Winding Tree, the Ethereum-powered travel distribution channel, has launched ORGiD Bot, an open-source registry that provides real-time identification and verification of companies and their representatives. ORGiD Bot is a dynamic solution to the growing dangers of identity theft and impersonation. By leveraging blockchain, Winding Tree has found a way to offer quick and seamless identity checks for blockchain and crypto companies. You can communicate with ORGiD Bot on Telegram, under the handle @orgid_bot.
Phillipe Christodoulou thought he was downloading the app for Trezor, the maker of the famous cryptocurrency hardware wallet in which he would store his crypto, according to a March 30 story in The Washington Post. Instead, he sent his entire life savings, 17.1 bitcoin worth $600,000 at the time, to fraudsters running a fake “Trezor” app designed to trick people out of their coin. Mr. Christodoulou’s story isn’t an isolated incident—theft in the crypto industry jumped 40 percent year-over-year since 2016, hitting $513 million in 2020. Nevertheless, the toll of having to independently verify identity over and over again, or having to setup API access with different profile requirements, can be tedious and time consuming.
That’s where ORGiD Bot comes in, helping users communicate with the ORGiD system and providing businesses with a simple way to evade phishing attempts and scams. Organizations can seamlessly add authorized representatives to their ORGiD, enabling them to identify themselves as legitimate to their peers.
All an organization needs to do to create its ORGiD is connect a MetaMask or Portis wallet with a small amount of stored Ether (ETH). The Ether is converted into the Winding Tree ecosystem’s LIF token, which is then staked to indicate authenticity. Once verified, business people in the blockchain space can query the Telegram username of someone claiming to be with that organization to @orgid_bot for verification. If the username is associated with an ORGiD record, a response about the organization, including its name and online accounts, is provided, which the searcher can then review for authenticity.
The ORGiD database utilizes the following data to verify a company’s identity:
- Extended Validation SSL Certificate: The legal, physical, and operational existence of the entity
- Website address: The entity’s connection with a specific brand
- Social media: Their LinkedIn and Twitter accounts
- Staked LIF: LIF staking prevents scammers from generating false identities
Winding Tree has established partnerships with crypto companies, such as Kleros and Hacken, who are already using ORGiD Bot, and with airline and service companies, such as Air Canada, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, and Swissport. The company is also partnered with major hotels like Nordic Choice Hotels, citizenM Hotel chain, and Airport Hotel Basel.
With ORGiD Bot, Winding Tree has developed a solution that streamlines the way companies perform know-your-business (KYB) checks. The onboarding process is simple and it allows companies and institutions to validate organization vitals in real-time. ORGiD is compliant with the latest anti money laundering (AML) rules and is completely decentralized, making it unhackable. ORGiD Bot is on its way to becoming a standard in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry as the go-to one-stop scam killer shop. There is only one ORGiD Bot and his job is to make sure everyone knows that there is only one you.
“When cryptocurrency rebounded after an extended downturn, a resurgence of scammers and impersonators came with it,” says Pedro Anderson, cofounder and COO of Winding Tree. “Someone even copied my identity on Telegram and contacted a member of my team asking them for a transfer. To tackle the problem, we listed our reps on our ORGiD and created ORGiD Bot as an on-the-go way to verify users who contact us. It worked so well that we can’t wait to share our creation with the rest of the crypto world.”
