Category: Finance

Blockchain micropayments are opening up new revenue streams for industries you wouldn’t normally expect. Advertisers, web browsers, and automotive companies are finding new ways to motivate, reward, and ultimately empower consumers. Blockchain technology reviving small payments. 

 

Early Micropayments

Micropayment as a term is maddeningly hard to pin down. How small a payment has to be to qualify depends on who you ask. For some payments providers it’s under $1 for others it’s under $10. This threshold hinges on the fees the provider charges which make these small sums less worth it.

Interestingly, micropayments are nothing new. The idea emerged in the 1960s and offered an alternative to advertising-based revenue. By the 1990s, this idea extended to the early internet as a way to fund pages. In theory, people could pay fractions of cents for individual content rather than buy a subscription or look at ads. However, none of the proposals really took off. It was too expensive to use traditional payment processors.

Some existing micropayments providers such as Swedish firm Swish don’t charge fees for individuals, but still charge stiff fees for organizations. Others have been absorbed into larger payments giants. EBay acquired Zong in 2011, for example, which was later merged with PayPal.  

Most of the services we use today on the internet rely on advertising and the user data they collect to operate. Blockchain technology has brought the idea of micropayments back from the dead and offers a new way to make these tiny payments work.

Centralized payment processors such as Visa charge 0.05% plus $0.21 per transaction. PayPal charges 2.9% plus $0.30. These are too high for a micropayment revenue model. Blockchain tech, though, drives the price of transactions down. Some, such as IOTA Foundation charge nothing. 

Blockchain micropayments rise

Part of what might make blockchain micropayments work is that it’s much cheaper to send funds — especially across borders. Fewer middlemen involved in settlement means lower transaction costs across the board. Pair that with smart contracts, and you could have a fully automated and much cheaper payment system. Or so the theory goes.

Such low-fee or no-fee transactions enable users to send and receive tiny fractions of cents. This has revived micropayments as a revenue model and could change the way we consume and interact with one another. Blockchain micropayments are the missing link.    

 

How will it work? 

Many people wonder where micropayments will appear and for what, exactly. Currently, there are a few proof-of-concept projects in the world exploring blockchain micropayments. 

German carmaker Volkswagen, for example, has partnered with IOTA and has launched a pilot where their vehicles act as IoT devices. Where micropayments come in is that drivers could automatically pay for parking after crossing a barrier, or pay more accurate tolls.

Extend this a bit further and you could have a system that rewards drivers with IOTA tokens for good behavior and even shares this data with insurance companies.  

Privacy-minded web browser Brave aims to let users choose to view advertisements, or not, and pays them their fair share of the revenue. These tokens act as a rewards program and such low blockchain micropayments make this model possible.

Blockchain micropayments optimism

We’re optimistic about the micropayments and the opportunities in a new monetary system. As a blockchain development company, we are involved in many blockchain projects using token transfer or swap the funds.  

Recently we explored a very similar solution based on the Stellar blockchain. Our solution brings the most benefits to unbanked users. It’s helpful, especially in the regions where there is a lack of banks or some other remote locations. Low fees can enable blockchain micropayments in places without sufficient banking.

Let’s imagine a mobile app where we can pay everywhere each amount fast, safety and cheap than others.

From a technical standpoint, this is how the application will work.

• Central Bank — this is a virtual place to communicate with others. It’s also the entity that controls the supply of coins in the ecosystem

• Issuer — this is a point of sale where users can swap cash to coin

• User — this is the end-user, which uses the mobile app, central bank technology, and Stellar blockchain to manage his wallet and execute payments

User path

In the first step, a user can request an issuer to swap fiat currency to coins. Each transaction accepted by the issuer sends the request to the Central Bank.

Next, the issuer and user receive a response with a status of the transaction from the Central Bank. Each transaction on the blockchain will start when the Central Bank verifies the request

The Central Bank can transfer coins from the wallet to other wallets in the ecosystem at any time. The same process is available for users and issuers. 

Our solution is based on traditional IT architecture using blockchain technology that enables us to achieve high scalability, data dispersion and customer ownership to the accumulated good on your own portfolio.

