BlockPay featured in Forbes, spearheads business-ready blockchain tools
BlockPay spearheads business-ready blockchain tools
The company is developing a versatile digital currency Point Of Sale system, alongside private transactions and communication features and on Forbes today with bigger story as well http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/2016/08/20/german-blockchain-startup-blockpay-bootstrapped-with-crypto-ico-investment .
Blockchain payments outfit BlockPay is rolling out a suite of tools and features aimed at enabling merchants to leverage digital payments. BlockPay is the universal payment platform with an all supporting, fraud-proof, Blockchain-based global payment system as its driving engine. The company’s slick and easy-to-use smartphone wallet app allows customers to pay with any one of a large number of digital currencies and tokens. For merchants, there are the benefits of boosting sales, saving time and money – since digital payments are almost instant and zero cost compared to existing systems – and participating in new Loyalty Points programs. Development will be completed following a crowdfund later this month.
Helping merchants
BlockPay enables any merchant to accept one or more digital currencies, at zero cost. BlockPay not only supports popular digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Steem, Dash and BitShares’ Smartcoins – it also allows customers to pay with gift cards all documented with the BlockPay eReceipts feature. Available in 44 languages, it can run as a standalone app, or integrated with existing Point-of-Sale systems such as Odoo, SAP, vending machines, kiosks, etc.
Payments are fast and simple. The merchant provides the amount due to the customer, who pays using their preferred currency via a QR code or NFC. BlockPay then sends an eReceipt automatically to the customer’s phone, along with any loyalty points earned in the transaction.
Privacy features
The same fintech/blockchain development company responsible for BlockPay, BitShares Munich, is also implementing features that will allow private communication and transactions on the Bitshares network. The Echo wallet combines Stealth crypto transactions with secure voice, video and messaging. Chat and media messages are not only encrypted but can be self-destructing, similar to Snapchat. Christoph Hering, BlockPay Cco-founder and CEO, comments about the significance of such an approach. ‘I am so excited about Echo because it solves two major problems of our time: Privacy and Financial freedom. First, Echo protects your personal chat, video and voice messages against hackers and censorship. Second, Echo gives you the choice to manage multiple currencies at your fingertips. Transfer takes 3 seconds or less and thanks to modern blockchain technologies Echo users can register their desired username on the blockchain with just a few simple taps.’
‘Stealth’ transactions and secure messaging go hand-in-hand with the company’s appeal to the enterprise community, since major businesses want to ensure that competitors cannot view their financial activities – something that the standard Bitcoin blockchain makes straightforward, and that could reveal vital information about suppliers, consultants, customers and employees. The same goes for high net-worth individuals and many other retail users who employ the blockchain to store and transfer value. ‘I wanted to build Echo because I see our free communication and privacy at risk,’ concludes Hering.
Pre-ICO of BlockPay to start August 23rd
The pre-ICO to crowdfund the BlockPay project will begin at noon GMT on 23 August. A larger crowdfunding effort is expected to take place early in 2017. This ICO is organized in co-operation with the decentralized exchange platform OpenLedger, its economic enterprise engine ICOO and the Danish company CCEDK ApS, which specializes in bootstrapping startups.
CCEDK will provide escrow services for the ICO, as well as issuing the asset, distributing the related BLOCKPAY tokens with the immediate option to trade it, providing media coverage, allowing an exit option during the ICO, and an ordering module allowing all interested parties to buy tokens. There are two options for token purchase:
- The ICO page on the BlockPay.ch website and
- The ICO LIVE button on the CCEDK.com website.
It is possible to order and pay for BlockPay tokens directly on both these sites with BTS, BTC, ETH and SBD and as well multiple other currencies, using a ShapeShift-enabled conversion of all other currencies into BTC.
All funds can be monitored at all times on the OpenLedger dedicated escrow account ico.blockpay and all BTC in this address are held in a multi-sig escrow account only to be accessed at the end of the ICO.
The ICO will end once the 5,000,000 BlockPay tokens set aside for crowdfund have been sold.
