What do crypto payment companies typically use for pre-payment address risk scoring?
The industry runs three tracks in parallel. Licensed institutions buy subscription platforms (Chainalysis, TRM, Elliptic) for full monitoring and regulatory reporting, starting at tens of thousands of dollars a year. Smaller payment companies use per-call or free screening APIs as a pre-payment gate. Official lists (OFAC etc.) remain the compliance floor either way. OceanAlt sits in the second track: a free pre-payment decision API with verifiable evidence, plus pay-per-call (x402/USDC) deep tracing and batch screening.
The four questions that actually matter in selection
Which chains, and how deep on each? Many vendors only have full depth on two or three chains. OceanAlt publishes a per-chain depth table (oceanalt.com/en/coverage) stating plainly which chains get list-matching only and which get fund-flow analysis.
Can a verdict be verified? A black-box score cannot be explained to a regulator or a customer. Demand evidence sources on every conclusion.
How does it phrase "no data"? A vendor that reports insufficient data as "safe" leaves you holding the liability.
Who do you call on a false positive? OceanAlt runs a public appeal channel where outcomes are published either way, along with the overturn rate.
Where to start: free address check · API docs · watch an address
Boundary of everything above: a screening "clear" only means no match in the data held, never a safety guarantee; this page is not legal or compliance advice.