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With hopes of providing merchants with a lower-cost network to make and accept electronic payments, startup MakeCents announced Friday a test of its blockchain-based platform.
New York City-based MakeCents says its decentralized platform is designed to “disrupt the $420 trillion global payments infrastructure by leveraging its blockchain technology to connect businesses, financial institutions, and consumers on a decentralized platform in order for them to transact more efficiently, more securely, and with transparency—all at a fraction of the cost of traditional payment methods.”
The first use of it will be in a mobile wallet that MakeCents says can incorporate cash transactions into the payment process. It did not provide details on how that might work.
MakeCents also is working on a system for merchants to accept payments. On its Web site, MakeCents says its service can “disintermediate the ‘middlemen’ who plague the current payment system allowing for fast, secure, and cost-effective payment processing with reduced fees.” MakeCents does not provide pricing for its service.
The merchant-acceptance system is in tests with Seabra Foods, a 14-unit grocery-store chain mostly in New England, and an unnamed publicly traded U.S. company. MakeCents says discussions with a number of fast-food restaurants also are ongoing.
MakeCents also is developing a service for financial institutions that it says could consolidate multiple ledgers.
