Identity and tiers
Tiers that let somebody start with a phone number and grow into higher limits, so verification is a ladder rather than a wall at the front door.
Anyone opening an account, and the compliance teams who have to stand behind the decision to let them.
Switched on for this deployment.
The problem
Many people in the markets BitriPay serves do not have the document a form demands, on the day it demands it. A platform that requires everything up front simply does not serve them — while a platform that requires nothing cannot operate legally.
How it works
- Open at the lowest tier with a phone number, and receive within that tier’s limits.
- Add an identity document to move up a tier and unlock higher limits.
- Add address and source of funds for the highest tier.
- Limits are enforced per tier at the moment of the transaction, not reviewed afterwards.
What you can check
Facts about the running platform rather than adjectives. Each one is visible in the product, the API reference or the ledger.
- Limits per tier and per corridor are configuration rather than code, so they move when a rule moves.
- A transaction beyond a tier’s limit is refused with a readable reason naming the tier, not silently held.
- Screening runs against official sanctions lists at onboarding and again daily, not once at signup.
- Business verification checks the registry, the beneficial owners above the declared threshold and the directors, and assigns a risk tier that is reviewed.
- Every verification decision is recorded with who made it, so the file can be read later without reconstructing it.
What it costs
Verification is free. Higher tiers unlock higher limits rather than cheaper pricing.
Questions
Why can I not just send what I want straight away?
Because the limits that apply to an unverified account are the condition on which an unverified account is allowed to exist at all. Verifying moves you up a tier and the limits move with you — usually in minutes.
I do not have the document you are asking for.
You can still open an account and receive within the lowest tier’s limits. That is the point of tiers: a missing document limits what you can do, rather than stopping you from starting.
How often do you check sanctions lists?
At onboarding and daily thereafter, against the official consolidated lists. A customer who becomes listed after joining is found by the daily rescreen, not by chance.
Read next
Risk and compliance
A sanctions screen that runs inside the posting, before money moves, so a blocked payment is refused rather than recalled — and every alert becomes a case with a decision and a name against it.
E-money and safeguarding
An issuance rule the platform refuses on rather than reports on: e-money cannot be issued beyond cleared safeguarded funds, checked at the moment of issuance rather than at the end of the month.
Wallets and transfers
A transfer between two accounts is one balanced posting on a double-entry ledger, not a message between two systems that might later disagree.