verify individual identity programmatically

[chadwhitacre]

Airbnb uses https://www.jumio.com/.

This could help free us up to use other payment processors in addition to Balanced, including non-U.S. options.

Want to back this issue? Post a bounty on it! We accept bounties via Bountysource.

[chadwhitacre]

I've filled out Jumio's contact form, and I've reached out to Trans-Pay (#417) to see if Jumio would suffice for KYC for them.

[chadwhitacre]

Just got off the phone with Jumio. Awaiting an introduction to an account executive who can work with us on the deal.

[chadwhitacre]

Standard pricing is $18,000 per year for up to 12,000 verifications.

[chadwhitacre]

Emailing with the account exec to schedule the next call.

[chadwhitacre]

Call tomorrow at 11am PST.

[chadwhitacre]

Just had the call. Waiting to hear about what we can share publicly.

[chadwhitacre]

Heard back from Kevin. Jumio's pilot program is 1,000 verifications for $2,500, with no hard expiration (we can use them up as fast or slow as we like). Scheduling a demo of the product. What questions do we want to ask?

[rohitpaulk]

@whit537 - any updates on this?

[chadwhitacre]

It's on the back burner.

[chadwhitacre]

+1 https://gratipay.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/1736

[chadwhitacre]

+1 from Braintree at https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3287#issuecomment-91681028.

[chadwhitacre]

Looks like there's a number of companies in this space:

https://www.google.com/search?q=identify+verification+api

[chadwhitacre]

Here's a list:

1. Trulioo
2. IDchecker
3. Socure
4. Veratad IDMatch
5. Cloudcheck
6. Experian
7. Integrity
8. miiCard
9. Plaid
10. Clearbit
11. MicroBilt
12. BlockScore
13. Jumio
14. Intuit
15. Yodlee
16. Accuity
17. EveryoneAPI
18. IDology

[chadwhitacre]

We need global coverage.

[chadwhitacre]

Intuit, Yodlee and Plaid (which looks really nice) are bank account verification APIs. On this ticket we want identity verification.

[chadwhitacre]

What's the relationship between bank account verification and ID verification? Why do we want global reach if we're only able to pay out to U.S. bank accounts right now? (Can Zipmark do IAT?)

Cloudcheck is New Zealand only. IDology is US, UK, Canada, and Mexico. EveryoneAPI is really flimsy.

Remaining:

1. Trulioo
2. IDchecker
3. Socure
4. Veratad IDMatch
5. Experian
6. Integrity
7. miiCard
8. Clearbit
9. MicroBilt
10. BlockScore
11. Jumio
12. Accuity

[chadwhitacre]

Socure enables larger institutions to go beyond standard Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance and procedures with the enhancement of social network information.

We are a tiny institution that needs standard KYC. Off the list!

[chadwhitacre]

I'm striking Experian because they're too enterprisey.

Remaining:

1. Trulioo
2. IDchecker
3. Veratad IDMatch
4. Integrity
5. miiCard
6. Clearbit
7. MicroBilt
8. BlockScore
9. Jumio
10. Accuity

[chadwhitacre]

miiCard is too forward. Requires creating a miiCard account. Gone!

[chadwhitacre]

MicroBilt is crusty and U.S.-only.

[chadwhitacre]

The only useful thing Clearbit seems to offer is watchlist screening, which is also offered elsewhere.

Remaining:

1. Trulioo
2. IDchecker
3. Veratad IDMatch
4. Integrity
5. BlockScore
6. Jumio
7. Accuity

[chadwhitacre]

Why do we want global reach if we're only able to pay out to U.S. bank accounts right now?

Because we want to prepare for the future. Half our customers are outside the U.S.

[chadwhitacre]

• IDV Check

[chadwhitacre]

Remaining:

1. Trulioo
2. IDchecker
3. Veratad IDMatch
4. Integrity
5. BlockScore
6. Jumio
7. Accuity
8. IDV Check

[chadwhitacre]

Alright, so here are our criteria:

• global coverage
• sanction screening
• company stability
• customer service
• API quality
• price

[chadwhitacre]

Moved BlockScore over to #3557.

