Crypto payments protocol firm Solana said it will now allow customized transaction requests for developers and merchants.
As the company said on its website Wednesday (May 4), it had previously relied on simple one-way transfers of tokens such as SOL, USDC and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other tokens.
“These were fantastic starting points to enable truly decentralized payments,” Solana said.
“But with transaction requests, it’s now possible to bring any Solana transaction into the real world through an interactive request between a checkout app and a mobile wallet, enabling NFT minting, dynamic discounts, tokenized loyalty programs, and so much more.”
Learn more: PYMNTS Blockchain Series: What Is Solana?
According to Solana, customers can scan a merchant QR code, which the wallet app interprets as a Solana Pay transaction request URL.
From there, the wallet makes an HTTP request to the merchant API. The merchants receive the request with the wallet address and can reply with a customized transaction for the customer. Just as with any transaction, the wallet shows the transaction detail to the customer, who can then approve or decline it with their private key.
Earlier this year, Bank of America Digital Asset Strategist Alkesh Shah wrote that Solana could become the “Visa of the digital asset ecosystem.”
His reasoning is that its “ability to provide high throughput, low cost and ease of use creates a blockchain optimized for consumer use cases like micropayments, [decentralized finance (DeFi)], [nonfungible tokens (NFTs)], decentralized networks (Web3) and gaming.”
Read more: Solana Pay Launches as Low-Cost, Instant Crypto Payment for Everyday Purchases
In February, Solana launched a point-of-sale (POS) payment product that lets merchants accept the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin and other cryptocurrencies with small fees almost instantly.
The company called it the “next generation of merchant payment and commerce rails,” offering “low cost, instant settlement for online and in-store payments,” as well as “immediate” settlement, fees of fractions of a cent, and scalability up to 60,000 transactions per second (TPS), which it said rivals Visa’s 65,000 TPS.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More