Smarter, Faster, and More Efficient: The Next Hurdle for Retail Payments

If there is one term which can be used to define the current state of the digital community, it is speed. We can contact a friend who may be located thousands of miles away with the click of a button. Data transfer speeds are now measured in terms of gigabytes per second. We expect websites to load in the blink of an eye, and if they fail to display correctly, we simply look elsewhere.

However, the retail payment sector is still hampered by technical issues that often lead to sluggish processing times. Payments may take days before they clear. Batch settlements can cause real snags within the overall sales pipeline. Network congestion is also a very real concern; even impacting cryptocurrency transfers. What are some of the reasons why we are still forced to grapple with these hindrances? Are there any alternatives that could provide the relief that we have been looking for? Read on to find out more.

Legacy Systems Failing to Meet the Mark

To be clear, this article is not necessarily meant to disparage traditional payment systems methods such as bank transfers, credit cards, and e-wallets. While these were initially designed with speed in mind, they have not been able to keep up with the frenetic pace of the e-commerce community. An analogy can help to clarify this point.

Imagine that you decide to access the Internet with a Hewlett-Packard computer that only supports dial-up connectivity. Although these systems were novel during the 1990s, they can hardly keep pace with today’s wireless networking. The fault is not in the operating system, but rather, in outdated technology incapable of remaining ahead of the curve. In some ways, this is not dissimilar from legacy payment platforms. Consider the following drawbacks:

• Payment systems that are incompatible with one another.

• Digital wallet services that may need to be outsourced to third-party providers.

• Software that may be difficult to integrate with existing in-house infrastructure.

• Cross-border payment delays.

• Problems when performing transactions across disparate blockchain networks.

• Additional fees that buyers and sellers may incur.

As we can see, two important metrics will often be sacrificed as a direct result: speed and efficiency.

Will merchants and consumers be forced to grapple with these pitfalls to no avail? Are there any alternatives that have come to light? One bundle promises to provide the solutions we have been desperately searching for.

The Polygon Open Money Stack: The Digital Game-Changer

Polygon has seen how fragile it is to piece together a fully functional payments system. Wallets from one provider, on-ramps from another, and compliance layered on top. Every connection becomes a point of failure. Their Open Money Stack is designed to remove that fragility as a single integration for end-to-end money movement, and industry experts have already begun to take notice.

The Open Money Stack is a vertically integrated platform designed to ameliorate many pain points associated with legacy payment frameworks. Some features that will benefit merchants and consumers alike include:

• The ability to reduce (or entirely eliminate) traditional fees and surcharges.

• A modular design enabling payments institutions to pick and choose the most relevant features

• Enterprise wallets and blockchain rails

• Interoperability across multiple blockchains

• Streamlined conversion between fiat and stablecoins

• Native tools to ensure ongoing industry compliance

• Full support for on-chain settlements

The good news is that readers do not necessarily have to be familiar with the technical side of the blockchain to reap the rewards. On the contrary, the user-friendly design of Open Money Stack has been engineered for the average consumer; all in a single API. Retail payments will no longer be hampered by outdated protocols. They will instead exhibit a level of efficiency that would have been all but impossible a handful of years ago.

Note that these observations are far from theoretical. Many aspects of the Open Money Stack are already live, with the full stack expected to launch in the near future; potentially reshaping the entire e-commerce ecosystem.

Although a concrete release date has yet to be announced, it is a foregone conclusion that institutions will be keeping a close eye on updates as soon as they become available. After all, why continue walking when you can run?