In case you haven't seen it, here is an announcement Virtex CEO Joseph David made yesterday (posted here:
https://www.cavirtex.com/news):
Verification action plan and status report from CEO Joseph David Nov. 19 to present we have 1530 people waiting for verifications. In the past four days alone we have verified 268 customers. With 12 staff dedicated full time to verifications as of today, at a target of 10-20 verifications per person, that comes to 120 to 240 people per day. Currently we are working on verifications submitted between Nov. 19 to Nov. 25. With the increased staff our target is to be caught up in two weeks. New verification requests are also coming at around 100 per day. To address this workload I am working on two fronts:
1) Training six new additional human resources TOMORROW
2) Third party verification portals that are FINTRAC compliant for Canadians and that allow you to do your own verification through their API. Applications have been filed and once finalized it will be a matter of days to make live on the site.
I believe in communication and constant update during this busy time, and I will be posting progress reports daily as follows: Total number of verifications outstanding, date range we are working on, number of staff working, verifications completed since last update.
- Virtex CEO Joseph David
About two weeks, Bitcoin hit a tipping point in terms of attention and interest. As a result, we experienced a massive spike in verification requests. This overwhelmed our current staff and resulted in us having to make large scale changes on the fly. Those changes, such as hiring additional staff and implementing new technologies, are currently in progress.
Although we are still not caught up, the entire Virtex team is doing everything in its power to accommodate its customers. Despite these efforts, we realize some people are having trouble getting their needs met. For that, we apologize.
In terms of verification, we have a very rigorous verification process which is required by our banking partners. More importantly, the process helps protect our customers from fraud. We are the oldest Bitcoin exchange in Canada, and during our existence, we have learned from experience what is required to keep our customers safe. We simply cannot afford to take any shortcuts.
As Joseph alluded to, in addition to more staff, we will soon be implementing third party technology that will help speed up the verification process while maintaining customer security. We would have had these measure implemented sooner, except we were turned down by one of the providers of this technology - they didn't want to deal with a bitcoin-related business. This is an all-too-common problem as many of your are aware.
On that note, your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated with respect to verification. If you have a truly urgent matter unrelated to verification status, please email
[email protected] and we'll investigate as soon as possible.
A note about dormant fees: Please understand that if a customer deposits at Virtex without trading, it costs us time and money to administer and secure that customer's account. First and foremost, Virtex is a bitcoin exchange; we do not have any ambitions to take on the enormous responsibility of being a bitcoin bank. This is why dormant account fees are in effect. When you accept an account with Virtex, you must agree to our Terms of Service and in those terms we clearly state that we do charge a dormant fee.
To sum up, we value all of our customers tremendously, and we will continue to strive to provide a safe, secure and convenient exchange for Canadian citizens and corporations to acquire bitcoin. We know we have to get better, and we are committed to doing so.
Thank you once again for your patience and understanding as we experience growing pains. We feel humbled and privileged to be playing a part in something that is truly revolutionary.