The Stellar protocol in combination with blockchain micropayments eliminates third parties from transactions making them faster, cheaper, and safer. This solution is suitable for everyone in the ecosystem who has active wallets (has coins). We can transfer coins or payments to others fast and easily. 

All information about transactions is saved on Stellar blockchain and visible for Central Bank. Each user can view the status of his transaction in our Payments Explorer’s user interface. This solution gives each user the possibility of low-value transactions and with the lack of access to banks or some other remote locations.

Conclusion

Distributed ledger technology is driving down the cost to send a receive money. As a result, this is opening up new revenue models for enterprises. As more and more people seek better payment methods than traditional, expensive card payments, the growth of this industry will continue to adapt.

For sure new technologies are particularly valuable for new payments method nowadays so that we should ensure the conditions for development.

Contact us for a free 15-minute consultation on blockchain micropayments and find out how put blockchain to work for you. 

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Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of economies worldwide. They play an essential role in the global economy and social development, with more than 50% of the world’s population working in these enterprises. In the Netherlands, for example, almost 90% of Dutch businesses are SMEs, and they account for 60% of the Dutch economy’s revenue. Blockchain innovation for SMEs is opening up new models of finance.

However, SMEs face a lot of challenges in their operations. In this article, I will review five significant challenges confronting SMEs namely: difficulty in securing loans, and trade finance, cash flow issues, limited alternative financing, and personal identity concerns. We will then discuss some solutions provided by blockchain technology.

Though many people relate blockchain to big companies, the technology also opens new prospects to SMEs in various sectors to solve existing issues and empower them to optimize their operations and create new business models. Until recently, many hindrances caused slower adoption of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies by SMEs. But that is slowly changing.

Current challenges facing SMEs

Several challenges hinder SMEs despite their status as the lifeblood of world economies. They encounter difficulties in sourcing finances, scaling their businesses, processing payments, and adding other supplementary services that are both necessary to operate and expand.

Bank Loans

Securing a loan to start or expand a business is one of the major problems facing SMEs. More than 30% of SME businesses close in the first three years of operation because of inadequate funding.

Since the banking crisis of 2008, financial institutions are naturally risk-averse, hence their tolerance for SME lending is relatively low. The World Bank report of 2018 estimated that 70% of SMEs are unable to access essential credit. While the global demand for SME credit stands at $2.38 trillion, the truth is, just a portion (about 15%) of businesses actually receive loans from banks.

Trade finance

The second challenge, especially for globally operating SMEs, is access to trade finance. Trade financing, just like many types of credit provision, is a primary ingredient of the success of SMEs, but this ingredient is not always easy to secure. SMEs encounter numerous hurdles in their funding efforts, especially when it comes to accessing traditional finance services.

The industry still relies heavily on paper and uses outdated processes and procedures. Most trade finance operations are, as a result, still time-consuming, bureaucratic, and a bit expensive for most SMEs.

Cash flow

Failure to cash in capital continues to cause adverse impacts to SMEs, creating growth and cash flow problems. In fact, 40% of SMEs reported cash flow challenges in the last two years. Companies need steady cash flows to purchase raw materials, run production processes, pay workers, and cover other business costs. For smaller businesses, a late payment can be the difference between success and failure.

Limited Alternative Financing

Nowadays, SMEs often go for alternative forms of financing to secure capital and sort out cash flow challenges. In the past decade, peer-to-peer lending platforms emerged as an alternative to bank loans. Additionally, crowdfunding has also appeared to fill the gap in the market, though tech startups are the primary targets of crowdfunding. However, SMEs from other industries cannot access alternative financing.

Personal Identity

Personal identity and data management are the main concerns for e-commerce businesses as they rely on centralized platforms to store user data and most of their communications and payments. Such parties are vulnerable to hacking, and fraudsters can steal user data.

Blockchain as a Solution to these Challenges

Blockchain technology can solve SME challenges in the areas of funding and trade finance. So far most uses for blockchain center on finance. It can also transform other inefficient sectors. Safe and secure data transactions and smart contracts may improve their supply chains and improve customer satisfaction by automating their services.

