Compliance, regulation, data protection – these are all topics that are becoming more relevant and important every day and have long since crossed the boundaries of certain industries.
The gaming industry is a good example. These topics have been relevant for a long time, but have not always been well received by the target group: the gamers themselves. Every gamer wants to enjoy the best possible data protection, but at the same time often feels that their privacy has been violated if data has to be transmitted first in order to achieve optimum data protection, as paradoxical as that may sound.
KYC is an important area here. Not just an issue since yesterday, more people are now coming to terms with its relevance and the initial skepticism is increasingly giving way to broad acceptance. Provided that the topic is dealt with transparently.
But what exactly is KYC?
KYC is short for “Know Your Customer”. It is a process for verifying the identity of customers that is carried out by companies in order to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and other forms of economic crime.
The main objectives are as follows:
– The identification of customers to ensure that they are who they say they are.
– Assessing the risk of a customer being used for money laundering or other forms of economic and, of course, cybercrime in our area.
– Monitoring customer activity to identify suspicious transactions.
From the very beginning, it was a major concern for us to design FiPME – First international Play Money Exchange – in such a way that all participants feel safe when trading virtual items with a focus on in-game items.
Players, i.e. those who buy and sell in-game items, should operate in an environment in which a whole range of measures have been implemented to make the trade of and with these items secure and to protect buyers and sellers as well as possible from various scams.
This starts with the trading process itself, i.e. the transaction process, which is designed to ensure that the seller actually receives their money and the buyer their item.
However, this is only the visible tip of the iceberg. There are processes running in the background that ensure the best possible application of data protection guidelines, compliance and regulation in general at every moment of using FiPME.
KYC is an important cornerstone for us. Of course, this has also presented us with the challenge of identifying and implementing routines that are as globally applicable as possible. Although the requirements of many countries around the world have a certain common denominator, some of them differ considerably in certain details.
We are also aware that some players who want to trade in-game items on FiPME may find these measures too restrictive or invasive, especially at the beginning.
We therefore want to be transparent about these measures at all times and make them visible rather than hidden.
Of course, we are aware that KYC cannot prevent all forms of money laundering and white-collar crime, but it definitely puts a stop to such activities. We also work closely with various institutions and companies to close almost every identifiable loophole that could open up in this area, or to prevent it from happening in the first place.
It is a process that is very time-consuming and costly, especially at this stage of
development, but on the one hand it is important to us that we do not find ourselves part of a gray market, where we believe far too high a percentage of the trade in virtual goods currently takes place, and on the other hand we want to offer a well-thought-out, homogeneous and holistic service for both the players and the developers and publishers who will use our platform.
Small or medium-sized developers in particular will benefit in this way because they won’t have to worry about implementing such routines themselves, but renowned developers and publishers have also already indicated that they are very interested in a solution that saves them the sometimes very costly, subsequent implementation.
In principle, the implementation of KYC is therefore a very relevant component for us in order to ensure three of our most important principles:
- Security: We offer measures to protect the security of customer data and transactions.
- Transparency: We offer transparency about the prices, processes and conditions for trading in-game items.
- Convenience: We offer an easy and convenient way to buy and sell in-game items.
We are also actively working to increase acceptance of this topic and to achieve and encourage a rethink.
In fact, companies that use standards such as KYC do not want to restrict users or encroach on their privacy – on the contrary.
Rather, it is about protecting the users, in our case mainly the gamers, also on behalf of the publishers and developers, in fact their most important assets: their valuable in-game items and their equally valuable time.