[chadwhitacre]

company	ticket	countries	India?	pricing	sanction screening?	twitter followers	linkedin followers	key clients
Trulioo	#256	17	no ... but! later this year	$79 / mo includes 40 checks	yes	2,059	MIA	eBay, Kickstarter, Square, Braintree, PayPal
IDchecker (recently acquired by Mitek)	#257	"over 3500 different ID documents from every country in the world"	yes	1,000 for $2,250 + $500 setup	"OFAC coming next week, between 10¢ and 25¢ per"	242	147	?
Veratad IDMatch	#258	?	?	~$10,000 setup + $49/mo + 38¢ - $2/ea	?	982	25	?
Integrity	#259	135	4%	$1.99 per idv check, no setup or monthly	yes	n/a	n/a	Western Union, Oregon Lottery
Jumio	#260	130	yes	1,000 for $2,500	no?	15,900	5,477	AirBNB, Kickstarter
Accuity	#261	?	?	?	yes?	439	1,938	?
IDV Check	#262	"around 200 countries"	yes, presumably	?	yes	n/a	13	?

[chadwhitacre]

I've submitted sales inquiries with all of the above.

[chadwhitacre]

Discovered from ID Checker: http://www.alphapaymentscloud.com/, a wrapper around a ton of payments-related APIs, including IDV APIs.

[chadwhitacre]

Demo requested for AlphaPaymentsCloud.

[chadwhitacre]

It may be a consideration that some of these companies require an MNDA before sharing API docs.

[chadwhitacre]

I've asked @copiesofcopies in https://github.com/gratipay/legal/issues/29 for advice on how to handle these MNDAs we're getting.

[chadwhitacre]

IDChecker and Jumio provide document scanning and OCR with anti-fraud checks (do the checksums match kind of thing). It sounds like IDChecker has wider coverage than Jumio. Both are priced comparably.

Trulioo, Veratad, Aristotle, and idv offer IDV (checking provided information against identity databases). Veratad is pricing us out; they're not interested in us. Aristotle laughed when I disclosed our volume. Trulioo seems to be targeting the startup market more, since they have a familiar pricing page with options accessible to us.

[chadwhitacre]

Accuity is enterprise. Haven't heard back from them and not going to push on it.

[chadwhitacre]

Short list for identity verification:

company	ticket	countries	India?	pricing	sanction screening?	twitter followers	linkedin followers	key clients
Trulioo	#256	17	no ... but! later this year	$79 / mo includes 40 checks	yes	2,059	MIA	eBay, Kickstarter, Square, Braintree, PayPal
Integrity	#259	135	4%	$1.99 per idv check, no setup or monthly	yes	n/a	n/a	Western Union, Oregon Lottery
IDV Check	#262	"around 200 countries"	yes, presumably	?	yes	n/a	13	?

Short list for document verification:

company	ticket	countries	India?	pricing	sanction screening?	twitter followers	linkedin followers	key clients
IDchecker (recently acquired by Mitek)	#257	"over 3500 different ID documents from every country in the world"	yes	1,000 for $2,250 + $500 setup	"OFAC coming next week, between 10¢ and 25¢ per"	242	147	?
Integrity	#259	135	4%	$1.99 per idv check, no setup or monthly	yes	n/a	n/a	Western Union, Oregon Lottery
Jumio	#260	130	yes	1,000 for $2,500	no?	15,900	5,477	AirBNB, Kickstarter

[chadwhitacre]

Recommendations from Zipmark ...

The answer isn't one or the other of identity verification vs. document verification. "You want the right combination of these things to be comfortable. You want a real person, not on any watchlists, and they're the one actually doing the transaction." Identity verification helps with the first part, sanction screening with the second, and document/f2f verification with the third.

This goes hand-in-hand with other fraud checks as well: is the IP address in Singapore when the address is in California? Is someone registering two different identities from the same browser session? Etc.

Wouldn't recommend just identity verification.

[chadwhitacre]

Funny to see how IDChecker sales downplays identity verification, and Trulioo sales downplays document verification. :point_right: :point_left:

[chadwhitacre]

It may be a consideration that some of these companies require an MNDA before sharing API docs.

Yeah, this is turning into a deal-breaker with Trulioo. They won't even let us publish our source code that integrates with them, let alone their full API docs: https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/issues/256#issuecomment-113253785. I haven't forced the issue with others, but I don't really expect different results. These seem to be table stakes in this industry.

[chadwhitacre]

Trulioo is offering a promotion, 500 verifications for free ($2,500 value). I went ahead and signed up because I didn't see a downside.

[chadwhitacre]

http://identity.trulioo.com/trulioos-4th-anniversary-promotion

[chadwhitacre]

[chadwhitacre]

Actually, back over to https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/issues/256 for Trulioo details.

[chadwhitacre]

Closing in light of our decision to shut down Gratipay.

Thank you all for a great run, and I'm sorry it didn't work out! 😞 💃