Eligma has hit headlines by setting new standards for Bitcoin and blockchain, apart from powering Slovenia’s latest Bitcoin City project. The start-up is now aiming to use blockchain technology to establish communication standards for crypto payment networks.

Knowing Elly POS Terminal

Elly POS Terminal is basically a touchscreen terminal with the latest state-of-the-art payment technology and minimalistic design. It has features like a docking station, WiFi connectivity, mobile SIM card plan, 10-hour battery life and a five-inch HD touch screen.

“Seamless transitions from mobile data to WiFI allow a fully mobile checkout experience. Get paid at the counter or on the terrace. The choice is yours,” the company states on its website, as it explains the pre-loaded SIM card aspect of the Elly POS Terminal.

The POS also offers other salient services such as ‘Accept Tips’, ‘Connect to Cash Register’ (enabling Elly’s clients to connect their existing cash registers with the start-up’s API), ‘Become a Crypto Exchange’ (where Elly clients can become a part of the crypto industry) and ‘Buy now Pay Later’.

“We combined payment methods and POS services into one single solution, transforming the POS terminal into a tool that will help your business grow,” the company stated on its website.

Eligma’s payment partners include Binance Pay, Bitcoin.com, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

GoCrypto: Masterstroke From Eligma

“GoCrypto is the fastest growing crypto payment network providing zero volatility risk for the merchant,” this is how the venture described ‘GoCtypto’ on its website.

GoCrypto is basically an all-in-one software and point-of-sale solution, which accepts all types of payment transactions for “brick-and-mortar & online stores”.

“Our smart POS terminal supports crypto, card, and digital payments. Its intuitive system lets you instantly expand your offer with the newest payment trends and process transactions from you store or on the go,” the venture states.

GoCrypto is currently providing services in 70 countries and possesses over 300 million users, while supporting payments in over 50 cryptocurrencies.

It is operating as a global payment scheme connecting all the stakeholders. Crypto wallets, exchanges, cashier system providers, payment solution providers and merchants, everyone is a part of GoCrypto’s connected ecosystem.

E-commerce platforms get free crypto payment plugins and customers are provided with custom solutions as per their needs. These platforms can also make their own payment solutions by integrating GoCrypto’s customized payment services under their own brands. This will help these businesses to level up their point-of-sale, apart from offering the customers a superior user experience, when it comes to personalized online shopping.

Understanding GoCrypto In Detail

GoCrypto’s solutions include ‘Smart POS Application’ (helps customers add cryptocurrency to their list of payment methods through the venture’s revolutionary point-of-sale application), ‘eCommerce’ (feature which enables crypto payments for online stores on major e-commerce platforms, apart from offering free payment gateway plug-ins), Web POS (this lets the users accept crypto on the user’s phone/tablet/computer) and ‘Cash register integration’ (under this, businesses can accept cryptocurrency payments through their cash register system).

GoCrypto also has an analytical tool called ‘Manager’, which performs a full overview of the clients’ businesses, starting from latters’ payment transactions and payout history, apart from providing detailed analytical data and advanced filtering possibilities for these ventures.

GoCrypto also has its own tokens, under an ecosystem called ‘GoC tokenomics’, where these tokens get transformed into ‘true utility gems’. The tokenomics offers services like payments, NFT minting and staking to referral programs and DAO governance.

GoC token is a multichain utility token issued on the Bitcoin Cash (SLP) blockchain, Smart Bitcoin Cash (smartBCH), BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon (MATIC).

“The GoCrypto (GoC) token is a multichain utility token issued on the Bitcoin Cash (SLP) blockchain, Smart Bitcoin Cash (smartBCH), BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon (MATIC),” the venture states.

The ecosystem consists of ‘GoC Bridge’ (enabling the fast and secure transfer of the GoC token between multiple chains), ‘GoCrypto 1.0’ (facility helping Elly Wallet users to shop at physical and online stores in selected countries, following which they receive a tokenback reward) and GoCrypto 2.0 (decentralised payment protocol),

“Users can mint unique NFTs which bring them benefits in the scope of the ‘Refer to Earn’ program and allow for participation in the DAO governance. Once they hold an NFT, users can stake their GoC tokens – NFTs can be upgraded by staking additional GoC or traded on the NFT marketplaces,” GoCrypto remarked.

“Each of the minted NFTs has its own ID number and provides users with a unique referral link which can be used to refer new merchants to start accepting payments via the GoCrypto 2.0 Decentralized Payments protocol. Referred merchants are linked to the NFT that provides the owner of the NFT with the share of transaction fees generated by the merchant for as long as the merchant is active. Additionally, NFTs also have a power level which is based on how much GoC token a user stakes and in which of the available pools. The power level of the NFT determines how much DAO voting power the owner of the NFT has,” it added further.

GoC token holders can also enjoy discounted prices in the GoCrypto merchandise store. The merchandise store also showcases GoCrypto’s decentralized eCommerce solution as a plugin.

GoCrypto Poised For Its Metaverse Debut

GoCrypto is setting up its first metaverse offices in the 21 stories high virtual crypto skyscraper called Bloktopia.

“Our offices will be situated on the 3rd floor, lot 44, showcasing GoCrypto’s products, hosting community events, and offering advanced features, such as GoC token trading & staking and more,” GoCrypto remarked.

