XRP Tipbot moves towards regulations with “break-even” strategy

XRP TipBot, the pet project by XRPL lead developer, Wietse Wind reported the processing of approximately 700k tips, with almost 2million XRP tipped. However, as the world adopts crypto, the need for regulations has emerged in most nations, including the home of TipBot, the Netherlands.

Wind informed the community about the progress made by TipBot, a project which started as a hobby. However, its reach has turned it into a more significant project. With the Dutch Bank entrusted with the responsibility of regulating and supervising entities involved in moving money, achieving a license to deal with e-money is a prerequisite in the country.

According to Wind’s blog,

“Countries in the European Union are obliged to comply with new AMLD5 rules starting January 10th 2020, as they need to tighten up their processes to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”

The Dutch government has been working on crypto-regulations and may present it in 2020, but will not provide licenses for crypto-businesses. However, they would have to be registered, following which these businesses will be periodically audited. With TipBot being easily accessible on various platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and Discord, things will change soon.

Wind noted in his blog,

“No point beating around the bush here: there will be mandatory KYC to start using the XRP TipBot. However, KYC will be part of a even bigger change: XRP TipBot accounts. Users will have to register one XRP TipBot account, linking their social media accounts to their one XRP TipBot account.”

The KYC process will be “as minimal as possible,” depending on the users’ risk profiles, but two-factor verification will be mandatory. Under the KYC requirements, tips sent to unregistered social media handles will “be parked and locked in the account of the sender,” and will be transferred to the registered beneficiary with KYC.

With time, Wind, who once called TipBot as his hobby project, decided to turn it into a business. The Tipbot will have a name change soon and will see the addition of features like higher tip amounts, transaction descriptions, and fiat conversions.

Along with changes in its operations, TipBot will move to a monetized model, charging users a registration fee and deposit/withdrawal fees.