Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies have been around for quite some time, but it is only in the recent few years that we are realizing the full potential of these technologies. Machine Learning has now made its way into the world of cryptocurrencies as well - Coinbase will now make use of Machine Learning technologies to verify the identity details of their users. 

2017 was the biggest year for cryptocurrencies in terms of awareness. While they were an afterthought to most people till them, this was the year they became mainstream. With the interest in cryptocurrencies spiking, cryptocurrency exchanges too, witnessed a huge spike in users. This sudden spike in the interest in cryptocurrencies has made it hard for cryptocurrency exchanges to keep up with the demand. 

A number of cryptocurrency exchanges have stopped accepting new users. This is because of various reasons but the primary reason here is the fact that this results in poor customer service. With a rise in the number of users, the number of issues which remain unsolved for a long time is also rising. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is all set to tackle this rise in the number of users with the help of machine learning. 

Machine Learning will be used in the customer verification process. The customer verification process involves matching the customer’s details provided while signing up with the details on their government ID card. This Machine Learning technology that the company is making use of can match 90% of the Identity documents provided by the users. The remaining 10% is because of the ID provided by the users not being clear or inappropriate. 

In the past, when identity verification failed, customers would send a mail to the Coinbase customer support, which will reply stating the reason as to why they were not able to accept the ID provided by the user. This process usually took quite some time as the users and the customer support had to interact - which would often take days. However, with Machine Learning systems handling verifications, if the ID provided gets rejected, the users would instantly be sent an automated mail stating why the ID was rejected. 

Coinbase has been adding a massive number of users every day - at its peak, as many as 100,000 a day! In 2017, Coinbase began the year with a little over 5,000,000 users and is currently at about 13,500,000 users. This exponential growth has crippled the customer support that Coinbase is able to offer to their users.

This new system of Identity verification is now live on the Coinbase website and will soon be a part of the Coinbase mobile app as well. This will be a much faster and improved process than doing it manually, helping the customer support team focus on other issues that customers are facing.