Financial Services Ecosystem Vows to Cut Compliance Costs for Startups

A financial services ecosystem says its protocol enables tokens to be created with compliance in mind, meaning businesses no longer have to worry about the wrong people purchasing their crypto asset.

WORBLI — short for the World Blockchain Initiative — enables blockchain builders to issue security tokens that are compliant with particular restrictions, making assets only tradeable in certain parts of the world. Developers can create a ruleset that ensures that transfers follow a customizable framework, replacing or updating the ecosystem a token currently uses.

According to the platform, this paves the way for tokens to be specifically designed to cater to the needs of users and application developers. So-called geofencing ensures crypto assets can only be transacted by those who are in a particular region — a feature that WORBLI says will have massive ramifications for the industry. Meanwhile, identity-based financial tiers can guarantee that tokens can only be traded or sold by those who have secured the necessary accreditation.

WORBLI says its protocol can be implemented on any chain, potentially opening up a world of possibilities to blockchain developers.

Decentralizing compliance

In a blog post back in July, WORBLI said its objective was to decentralize compliance by eliminating middlemen and removing the hurdles for entrepreneurs who have bright ideas that they want to build on the blockchain.

Through the WORBLI platform, each user’s identity is verified before they are able to create an account on the blockchain. From here, the user has the freedom to share their personal information with apps running on the network, helping to reduce the costs associated with onboarding new users for startups. There are also benefits for the end customer. Instead of having to go through an arduous registration process whenever they want to use a new service, they only need to register once.

WORBLI has the ambition of rebuilding the world’s financial system. To this end, it hopes to demonstrate the full potential of blockchain — and the impact it can have on people’s lives — to regulators who will have the final say on the technology’s legal standing in the global economy.

Explaining why reducing the costs of compliance is so crucial, WORBLI shared that the expenses faced by startup fintech firms has been rising for several decades — and warned there is a real risk that only the biggest and wealthiest corporations will be able to do business. As well as killing off small companies and stifling innovation, the platform fears that an uneven playing field could eliminate the prospect of “bringing a new era of financial services to everyone.”

With new regulations and policies emerging all the time, WORBLI added: “We’ve seen crypto startups closing shop as they are unable to comply with these new regulatory frameworks. Frankly, we were expecting this, and that’s why WORBLI has made compliance one of its key value propositions from its inception.”

Real-life use cases

According to WORBLI, its infrastructure is already being used by businesses seeking to change the world. One of them is TokenOro, which aims to help small gold miners raise capital for geological testing and production without having to sell a large ownership stake to a bigger mining consortium.

WORBLI says it is also playing a role in the development of EDNA, a company vying to revolutionize the DNA data market by tackling “unfairness, inefficiency and privacy concerns” — and giving users the chance to monetize and control their own data.

Meanwhile, the platform has partnered with WordProof, an intuitive application that enables users to timestamp online content, “enabling true ownership [...] and proof of online authenticity.”