Following law firm DLA Piper last month, it is the second significant non-crypto firm to join Shyft.
The Shyft Network, a digital identification system meant to put the cryptocurrency industry in line with worldwide anti-money laundering (AML) standards, has collaborated with Worldpay from FIS, the world’s largest payments processor.
Shyft’s goal is to make it possible for pseudonymous entities involved in crypto transactions, including as exchanges, custodial wallets, and brokerage firms, to identify each other and securely share data about their customers, as required by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and its “Travel Rule.”
The crypto sector has reacted to the FATF’s guidelines by forming consortia and launching technical initiatives that allow personally identifiable information (PII) to “travel” with crypto transactions that exceed a specific threshold. Shyft achieves this goal by utilising blockchain technology, and it distinguishes out by partnering with significant non-crypto companies such as Worldpay from FIS and, most recently, multinational law firm DLA Piper.
According to the corporations, Worldpay, which provides card-to-crypto processor services to most of the major cryptocurrency exchanges, will join the Shyft Federation.
It’s all about bridging the gap between the crypto and regular worlds.
Worldpay will run portions of Shyft Network’s federation nodes, which authenticate transactions and offer data attribution, as well as Shyft’s “Veriscope” Travel Rule solution, which is a smart-contract layer that sits on top of the network.
In an interview, Shyft co-founder Joseph Weinberg remarked, “FIS and Worldpay are getting ready for the next generation of payments.” “From a Travel Rule standpoint, having a regulatory-compliant data layer becomes crucial, whether it’s with stablecoins or between VASPs [virtual asset service providers].”
Weinberg sees the FATF Travel Rule as the start of a larger decentralised identification architecture, but the initial phase, which is being bolstered by companies like DLA Piper and Worldpay, is mainly about enrolling VASPs.
“It’s about how we connect the crypto and traditional worlds,” Weinberg explained. “Having institutions like DLA Piper or Worldpay cross-verify these types of businesses in ways we’ve never seen before helps generate on-chain confidence in ways we’ve never seen before.”
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
