Sift Case Studies Building a trustworthy bitcoin marketplace

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	Building a trustworthy bitcoin marketplace Sift

Building a trustworthy bitcoin marketplace

Sift

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Applicable Industries	E-Commerce Retail
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Fraud Detection
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services
Challenge	Purse, a San Francisco-based company, is working to create the world’s largest online marketplace using bitcoin. They offer the lowest prices and fast, frictionless commerce, processing millions in bitcoins every month. However, they faced a unique challenge with payment fraud. Since bitcoin transactions are final and irreversible, Purse had to detect and remove malicious actors attempting to game their bitcoin escrow system by purchasing items for Purse shoppers with fraudulent/hacked Amazon accounts. Initially, they combated fraud with internal tools, requiring three full-time support staff committed to fraud management and review. However, this was unscalable as the site grew. Read More
About Customer	Purse is a San Francisco-based company that is working to create the world’s largest online marketplace. They offer the lowest prices around, fast and frictionless commerce, and bitcoin payments. Purse has reached a global audience by matching bitcoin-holders who wish to purchase goods from Amazon with individuals seeking to liquidate their Amazon gift card balances to fulfill orders and receive bitcoin in return. They manage this multi-step transaction through their escrow system to hold bitcoin funds. Their user base of 150,000+ is truly international, and they process millions in bitcoins every month. Business runs around the clock, with 77% of visitors coming from desktop, and 23% mobile. With a native app launching, mobile traffic is expected to grow. Read More
Solution	Purse decided to look into a machine learning solution to help them speed up the review process and scale with them as they grew. They collaborated closely with the Sift team and within two weeks, the solution was fully integrated via webhook, allowing Purse to pull Sift’s findings and data points directly into their order management system. Automating on these findings allows for a more efficient team. For instance, using the Sift Score to auto-ban users over a certain risk threshold gave the Purse Customer Support team the ability to focus on the good customers instead. Since keeping the experience frictionless is key, a non-obtrusive fraud solution is essential to the continuation of Purse’s growth in the U.S. and abroad. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Applicable Industries

E-Commerce

Retail

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Fraud Detection

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

Challenge

Purse, a San Francisco-based company, is working to create the world’s largest online marketplace using bitcoin. They offer the lowest prices and fast, frictionless commerce, processing millions in bitcoins every month. However, they faced a unique challenge with payment fraud. Since bitcoin transactions are final and irreversible, Purse had to detect and remove malicious actors attempting to game their bitcoin escrow system by purchasing items for Purse shoppers with fraudulent/hacked Amazon accounts. Initially, they combated fraud with internal tools, requiring three full-time support staff committed to fraud management and review. However, this was unscalable as the site grew.

About Customer

Purse is a San Francisco-based company that is working to create the world’s largest online marketplace. They offer the lowest prices around, fast and frictionless commerce, and bitcoin payments. Purse has reached a global audience by matching bitcoin-holders who wish to purchase goods from Amazon with individuals seeking to liquidate their Amazon gift card balances to fulfill orders and receive bitcoin in return. They manage this multi-step transaction through their escrow system to hold bitcoin funds. Their user base of 150,000+ is truly international, and they process millions in bitcoins every month. Business runs around the clock, with 77% of visitors coming from desktop, and 23% mobile. With a native app launching, mobile traffic is expected to grow.

Solution

Purse decided to look into a machine learning solution to help them speed up the review process and scale with them as they grew. They collaborated closely with the Sift team and within two weeks, the solution was fully integrated via webhook, allowing Purse to pull Sift’s findings and data points directly into their order management system. Automating on these findings allows for a more efficient team. For instance, using the Sift Score to auto-ban users over a certain risk threshold gave the Purse Customer Support team the ability to focus on the good customers instead. Since keeping the experience frictionless is key, a non-obtrusive fraud solution is essential to the continuation of Purse’s growth in the U.S. and abroad.

Impact #1	Purse has utilized the many features within Sift to reduce fraud and accurately identify bad users before they impact the site.
Impact #2	With Sift Score, network visualizations, and device ID data, Purse is able to more quickly process legitimate transactions.
Impact #3	Sift’s machine learning-based solution is constantly improving, which means that Steven’s team trusts that the tool is only becoming more accurate.

Impact #1

Purse has utilized the many features within Sift to reduce fraud and accurately identify bad users before they impact the site.

Impact #2

With Sift Score, network visualizations, and device ID data, Purse is able to more quickly process legitimate transactions.

Impact #3

Sift’s machine learning-based solution is constantly improving, which means that Steven’s team trusts that the tool is only becoming more accurate.

Benefit #1	Fraud is down
Benefit #2	Business is up

Benefit #1

Fraud is down

Benefit #2

Business is up

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Overview

Building a trustworthy bitcoin marketplace

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit