The Importance of KYC in the Crypto World

X Infinity
3 min readDec 19, 2018

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Image Source: Draglet.com

KYC — The necessary evil

One of the biggest appeals of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum has always been the anonymous aspect, in that transactions are tied to an address and not to a name. So, it is understandable to see why any people are surprised when they are asked to prove their personal identity when creating accounts for platforms, exchanges and so on. However, this is all a part of the KYC process and X Infinity is here to help you understand why Knowing Your Customer is so important.

What is KYC

Know Your Customer or KYC for short is the process of verifying the identity of a person before allowing them to proceed any further, it is done by organizations to know who their customers are and to confirm that their identities are genuine. KYC is a common procedure and is implemented by many industries, not just in the crypto space. The KYC process will typically require you to provide a few personal information and documents such as Full Name, Address and DOB. You will be then be asked for some documents such as proof of residency and government issued ID like an Identification card or passport. While this may seem rather tedious and unnecessary, KYC is an important process in the crypto space.

Why KYC is important

KYC may not be a popular process amongst the crypto community, but it cannot be helped as it is a necessary evil. By knowing who their customers are, companies can help prevent crimes such as money laundering, bribery and corruption, fraud, identity theft and terrorism. KYC is designed to filter out those individuals with no real interest in the ICO and only care about laundering their money so that it is hard to trace its true origins. Due to technological advancements recently, the KYC process can take less than 1 hour to verify a person’s identity. We are all part of the crypto community, so 1 hour should not deter us from wanting to make the crypto and ICO space a safe place for all.

KYC and cryptocurrencies

The trouble with implementing KYC in the crypto space is that it goes against the decentralizing nature of the blockchain. Many people oppose anything that will require them to prove their real identities as it goes against the original idea behind bitcoin. Blockchain was meant to create a trust between stranger without having to share private information. However, this idea of total anonymity is far too difficult to achieve. Companies like X Infinity need KYC procedures for protection from criminals looking to take advantage of the unregulated crypto space.

Hopefully you will now see why KYC is now a standard practice of any legitimate ICO and why this process is needed in our world. X Infinity is also fully behind the KYC process and hope you are too. For X Infinity’s KYC process, we will be asking for the national ID and residential address of each token purchaser. For more information about X Infinity’s KYC process, please head on over to our official website at https://www.xinfinity.io/

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X Infinity

The next-generation cryptocurrency wallet that unifies merchants and consumers