Expansion into new markets

Blockchain can be a way for SMEs that want to venture overseas in their quest for trade finance. Trade finance products are more efficient because of blockchain’s transparency and consensus mechanisms that replace multiple requests of verification and auditing.

A study carried out by the World Economic Forum, and Bain & Company shows that blockchain could play a crucial role in minimizing the global trade finance gap, supporting a trade that otherwise could not happen. The second finding is that the effects could be significant in emerging economies and for SMEs that will embrace the technology beyond developed markets and establishments.

The Asian Development Bank states that currently, the global trade finance gap stands at $1.5 trillion, and project it to increase to $2.4 trillion by 2025. However, findings from another study show that the gap could be condensed by $1 trillion with the effective use of blockchain technology.

Supply chain finance

Blockchain can also solve the issue of tracking supply chain finance. Many businesses are currently creating open account solutions. But, due to the problem of tracing the supply chain system, financing is limited to only a few companies. Since blockchain is more flexible with data compared to existing digital systems, it opens up the prospect of this level of financing.

On a blockchain, both sellers and buyers can access all transactional information in real-time. Each step of the supply chain system is time-stamped and verified by all members, implying that it is accurate and immutable. This extra level of visibility also depicts that parties will enjoy more invoice financing solutions.

Smart contracts

One of the primary aspects of blockchain technology is the ability to provide SMEs with smart contracts that define the terms and conditions of agreements, just like traditional agreements do. Besides, smart contracts automatically implement and enforce all the pre-agreed terms and conditions without the help of third parties. Smart contracts can replace many labor-intensive and costly business operations with cost-effective costs.

The major benefits of blockchain emerge from smart contracts, single digital records for customs clearance. Smart contracts can represent an invoice, or any other financial document, and be utilized as collateral to secure a loan. They can help alleviate credit risk, lower expenses, and eliminate barriers to trade. To avoid the initial development expenses of developing on Ethereum, Espeo blockchain makes it easier to build and launch smart contracts.

Funding

Blockchain can reinvent SME funding. The P2P lending sector, which the traditional banking system has locked outside, can be revived blockchain technology by digitizing what was once a manual process.

Through disintermediation, blockchain technology is useful and faster for SMEs- not only technology companies- to raise funds through equity. The eradication of these obstacles minimizes the requirement for complicated paperwork. Besides, the automated nature of the system eliminates commissions, exclusions, excessive brokerage charges of selling shares, and other overheads.

Identity management

Another field where blockchain could be a gamer changer in the field of online identity verification. Many SMEs carry out their operations online, increasing the demand for enhanced online security. Decentralized identity through blockchain can reduce the threat of identity theft and fraud. These systems bring a more robust and reliable form of identification of people without the need for third parties. Decentralized identity management also has extra benefits, such as the reliability of the verification process and quick operational speeds. In this way, SMEs will speed up their operations and make them more reliable.

Blockchain for SMEs

Several collaborative blockchain companies, like Hyperledger and Ethereum, have mushroomed to raise the adoption of blockchain across various industries and inform SMEs of the technology’s potential.

Their primary objective is to enable businesses to create customized blockchains that solve particular problems instead of letting enterprises solve issues on their own. In the last five years, we have experienced a rise in platform-based platforms focused on SMEs.

We.Trade platform

Nordea has created a blockchain-based platform designed to make it easier for SMEs to trade with other firms in Europe. All Nordea SME customers can access the we.trade platform. Trading is regulated through There is a set of rules meant to secure the process. By enabling more businesses to enjoy more effective access to trade financing and credit across Europe, the Nordea SME customers will expand their activities by reaching out to untapped markets and creating new trading partnerships.

Karma

Karma is a P2P firm that is fully decentralized and designed to give SMEs access to alternative funding. The platform leverage the power of blockchain to enable business clients to invest in any SME. It offers its users a wide range of investment opportunities. For instance, it allows investors to lend to SMEs anywhere all over the world.

Blockchain identity platforms

Already, several blockchain firms are exploiting blockchain’s identity tools. The decentralized and security aspect of blockchain to offer better and more transparent identification features is an excellent way for businesses to identify themselves and access certified data in their e-commerce sites.

