Information on the Current Situation at BISON beginning 2021

[UPDATE 29 MARCH 2021]

We’ve managed to significantly increase our capacity for video verification, which has allowed us to work through the waiting list with our verification partner. Essentially all new users are now able to complete the verification process directly, without having to go on a waiting list.

However, because fluctuations in verification requests are always possible, we’d like to kindly ask for your understanding if any waiting times do happen to occur. In the meantime, we’ll continue to work on optimizing the verification process and reducing waiting times.

[UPDATE 19 FEBRUARY 2021]

We are working very closely with our verification partner in order to significantly increase the capacity for verification in the coming months. In March, we were able to increase capacity by more than double. For April, we have six times as much capacity available with our verification partner. However, as the number of people on the waiting list has increased in recent weeks, and given that we also continue to receive many new customer inquiries, we may continue to experience delays in verification.

If you are already on the waiting list, it may take several weeks until you receive an SMS notification for your verification. We are already working on a solution to shorten the waiting time and thank you for your understanding.

[UPDATE 4 FEBRUARY 2021]

At the moment, the BISON app is unfortunately still experiencing bottlenecks in the video verification process through its cooperation partner. We are aware that the long waiting times and failed attempts to complete video verification may feel disappointing and frustrating – we understand this and are continuing to work on resolving the issue. Below, we’ve provided more information on how things are going, as well as the processes involved.

Waiting List: Error Fixed

New customers who have initiated the verification process, but for whom no free capacity is currently available, are placed on a waiting list. In the past, error messages appeared during the waiting process. However, to fix these errors, an update has now been published in respective app stores.

Waiting List: SMS Notification

From now on, you will receive a notification via SMS as soon as it is your turn on the waiting list. Once you have received this SMS, you will have 14 days to complete your verification. If you do not complete your verification within these 14 days, and thus do not claim your place on the waiting list, you will lose your place on the waiting list.

Two Options…

There are two options for verification, depending on the number of people you want to verify. We have no control over which option is offered to you; this is determined by our verification partner.

> Option #1: You can choose whether you want to wait for the next available employee to do the video verification or you can put yourself on the waiting list.

> Option #2: You will automatically be put on the waiting list.

For the waiting list function, please note: Once you are added to the waiting list, you will no longer have the option to restart the video verification process. You will be notified by SMS as soon as it is your turn on the waiting list and can then directly carry out your video call.

Because the waiting list has filled up over the past few weeks, it could take at least two weeks, rather longer, before you receive an SMS notifying you of your verification.

Disregard status messages if necessary – you might find the verification status in the BISON app showing various messages such as “Pending”, “Invalid”, or “Start now”, even though you are already on the waiting list. Please do not be confused by your verification status – you’ve been properly registered on the waiting list.

Due to long waiting lists and limited capacities, we still expect waiting times for verification in February. We are, however, working hard with our cooperation partners to further improve this situation.

[12 January 2021 ]The year 2021 is off to a turbulent start, and interest in cryptocurrencies is extremely high right now. This is, of course, positive news, but it’s also led to a bit of a stressful situation at BISON – a situation we’d like to be transparent with you about. Right now, BISON is experiencing an extremely high number of requests from new customers who want to be verified. This is causing capacity constraints in the video identification process and, in turn, understandable frustration among customers confused about what’s going on with us. In the following, we’ll break down the current situation in a little more detail and explain why these problems are occur

What is happening at BISON right now?

Since December 2020, BISON has seen a very high demand from new customers who want to be verified to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in real-money mode with the BISON app. Needless to say, we are very happy about this – however, the unexpectedly large number of requests has unfortunately bottlenecked the KYC process, which is actually necessary for regulatory reasons and ultimately serves to protect our customers.

At BISON, we verify users by means of video identification – a process that we’ve commissioned a third-party service provider to perform. The overwhelmingly large wave of new customer inquiries that have accumulated since December has, however, resulted in a capacity constraint. In concrete terms, we’ve verified over five times more new customers since December 2020 than we had initially planned and anticipated. This enormous increase was unpredictable and, unfortunately, could not be taken into account at the time of planning. We are, of course, happy about the increased interest; it reveals just how much potential customers would enjoy using our app. Simultaneously, however, it also creates a problem that is particularly frustrating for us – the sharp increase in requests has caused our verification partner to become overloaded with tasks to verify new BISON customers.

Why is the verification process at BISON taking so long?

Our partner, who carries out the necessary video identification process for us, calculates the required resources and capacities needed by asking their customers (which includes us) how many verifications they can expect to conduct per month. Based on this, they schedule and assign staff to perform these video identification processes. If one or, as in our current case, several of the verification partner’s customers (we aren’t the only ones with a sharp increase in customer demand) suddenly send a much higher number of new customers to have their identities verified, there simply won’t be enough employees available to verify all of them, thus resulting in a waitlist. We are already working diligently with our verification partner to resolve and improve this situation.

Why can't our verification partner just increase capacity?

Video identification service providers are required to comply with legal and regulatory requirements. Any new staff must be trained to meet these requirements. For this reason, it can take several weeks for new employees to be fully operational once they have been hired. Our verification partner is already doing everything in their power to increase capacity. This includes pulling employees out of vacation, as well as hiring and training new employees at short notice.

Why can't we add more verification methods at short notice?

Since launching the BISON App in January 2019, we have never experienced capacity constraints like the ones we are facing right now, making this truly an unusual situation – one that we are addressing immediately. We’re working thoroughly on ways to be able to offer additional verification options. These alternative methods must, however, first be tested extensively before implementation. We plan to offer additional verification options in the coming months.

How does the verification waitlist work?

We’ve noticed that new customers who have initiated the verification process, and for whom there is currently no available capacity, are put on a waitlist and then receive error messages in the process. These messages result from data exchange interfaces between the BISON app and our verification partner’s IT system. We were not aware of this beforehand because the waitlist function had hardly been used in the past. Together with our verification partner, we have now identified the cause and will fix it as soon as possible with an update. The waitlist should then work error-free again. It may, however, take several days or up to a week until new users are moved to the top of the waitlist; this, too, results from the high demand and sharp increase in customers.

Verification will take time, but otherwise, everything else is fine.

We are aware that this situation is not at all what our customers want from the BISON app. Along with our cooperation partners, we’re doing everything in our power to get this issue under control. Unfortunately, we may need several more weeks to do so. With this in mind, we ask for your understanding and patience. We sincerely hope that, in the future, we will still be able to share beautiful aspects of the crypto world with you – without any complications – as BISON customers.