Ondato, a leading Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) platform, has announced it will be providing remote identification services as part of a new partnership with Basketballverse, a Play-to-Earn (P2E) Web3 multiplayer basketball metaverse due to launch later in 2022.

The partnership extends Ondato’s reach into the metaverse and the P2E gaming market. It provides Basketballverse with KYB (Know Your Business) investor ID verification and fully-compliant due diligence procedures to prevent money laundering. 

Basketballverse is a play-to-earn basketball video game and metaverse based on a blockchain ledger, in which basketball fans develop unique NFT avatars, manage their clubs, grow their fanbase, and earn real income by attracting sponsorships and selling merchandise. The game’s developers envisage incorporating real-world basketball players as coaches and mentors, and real venues as arena sponsors. 

Web3 gaming is already huge. Twenty-four blockchain-based gaming companies raised $476 million in investments in the first half of 2021 and the P2E gaming industry as a whole earned $20 billion in revenue just in 2020. With one billion online gamers active worldwide currently generating a global $175.8 billion, the prediction is for 1.3 billion gamers in 2025 generating $200 billion.

The blockchain-based P2E gaming model offers many economic opportunities and financial rewards to every player in the gaming ecosystem. With more control of in-game assets and more choices in how to play, gamers can fully embody and appreciate their favourite games while earning through cryptocurrency and NFTs.

Basketballverse is part of that Web3 P2E big picture. It enables a wide range of financial opportunities to earn money simply by playing the game. Players are given full control of their in-game assets and can potentially earn cryptocurrencies and NFTs (non-fungible tokens). 

While most Basketballverse users are people simply having fun and managing their players or teams, and do not need verifying, investors who need identity authentication are also joining. With the risk of money laundering in this environment, Basketballverse has turned to Ondato for its KYC and AML expertise and market-leading solutions. 

Ondato is providing Basketballverse with best-in-class remote identity verification solutions and KYC processes, in which investors take a selfie and capture both sides of a suitable ID document. AI captures the document data and cross-checks it with various registries of parties excluded by regulators. It also analyzes the face's biometrical data to ensure the selfie is the same person as in the ID document. KYB onboarding also checks whether the person has the right to represent the company in question.

The European Union is in the process of introducing new regulations on crypto-assets. The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, expected to come into effect in 2023, will require all cryptocurrency wallets to implement KYC procedures. It complements existing AML rules and aims to enhance financial stability and investor protection in Europe. 

Simonas Januskis, CEO at Basketballverse, says: “Based on the fantastic response we are already getting from basketball fans, Basketballverse is set for a huge wave of signups when we launch later this year. Investors will also be attracted and we are ready for that with Ondato, the best remote ID verification solution available. Our partnership also means we are prepared for and compliant with the regulatory changes coming down the track, for example with the EU’s MiCA regulations due in 2023.”

The automated Ondato ID verification procedures provide Basketballverse with future-proofing against the MiCA regulations and ensure Baskeballverse’s investor base does not become a pool of no-names, even when heavily relying on technologies like blockchain and NFTs. Knowing more about investors allows Basketballverse to make better-informed decisions about whether to allow them in or not. 

Ludas Kanapienis, CEO and co-founder of Ondato, comments: “The Web3 P2P gaming market is one of the most exciting sectors around right now and our partnership with Basketballverse gives Ondato an important footprint in this opportunity. Basketballverse had the option to build its own solution but realised that Ondato provides a more cost-effective, much faster route to best-in-class technology and procedures, as well as the reassurance of full compliance with current and future regulations.”