Instead of purchasing expensive, centralized server architecture or “paying hefty fees” to firms like Amazon Web Services or Google, SMEs might instead decide to rent custom-sized decentralized hosting space from a blockchain company. Renting brings high data integrity and a more effective cost plan.

Conclusion

It is easy to understand why an increasing number of SMEs are willing to invest more in blockchain technology, just from the potential of blockchain technology. With decentralization and related features like smart contracts, SMEs may expect to experience a total transformation of how they operate.

However, blockchain is still at its infancy stage. The mass adoption of this technology by SMEs has not yet begun, and widespread adoption calls for more time. For blockchain companies to realize this dream, they have to rally SMEs behind this revolutionary technology and drive customers toward blockchain solutions. Mass adoption requires trust.

For SMEs to fully realize the benefits of blockchain, they must begin trusting the process. SME trust will, in turn, prove to the world that there are numerous benefits of using blockchain technology for everything related to business. Considering how blockchain could boost trade by more than $1 trillion in the next decade, according to the World Economic Forum, this may be a call-up to blockchain companies to offer SME-based solutions. 

Reach out to us to find out more about how to use blockchain technology to grow your business.

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Environmental sustainability has been a challenging field for management experts for a long time. This is particularly true for accounting professionals seeking to bring value and more transparent insights to customers. Multiple regulatory strategies give rise to this problem. That said, with the number of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) lined up for sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are now swelling and with billions invested in sustainability programs.

Despite this increasing investor and market interest, nevertheless, sustainability accounting is something of a work in progress. Blockchain technology is already having a significant influence on traditional accounting functionality, but the link between sustainability, blockchain, and accounting deserves further analysis.

In this article, I will discuss how blockchain technology drives sustainable accounting through sustainability reporting, operating in an environmentally sustainable way, transforming carbon and other environmental markets, creating new sources for sustainable finance, reducing transactional complexity, incentivizing circular economies, and connecting the bottom line to everything else going on in a company. But before that, let us briefly look at how sustainability goes beyond risk mitigation.  

Sustainability is more than risk mitigation

While firms have long-established the business risks brought by issues such as scarcity of raw materials, air and water pollution, and climate change, and the essence of minimizing those risks, companies are only now starting to understand that sustainability is more than risk mitigation. 

Done well, sustainability-driven programs- improving energy efficiency, rethinking supply chains, and transforming business models- have the potential to drive competitive advantage, innovation, and revenue growth.

But few companies realize the full extent of these benefits today: a majority of companies all over the world need a better understanding of how sustainability can be translated into various types of business value, and how they can effectively evaluate the return on sustainability-driven initiatives before they can achieve this potential. Only then will such companies establish the business model they require to accelerate and deepen the integration of sustainability into business strategy and operations. 

Research has shown that companies with integrated, organization-wide sustainability models have better borrowing and revenue outcomes than their peers. These firms also consider revenue growth as the primary driver of their investment in sustainability. 

Blockchain technology can have an intense effect on development-based investment, not only by revolutionizing international payment systems but also via improvements to access to finance, supply chain management, and digital identities. This influence goes beyond traditional financial services and business processes and extends to other essential sectors, like agriculture, healthcare, and transportation.   

What is your potential blockchain ROI?

How can blockchain technology create new revenue opportunities for the accounting and financial service workforce? Precisely, how can specialists connect the seemingly distinct forces in sustainability, increasing accounting interest in this industry, and blockchain technology itself? 

Blockchain transparency will drive better reporting

One of the greatest and often quoted problems with sustainability accounting is that businesses do not always reveal non-financial information with the same energy as financial information. This can be even more noticeable and significant concerning sustainability information, which drives bottom-line performance, and exposes the company to significant risks if it ignores defilements.   

Blockchain technology fundamentally requires that all participants of the network communicate in an almost natural and transparent way. This implies that information concerning sustainability projects, not forgetting those with a financial orientation, like GE’s Ecomagination and those with an operational angle, like Coca-Cola’s Water Stewardship program, can be revealed, eliminating some of the dirtiness often associated with sustainability.

