By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 12th, 2024
While blockchain has considerable, yet partly unsused potential in the wider financial markets, PumaPay has come to reform credit transactions and introduce cryptocurrencies into the consumer mainstream.
Bitcoin remains the poster boy for the cryptocurrency market, while it’s also the most famous application of the ground-breaking blockchain technology. This should not distract from the diverse nature of blockchain, however, which has the potential to disrupt numerous markets and is expected to achieve a cumulative value of $16 billion by 2024.
Blockchain certainly has considerable potential in the wider financial markets, with banks and lenders keen to integrate this technology to drive greater efficiency and transparency across the board.
One example of this exists in the form of PumaPay, which has built a blockchain-based protocol to reform how everyday financial transactions are completed. But how does this work, and what does it mean for consumer credit across the globe.
How PumaPay is Seeking to Reform Consumer Credit
At the heart of this project of two core objectives; namely the reformation of credit transactions in the modern economy and the introduction of cryptocurrencies into the consumer mainstream.
In terms of the former, the company’s product is built on the premise that today’s credit and debit cards are unfit purpose in the prevailing economic climate. This may seem like an unfair assertion, particularly given the recent diversification in this space and the emergence of bad credit products and cards that offer cash back or lucrative sign-on bonuses.
However, the PumaPay system has been developed using open-source technology, which enables merchants and users to pull funds out of a customer’s account with express consent. This would replace the outdated method that sees shoppers push money to a retailer, before the cash flows through a long line of intermediaries as part of a process that can take days to complete.
This would also leverage the secure and transparent nature of blockchain to excellent effect, reforming the payment process withoutplacing customer’s hard-earned money at risk.
What are the Benefits of This and What do They Mean for the Financial Market?
In addition to being quicker and more secure, this type of platform also offers considerable cost-efficiencies to merchants.
More specifically, it creates a scenario in which the number and volume of transaction fees can be reduced dramatically. This reduces the cost of everyday financial transactions for allparties, with customers poised to benefit considerably over a concerted period of time.
This advanced platform is also scalable and extremely flexible, with the introduction of cryptocurrencies creating an additional payment option for customers and merchants across the globe. As a result, customers will be able to execute cryptocurrency payments both on- and offline, creating instantaneous transactions that carry next to no fees.
So what does this mean for current debit and credit cards and the financial sector as a whole? In simple terms, it provides a challenge to the status quo, providing a reform of the typical payment process along with its associated fees and delays.
While neither PumaPay or similar startups yet in a position to consistently challenge market leading names such as Visa or Mastercard, there’s no doubt that the new platform could emerge as the modern standard for completing payments.
The question that remains is whether PumaPay will successfully drive this change or an existing provider will quickly integrate blockchain technology into their core products?