Companies built on the Web3 and blockchain have been tasked with enhancing transaction security and trust to speed up widespread adoption, lower fraud, and promote system compliance.
This was the gist of the conversations at the just finished sixth installment of the Inside Identification webinar series, which was put on by QoreID, a company that specializes in digital identity and consumer data analytics, in collaboration with TechCabal, the first African media outlet.
Fejiro Hanu Agbodje, chief executive officer of Patricia Technologies, Emmanuel Babalola, chief executive officer and general partner of Audacity Fund, Erikan Obotetukudo, and Jide Ogunjobi, vice president of products and data strategy at QoreID were among the speakers.
Know-Your-Customer (KYC) as a Catalyst for DeFi and Web3 Adoption in Africa, Ogunjobi said in response to the theme: “Trust has been established as an enabling factor that helps to build critical mass across industries. Web3 and blockchain protocols are no exemptions. There has to be a mechanism in place to ensure accountability and trust in the platforms, the protocols, the transactions, and the recipient counterparts within the system. That is why we are calling for an increased focus on KYC to fortify and deepen the trust process.”
In addition to facilitating trust, he emphasized the need for innovation in service delivery procedures for web and blockchain transactions and said that comprehensive KYC protocols have a tendency to encourage compliance in decentralized networks.
He continued, “Just like other financial institutions, compliance is a critical factor within the Web3 and blockchain spaces. Operators and users have to abide by the rules of the geographical space within which the transactions are done whether it be trading, payments or transfers.”
“KYC enters the picture here. For example, at QoreID and VerifyMe, we have been able to roll out our solutions for a number of Web3 and blockchain businesses, giving them knowledge of who and what their customers are. We continue to invest actively in solutions that will use KYC to drive growth and scalable possibilities for operators because we are leaders in Nigeria’s eKYC industry.
Agbodje urged for increased cooperation across ecosystem players in his proposal, notably across the regulator-to-operator divide. He thinks that by doing this, the need for sustainable regulation will be met, the ecosystem will be protected, and innovation won’t be stifled, harming user confidence.
He said this: “The government and regulators need to ask some important questions. Ultimately, all stakeholders want the same thing: the ecosystem’s growth. So, while regulation exists to protect consumers and stimulate innovation, operators have first-hand knowledge of customers’ needs because they deal with them daily and understand their pain points. Operators should be carried along to offer meaningful insights towards developing sustainable regulation.”
