for BitAccess to help develop this initiative.”
This summer, Jumio says they’ll be adding functionality that will allow a customer to transfer their identity verification from one partner service to another without having to re-scan their I.D.
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