Micropayments Network pingNpay to Debut in 2022

A London-based blockchain-based micropayment network called pingNpay has exited stealth mode, with its leadership announcing it will be operational in 2022, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

The network will focus on “high frequency” payments of less then $20 per transaction, according to the announcement, and initially will target the United Kingdom using a digital coin “backed by the pound,” the announcement states. The company states that its total fees on transactions will not exceed 1 percent.

The network will use stablecoins in every country in which it operates and will be “100 percent backed by liquid fiat assets with a published proof-of-reserve to meet regulatory expectations,” the announcement adds. Fiat currencies are issued by governments and are not pegged to an asset such as gold.

“Consumers and merchants will not need to know they are paying or receiving stablecoins since they simply will see payments and balances in their local currency,” pingNpay’s announcement states.

The company chose the United Kingdom for its launch “because of the country’s strong FinTech ecosystem and forward-thinking regulatory environment,” the announcement states.

pingNPay was founded by Richard Bell and Jeremy Light, who formerly worked on cross-border blockchain payments systems at Ripple.

Light’s LinkedIn profile states of pingNpay: “pingNpay is open to all and unlike most other payment systems is permissionless to access, permissionless to innovate on and available to everyone, everywhere…pingNpay brings the power of blockchain using regulatory-compliant stablecoins to eCommerce, enabling very low-cost transactions leading to viable low-value payments for retailers to exploit through offering frequent, low-cost services to their customers.”

The profile also states that Light is co-founder of a payments-related company called Fourdotzero and was a managing director at Accenture Payment Services in Europe, Africa and Latin America.

Bell’s LinkedIn profile states that he also is a co-founder of Fourdotzero and previously worked at, in addition to Ripple, companies including Banco Santander, Visa and Vodafone.