The post Start-up of the Week: Eligma revolutionising digital currency sector with its ‘GoCrypto’ appeared first on International Finance.

The testimonials of their big clients, such as wish.com, Arcadia and Hype, say that allowing customers aninvoice functionality has increased their sales by an impressive 40 per cent. This almost guaranteed increase in sales means these customers are willing to (and do) pay Klarna a higher margin (than they pay card companies) for every sale. Customer experience and the resulting increased conversion for businesses is a powerful thing.

On June 19 came the announcement that the Sweden-based company had been granted a full banking licence. They are the largest European fintech company to get this licence. Their chief executive and founder, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, openly said of the announcement that he wanted Klarna to play a large part in disrupting and reshaping the retail banking industry.

At the time, I came out and said this was the worst possible news for retail banks and card companies, alike. I even told Business Insider that I believed this meant Klarna was on track to becoming the next Visa. This is because with more than 60 million customers and, post PSD2, direct access to all European bank accounts, they are certainly well-positioned to become a favoured credit provider. Not just for bigger ticket items, but also for everyday household goods, that are increasingly being purchased online.

The difference between Klarna and a big card company like Visa is, of course, the fact that money is offered to people as a direct line of credit. The bank who ordinarily provided this service behind a credit card is no longer relevant in more and more situations. So as cards become more and more irrelevant and the strong relationship between banks and consumers is challenged, distribution of cards, and thus Visa’s products, will drop.

Was it something I said?

A week after this original announcement, there came another announcement. Visa had now taken an undisclosed stake in the payments technology company.

Despite Klarna’s chief commercial officer, Michael Rouse, admitting to being “somewhat enemies in the past in terms of competing”, the deal confirms that Visa is (rightly) looking to strengthen their alternative payments technology. In fact, a quick Google of Visa (or Mastercard, etc.) + partnership sees the most recent news results return a string of similar announcements about partnerships with various fintechs who will help them to safeguard their future.

That’s all good for card companies, but what about banks?

For almost two years, retail banks in Europe have been (or should have been) conscious of the second payments services directive (PSD2). Its most pertinent article directing that they must be able to comply, via API access, with requests from licensed third-parties to access customer account information.

The European Commission introduced the new directive in an attempt to create a safer payments system and foster innovation in an industry that has remained relatively dormant in this area for some time. Those most affected by the directive — that is, European retail banks — have, for the most part, missed the innovation memo. The exception to this is Scandinavia, where retail banks enjoy the highest percentage of bank-issued mobile payments users in the world, per capita.

Right now, banks are mainly relying on partnerships or trying to build their own NFC-based wallets (which are all doomed). One of the biggest bank/tech company partnerships most are familiar with is the partnership many banks have with Apple. But what happens when Apple can drop the required partnerships once PSD2 gives them direct access to their customers’ bank accounts? The same question applies to similar situations with Facebook and Google.

Further, the most popular mobile wallet solutions, outside of the EU, are all owned and operated by non-banks. Think Venmo in the US, and Alipay and WeChat Pay in China.

So whilst Visa is in a tough situation, compared to many retail banks, it’s nothing

They (the likes of Visa, for example) are busy buying up stakes in solutions like Klarna to enable them to go direct to market with Visa-branded solutions. Banks, however, risk being cut off from both sides. Their allies — the card companies — will likely join their growing list of competitors. The likes of Visa are in a position to buy companies or stakes in companies to help them pivot their strategy and stay relevant.

I predict that Visa will go direct to consumers as banks struggle to stay relevant and thus become negligible distribution channels for Visa, compared to Klarna, for example. Klarna is, in fact, a bank for all intents and purposes, but a new breed. Traditional banks are then left in the middle with competition from all angles.

Why aren’t banks doing anything?

Right now, banks are still extremely profitable. It’s hard to change when you’re riding the (albeit final) waves of success. Another reason for a lack of action amongst many is the use of extremely old infrastructure and legacy systems.

However, banks mustn’t let legacy systems overshadow their need to get ready for PSD2 and the shift toward a new way of banking and personal finance management any more than they should let current success hamper a shift to prevent disruption.

The entire point of PSD2 is: change. What has worked, in many ways, for the preceding decades isn’t cutting it anymore. Banks who come out the other end of PSD2 — in say, a year or two — will look very different from the traditional retail banks of today. For consumers, personal banking will be easier and there will be a great deal more choice — not only from the major banks but from tech companies who people might previously have just thought of as a social media site or a search engine.

So, what can banks do now?

In a nutshell? Accept that change is coming and that it will have a massive impact. It’s this acceptance that then will lead to the deep disruption that is needed to weather the PSD2 storm. The big disruption case studies we all know — the likes of Kodak or Blockbuster — had plenty of time to change their core business. This is especially evident in hindsight. I am certain that the same will be said of the many retail banks who fail to do what it takes to stay relevant.

So, my advice is: be bold, take risks and create customer-centric solutions — like Klarna did. While banks pushed cards, they saw the need for a simple yet powerful solution — by sending out invoices, on paper! There are millions of problems waiting to be solved.To stay relevant, banks must find their own paper invoice, fast.

Daniel Döderlein, CEO and founder of Auka

The post The Klarna lesson for retail banks: find your ‘paper invoice’ appeared first on International Finance.