If you wish to know more about BlockPay, please visit https://blockpay.ch or take a look at this short introductory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcuVSjR6gkk
OpenLedger is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency platform acting as the host, framework and toolkit for constant innovation, designed for high-speed transactions, allowing users to trade assets in near-real time, securely and with ultra-low fees. OpenLedger is built on top of the MIT-licensed Graphene technology of BitShares 2.0 and acts as the foundation for the Decentralized Conglomerate: an ecosystem of interlinked and mutually-supporting companies. It is also known as the DEX – The Decentralized Exchange
CCEDK is the operational brain of the Decentralized Conglomerate (DC), providing a comprehensive solution for bootstrapping start-up services worldwide. CCEDK offers an all-in-one campaign and crowdfunding kit for start-ups, whatever their needs – including escrow services, fiat gateway, asset issuing, distribution, integration, marketing, pre-launch preparation and ICO.
Yours Sincerely,
Ronny Boesing
CEO
CCEDK / Crypto Coins Enterprise Denmark ApS
Web: www.ccedk.com
Mail: [email protected]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CCEDK_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CCEDK
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ronny-boesing/20/617/65b
Forbes #BlockPay #blockchain #CCEDK #BitShares
This is great! Finally point of sale backed by blockchain is easy as 1-2-3!
Ronny is always finding the best projects in fintech!
Only watched the video and understood its capability and power. Nice post.
Thanks, we are trying to show some love to BlockPay these days with the ICO coming up in three days from now. Right now it is possible for anyone who has obtained the development token OPENPOS, to send that to the Openledger escrow account named ico.blockpay up untill the start of the pre-ICO on August 23rd, and in return receive 1,2 BlockPay tokens for every OPENPOS received. They will be sent to sender account once pre-ICO has ended.
Looks quite promising. Was thinking about such this week...
I think one key issue to address - which you might want to bring up with the BlockPay team if you're in regular contact them - is potentially developing into the app some sort of instant conversion into BitUSD or UsdT...
I could foresee some merchants being hesitant to accept cryptocurrencies due to their volatily. Without instant conversions into their local currency, it could be possible for them to be paid in Bitcoin and lose 10%+/- in a day on that if they just leave it in BTC (or other crypto) - and would make for alot of accounting headaches trying to implement conversions into their bookkeeping procedures. Surely, there must be some system that could be setup that'd do an instant conversion into one of Bitshares/Tether's paired assets to lock in the value of the local currency. Such a price stabilization mechanism would surely be a great selling point to help convince merchants that might otherwise be hesitant because of that obstacle.
Not sure if BlockPay has been considering that, or how closely you're working with them - though given your position within the whole ecosystem & community, I think bringing the idea up and pushing for such a protocol to be implemented would greatly benefit everyone involved - from BlockPay, their investors, merchants, CCDEK, Bitshares' community, etc, etc.
Questions:
if there's no costs for merchants, but fees are paid by customers - what would the fees be for customers on purchases? ... answered upon reading the Forbes article = approximately $0.04. AWESOME
do you know / are you able to share any knowledge you might have about what's strategic marketing/sales plans are being executed to grow the merchant network?
Curious as to whether its just the tech that's developed, or how far along things are and how much power is being put behind the sales side of things to get it out into the marketplace...
Hi, rok sivante nice to meet you. Let me answer your questions as good as possible.
Yes, you are right, merchants hate the price volatility of Bitcoin and want to get a stable currency that does not kill their margins. That is why we convert all income currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash etc. all into BitUSD. Actually, the Merchant has a choice of +5 receiving currencies ( USD, EUR, CAD, CNY, ARS). We are working on providing a 1:1 payout from BitUSD to USD too. So that the merchant is as secure as possible. That is a great selling point for our terminals.
Fees
We charge a flat .5% fee to the consumer, and it works like a small tax. So when you want to pay for a bottle of water 1,5 USD + 0.05% fee. We additionally have to pay a small Blockchain network fee of max $0.04 for miners etc. We even have a few merchants who will cover the fees themselves so decrease the friction with the consumers.
Marketing
We have set up an international BlockPay Ambassador Team currently +50 people in +28 countries to promote and represent BlockPay. We have people in France, England, Germany, Spain, USA, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, China, India, Australia, New Zealand and much more. Read more about our Ambassadors Program here https://blockpay.ch/community/blockpay-ambassador/
Additionally, we are working with several OEM partners and Point-Of-Sales software systems to integrate BlockPay natively. You will find BlockPay soon in Supermarkets, Restaurants, Retail stores, Vending machines, Travel agencies, Bars and much more. Watch out for our logo :)
Awesome! Glad to hear you're on top of it. :-)
To confirm: it is a 0.5% or 0.05% fee? (As had written both in the same paragraph?)
holy cow batman that video looked like a lovely experience. All alt currencies as well such wow.
Is it August 23rd yet????