Bitpay and Onfido, two major players within the cryptocurrency sector, have sealed an agreement in which the payment provider, Bitpay, and the the global verification platform, Onfido, will work hand-in-hand to get the most out of both technologies.
As such, and as the company recently confirmed, “Onfido has announced a partnership with BitPay to accept payment in Bitcoin.” The partnership will work towards providing BitPay with Onfido’s technology to meet Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and bringing onboard new users to its platform swiftly and securely.
The announcement is important within the sector as BitPay is the largest global crypto payments provider. It processes over $1 billion annually from merchants and B2B customers. BitPay verifies the funds and accepts the Bitcoin on behalf of the organization; businesses then receive settlement in fiat currency within one to three business days.
Partnering with BitPay helps Onfido expand into international markets where credit card payments are impractical. While over 2 billion adults worldwide are un- or underbanked, half of those own a smartphone. BitPay enables transactions from any computer or mobile device, meaning Onfido can deliver identity verification services to a large number of otherwise underserved global users.
On the other hand, Onfido’s machine learning technology powers identity verification for over 1,500 customers worldwide, according to the company. With just a photo of an identity document and a smartphone camera, users can confirm their identity and gain access to a host of online services, helping businesses onboard more customers, more securely.
Husayn Kassai, CEO and co-founder of Onfido, said: “At Onfido, it’s our mission to build an open world where identity is the key to access. Partnering with Bitpay was the obvious choice for both our businesses. BitPay enables us to securely service more people in a way that is cost-effective and quicker than a bank wire, while we can deliver them the most trusted identity verification service in the crypto space.”
As well as opening up access to new users, Bitcoin payments also help increase payment transparency and reduce the fraud risks associated with credit cards. Cryptocurrency provides increased transactional transparency and security as every transaction is verified, recorded and stored on the blockchain. The transaction itself contains no sensitive information, and as a push transaction, similar to taking cash out of a wallet, the user sends the exact amount of Bitcoin needed to pay the bill. This eliminates traditional credit card fraud and identity theft risks associated with credit cards. As a result, there are no chargebacks, which cost merchants almost $19 billion in 2017 alone.
In the same vine, Stephen Pair, President and CEO at BitPay, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Onfido to enable them to accept payment in Bitcoin. We selected Onfido as our internal identity verification platform as it had the most robust functionality and was easiest to use. Allowing crypto companies to pay in Bitcoin shows Onfido’s commitment to the crypto space, and we’re excited to be working together to make crypto more secure, for more people.”
In addition to Onfido being able to accept payment in bitcoin, Onfido is also the KYC provider for BitPay. For BitPay, using Onfido’s identity verification technology helps them onboard more users, more quickly. With demand for digital currencies reaching unprecedented levels, crypto payments providers are coming under increasing scrutiny. Onfido helps BitPay meet with its KYC requirements, keeping fraud off the platform without compromising BitPay’s ability to scale. Onfido is quickly becoming the go-to provider for KYC in this space, and is already used by over 30 of the world’s largest crypto exchanges and wallets.
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