11 April, AtoZForex – On a daily basis, we see thousands of ICOs entering the market. While some of the global regulators have decided to move and lay out specific rules on how blockchain startups should carry out their ICO activities, others so far prefer “wait and see” method for the time being.
Investing in ICOs: Expert view on ICO KYC Compliance
KYC is one of the key points that investors, ICOs are paying attention to, thanks to regulators. However, is there any set ICO KYC requirement from regulators ? And if yes, to which extent ICOs should follow KYC compliance best practices?
One of the complications when answering this question appears to be the status of ICOs. These firms cannot be precisely classified either as banks or regulated firms. To answer this question, the CEO of world's leading blockchain media agency 7markets Group, Yagub Rahimov, has shared insights from his expert perspective.
Mr. Rahimov stated that in the process of choosing an ICO for investment, he does not usually consider ICOs with no KYC in place. He states:
“ When looking for ICOs, I don’t like the ones that come and accept people without KYC procedures. At the same time, I do not consider the ICOs that treat me as if they were banks. First of all, there is no real regulation out there requiring them to collect the data – confidential and private data that banks would require.
I don’t feel comfortable to provide my personal data to people, without the knowledge of what is going to happen next with this information. Let’s imagine – I give out my personal data to a particular firm, and one day they get hacked. In this case, no one knows what will happen to the data.”
What is the solution for ICOs?
Mr. Rahimov further said that the ICOs should have KYC standards in place. However, as per his opinion, this should happen in levels, as he elaborates:
“I personally believe, ICOs should have KYC, but it should happen in levels. At the very basic level there should be minimum KYC requirement. Then, as we go higher, the KYC practices should be in place. As we move higher, the level of strictness of KYC should rise respectively.”
Despite the regulations on KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements from Initial Coin Offerings are still non-existent in most jurisdictions, the advice of having KYC standards nonetheless is a smart idea. Moving through the different stages of an ICO, it is the key to gradually implement and set KYC standards.
What do you think about ICO KYC compliance? Let us know in the comments section below.