The year 2019 is expected to see a significant rise in STOs and have been called the future of blockchain investments. Know Your Customer or KYC for STO is considered to be a major part in shaping their future. The regulatory requirements imposed on STOs for being declared securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission makes them a lot safer to invest in.
ICOs dominated the crypto investment arena in the year 2017, raising over six billion dollars for startups and projects. The glorious bubble, however, burst almost too soon as it became known that nearly 80 per cent of those ICOs were a scam. The primary reason for that to happen was the fact that ICOs do not have any of the real value that is associated with actual securities.
STO over ICO?
Comparatively, a rather new blockchain instrument that emerged in 2018 is an STO. They offer the same benefits that a normal stock or bond offering does, including profit sharing and voting rights. They are essentially a real-world asset for an investor much like any other security offered by any company. Unlike an ICO which is only a digital token that can be used to buy other digital assets or can be liquidated at a crypto exchange. They are much less regulated than an STO and offer much less security on the part of the company or project offering them.
Read: KYC Services For ICOs : Why you need to have them now?
Ever since the SEC’s increased regulations on cryptocurrencies, the blockchain industry has churned up a more legitimate way for people to invest digitally in the form of security tokens. Since an STO has to be registered with the SEC, the company offering it has to fulfil all their regulatory requirements. By design, KYC solutions are a major part of those requirements and can potentially revolutionise the way STOs would be traded in the crypto world.
What is KYC for STOs?
Know Your Customer or KYC verifications are a simple and easy solution for any company initiating an STO to vet its investors. Primarily they are provided by a KYC service provider like Shufti Pro that provides digital verification procedures to check if any given user or investor has fraudulent credentials. KYC verifications are performed in the form of document verification, facial recognition and AML (anti-money laundering) checks.
AML compliance primarily checks if your investors are vulnerable financially or are involved – or known to be involved – in any money laundering activities. Shufti Pro as a KYC solution provider thereby checks an investor’s name against nearly 3000 watchlists issued by global regulatory authorities. These authorities include FATF, FinTRAC, FINMA and OFAC.
How KYC for STOs can be a Revolution
Protection from Fraud
Since their initiation, ICOs have been notorious for being fraught with fraudulent offerings. More than 80 per cent ICOs were known to be fake according to some studies. The KYC verification process required for STOs eliminates this threat entirely. The sole purpose of a KYC check is to check for any fraudulent investors and weed out any threats of identity theft.
Improve Reputation
By complying to KYC and AML regulations STOs can adhere to the regulatory requirements that many regulatory authorities have been urging the crypto sector to conform to. This gives crypto an opportunity to regain its confidence with both the investors as well as sceptical state bodies. Compliance with KYC requirements for STOs shows a strong commitment on part of the crypto industry to try and come to par with normal security offerings. It also allows them to enter the market for securities as a legitimate deal.
Boost Investor Confidence
The chance of fraud in ICOs made investors think twice about investing any sort of digital tokens. With security tokens being recognised by the SEC as a legitimate security offering, cryptos can now attract investors safely. As digital currencies are an innovative way to drum up investments for startups and projects, people are eager to invest if given the proper assurance for the security of their investments. When they see an STO adhering to KYC regulations and AML compliance measures they can be assured that their money is safe from any kind of fraud.
Develop a Smooth Investment Process
Tokens or securities offerings, be it an IPO, ICO or an STO are charged with glitches and last-minute errors. KYC solutions can help ensure a smooth process for STOs that has less of a chance to attract fraudulent or financially vulnerable investors. This can reduce the chance of any irregularities in the process of initiating an STO.
Shufti Pro has emerged in the industry of KYC as a service provider that dispenses top of the line KYC services to a vast array of industries including STOs. It also provides the best AML compliance checks for a company’s users and investors, thus ensuring the best fraud prevention services for its clients.
