Amid a steady stream of positive news, incumbent payment companies are quickly launching products and services incorporating blockchain technology. To date, payments firms openly offering blockchain services include financial technology provider D+H, online payments startup Dwolla and cross-border payments specialist Earthport , though the latest to launch an offering is PayCommerce , a decade-old software-as-a-service payments and remittance platform that connects network members across the globe.
Each has so far taken a different approach to leveraging its market presence and products in a bid to win business, though all seem intent on taking advantage of their existing expertise and client networks in ways that would be difficult for blockchain startups.
Earthport, for example, now incorporates the Ripple protocol as part of its Distributed Ledger Payments Hub . Likewise, D+H has added blockchain tech to its Global PAYPlus payments hub. Dwolla, in turn, sees itself working on the outside of the DLT industry altogether, connecting digital asset movement on a blockchain to real-world cash payments.
In addition to how they’re using the technology, payments companies seem split on the types of blockchain software they’re building services on. PayCommerce and D+H, for example, are unique in that they have built their own blockchains instead of relying on the bitcoin protocol or working with industry startups.
While that could seem risky, PayCommerce chief technology officer Sha Kader told CoinDesk the company as an advantage over startups still looking for enterprise customers.
Blockchain is, after all, a network technology, and one of the biggest hurdles for blockchain startups remains signing on users and interoperating between those users, something PayCommerce, with its 80 correspondent bank members and large corporate clients, including Coca-Cola and Disney, already has.
Both PayCommerce and Earthport are working to employ the technology within the boundaries of their business models. PayCommerce, for instance, doesn’t handle customer money […]
