Minima on Tuesday announced that it has completed a pilot blockchain-based retail payment system with Minipay, a financial company offering an online payment system for digital content, goods, and services that are sold on the internet.
Minipay is a UK-based blockchain network that enables anyone to run a complete node on a mobile or IoT device. It is also one of the recent winners of Minima’s Innovation Challenge. The Minima Innovation Challenge was a month-long competition conducted from July to August this year. Blockchain.News reported the matter. The competition was designed to support and encourage individuals and teams to create brilliant and unique applications for the Minima Protocol, outside of what has already been conceived.
The partnership between the two firms will see Minima introduce a payment app on its blockchain network that will use Minipay’s Near Field Communication (NFC) to make retail payments an easy and seamless experience for Minima app users to pay for shopping via their smartphones.
Minipay’s payment app uses NFC technology to make payment experiences more seamless and easier for customers looking to pay for retail shopping by tapping their smartphones.
According to the announcement, Minima will leverage Minipay’s NFC technology to introduce a contactless payment app which connects to Minima wallets and uses QR codes for everyday purchases. Minipay’s technology will make Minima’s payment experience as easy and seamless as possible.
Minima said this will be done by offering the standard on-chain transactions with payments requested, by presenting a QR code for customers to scan over NFC technology in order to create, transact, and settle off-chain payment channels. Minima said once a payment channel is made, users can make transactions and payments instantly, even in the absence of an internet connection.
The latest development by Minima shows the continuing growth of cryptocurrency, which already has been integrated into Apple Pay and Google Pay payments apps. This reflects how mobile is driving alternative payment solutions and challenging retailers and businesses to keep up with how payments are evolving.
As cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream, retailers and businesses are considering the need to accept digital assets on mobile sites and apps or via crypto mobile wallets in stores.
The mobile implication of cryptocurrency plays out in two different ways. First, retailers and businesses are looking to accept digital assets directly from mobile sites and apps, which offer an easy payment method for customers who have Bitcoins.
The second outlet for crypto is mobile payments in-store. Retailers and businesses can accept crypto payments by integrating a QR code scanner or NFC terminal into their POS (point-of-sale) terminals. Consumers can then easily open their crypto mobile wallet to pay in-store.
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