Blockchain Firm Claims Near-Instant X-Border Payments

With the payments sphere accelerating towards real-time transactions, FinTech players of all types are exploring how they can be some of the first to make that goal a reality.

One blockchain company claims it’s nearly done it.

Reports on Wednesday (Sept. 14) said BlockCypher can now facilitate near-instant cross-border payments for corporate payers.

“While many banks have started proof of concepts to explore the use of blockchain technology, BlockCypher customers are already in production,” the company said in its press release. The firm offers APIs to other businesses that make use of distributed ledgers, like blockchain and Ethereum, across more than 50 nations.

Developers and companies are using those apps to facilitate cross-border payments.

“Many companies are addressing the cost and processing times of international payments,” said BlockCypher Founder and CEO Catheryne Nicholson. “It’s too expensive and slow. BlockCypher executes almost-instantaneous payments and is used worldwide. It’s real and in production today. It’s not a theoretical 80+ people design-phase POC.”

Among its APIs offered include Webhook API, which identifies fraud or duplicate attempts to send a payment; Transaction API, to create transactions; and Ethereum APIs, to support smart contracts.

The company claims that using BlockCypher APIs can reduce developer costs by 35 percent and accelerate the time-to-market for these apps by six months.

In a statement, Capgemini Financial Services Principal for Business and IT Transformation Bart Cant offered his support of BlockCypher’s solution.

“Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the financial sector,” he said. “BlockCypher provides infrastructure and web services that enable new blockchain products to make existing processes more efficient, secure, transparent and inexpensive.”