Neobank Uses Soulbound NFTs To Verify Wallet Holders’ KYC
Web3 technologies and digital banking will improve crypto users’ experience at the little New York neobank.
The neobank Cogni is giving crypto wallet holders soulbound nonfungible tokens with KYC information. The Polygon-based NFT will convert the bank’s “Web2” KYC verification upon account opening to Web3.
In January, Cogni launched its noncustodial multichain crypto wallet. The wallet stores, sends, and receives bitcoins and NFTs. DApps can decode the nontransferable soulbound NFT if the owner mints it.
The bank wants better user experience. Cogni founder and CEO Archie Ravishankar said:
“The reason why the crypto-curious have not really been able to jump on the decentralization bandwagon is, one, obviously, the user experience. Second, ecological trust.”
“Everybody knows how to use digital banking,” however, Ravishankar added. The crypto wallet is available “in the course of the normal banking experience.”
The “bank-level” KYC information on the NFT is enough to meet KYC standards in the US, and partnering DApps will be able to access it without doing anything else. Cogni plans to make a marketplace of DApps that can be linked to with just a few clicks, including KYC verification.
After big crypto firms went bankrupt during the crypto winter and locked customers’ money in their custodial wallets, more people have been using wallets that don’t hold their money. The Cogni soulbound NFT will be offered to a small group of users at first. In the summer, it should be open to everyone.