Blockchain’s data transparency not only facilitates collaboration between business parties but also fosters trust between businesses and consumers. For instance, the food and beverage industry faces rigorous compliance regulations that encompass everything from proper farming, processing, packaging, transportation, and storage of food- all meant to prevent foodborne diseases and strengthen the increasingly international food system.  

Standards built on a distributed ledger

There are several models currently available in the market that try to link sustainability initiatives and financial outcomes. Integrated accounting, other multiple models, put in place by accounting associations, and business-specific projects, all exist. The issue is not the lack of standards, but rather the absence of a consensus as to what should comprise measures. 

Smart contracts, in and of themselves, symbolize a perfect initial step towards creating standard and implementable protocols for executing businesses. Accounting for sustainability is not an exception but a priority. 

If the information is uniform, and leveraging on the first point, deliberated transparently, accounting practitioners can enjoy the detailed conversations needed to develop and improve full sustainability accounting standards. Importantly, such standards can be used across other areas of the economy, compared to the restricted protocols.

Transforming carbon and other environmental markets

Blockchain technology can provide cryptographic tokens with a tradable value to improve existing market platforms for carbon (or other substances) and create new opportunities for carbon credit transactions. 

A good case study is China’s Carbon Credit Management Platform, undertaken by Energy Blockchain Labs and IBM. The goal is that with the introduction of smart contracts, the transparency, auditability, and credibility of the Chinese carbon market will improve. In the future, blockchain could support an international carbon trading market for individuals, households, and companies.  

New Sources for Sustainable Finance

Blockchain-based finance platforms could potentially revolutionize access to capital and open up a whole new class of potential investors for projects to tackle environmental problems, from investment in green infrastructure projects to facilitating blended finance or charitable donations for developing nations. More broadly, there is the potential for blockchain to bring a system change from shareholder to stakeholder value and from traditional finance capital to accounting for social, environmental, and financial capital. 

Sustainability accounting is a revenue opportunity

This is probably the most exciting point for accounting experts desiring to create a business case about sustainability and technology. At the center of the growing technological integration, in the form of artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technology and automation, financial services companies, and accounting businesses, in particular, are always looking for extra revenue lines. 

The increasing interest in sustainability, besides indicating a reporting change, is also a chance for forward-thinking businesses. Clients and customers, both current and potential, are going to be held accountable by various stakeholder groups interested in how the company is performing, and how the company is getting those outcomes. Professionals with the ability to connect these dots, between blockchain, reporting, and sustainability, are going to be well-positioned to benefit from this prospect. 

Blockchain technology, at least in the finance and accounting industry, is often regarded in equal measures of excitement and anxiety as it further hastens and magnifies the trends toward automation and eradication of traditional accounting roles. That said, only thinking about the potential of blockchain from the perspective of enhancing attest assets and tax roles overlooks the several opportunities blockchain can help create. 

Reducing transactional complexity

Financial transactions involving massive, cross-border sustainable development initiatives are becoming increasingly more complex, causing backlogs and delays. Blockchain-based platforms (crypto exchanges) and processes can handle multiple transactions more effectively. 

This implies that sustainable projects and other climate-related activities will be more appealing to investors.

According to a report from the World Economic Forum, “Blockchain-based platforms and processes can seamlessly handle a wide range of stakeholders working in various capacities on different projects globally. It will enhance efficiency, minimizing transaction and make climate-related, infrastructure, and other sustainable initiates more attractive for private investments.”  

Incentivizing circular economies 

Blockchain could completely change the way materials and natural resources are valued, handled, and traded through incentivizing people and companies to establish financial value from things that are currently wasted, discarded, or treated as economically invaluable. This could drive widespread behavior change and help achieve a truly circular economy. For instance, Plastic Bank has come up with a social enterprise that offers financial rewards in the form of cryptographic tokens in exchange for depositing collected ocean recyclable wastes. 

Conclusion 

Sustainability reporting, functioning in an environmentally sustainable way, transforming carbon and other environmental markets, creating new sources for sustainable finance, reducing transactional complexity, incentivizing circular economies, and linking the bottom line to everything else going on in the firm are trends likely to grow only more significant moving forward. Blockchain technology, already accelerating change in the accounting and finance sectors, can also open the doors to new opportunities for people and businesses eager to embrace these changes.

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