Builder Spotlight: Blockpay Aims to Bring Blockchain Payments to the Masses

Avalanche

Since blockchain’s early days, people have dreamed about using it to promote financial inclusion. That’s because many people lack access to basic financial services, and blockchain has all the right properties to support applications that provide them globally. Banking. Electronic payments. Remittances. The ability to move between currencies in clicks.

Blockpay, a payment tool provider using Avalanche, is one app leveraging blockchain in the hopes of furthering this ambitious mission.

Based in Mexico, one of the countries that has adopted crypto at high rates according to Chainalysis, Blockpay works toward this mission in two overlapping ways. First, Blockpay offers Mexican merchants point-of-sale devices that can accept card payments. Second, Blockpay has just released crypto-funded debit cards allowing people to painlessly withdraw crypto in the real world.

“More than 70% of businesses in Mexico still don’t accept card payments, because they don’t have the infrastructure to do so,” said Celso Moscoso, CTO of Blockpay.

So far, Blockpay has provided more than 1,100 point-of-sale terminals to Mexican merchants, making everyday commerce a bit more accessible. Celso and Blockpay’s Creative Director, Emmanuel Villarreal, say that Blockpay plans to equip its terminals with crypto payment options. Already, point-of-sale terminal merchants who stake Blockpay’s token can receive certain benefits.

Blockpay’s prepaid cards, however, are where the Blockpay roadmap has already firmly passed into blockchain territory – and where Avalanche makes the difference.

Steps to getting a Blockpay card are straightforward (soon to be available): order one from the recently launched Blockpay online store, open the seal, activate it, download the Blockpay app, add crypto, receive fiat on the card, and use the funded card to withdraw at ATMs or spend.

“With our card, you can liquidate your crypto directly on the app and go to ATMs all over the world to get your cash out,” Emmanuel said. “This is the kind of financial inclusion that we want.”

The result: unbanked people have another path from crypto to fiat.

“There are always the same questions in Latin America and Mexico,” Emmanuel said. “How can I get my crypto into the real world? How can I use it? We are offering a solution to the people.”

Blockpay’s cards can be used beyond Mexico and Latin America. These cards use Avalanche, enabling customers to fund them with digital assets like Avalanche-based stablecoins – which have the speed and convenience of Avalanche’s sub-second finality.

Emmanuel, who speaks about the importance of blockchain products in Latin America and “the wonders of super-fast transactions,” knows that Avalanche is a game-changer.

“When you get used to Avalanche’s instant finality, you feel the difference compared to eight seconds, ten seconds, or longer,” he said. “It’s about providing a better experience for our users.”

When it comes to day-to-day financial services like payments, apps need to operate at the speed of life, especially as more people come into blockchain systems and the number of transactions built atop other transactions continues to stack. Even so, speed isn’t everything.

“Avalanche is not only fast and cheap, it’s vastly decentralized,” said Celso. “We’re not exploring any other options because Avalanche gives us everything we need.”

Celso and Emmanuel believe that Avalanche is positioned for what they believe to be our likely digital future – an interoperable web of blockchains working together toward lofty, transformative goals like greater financial inclusion in Mexico, Latin America, and beyond.

“On top of its speed, affordability, and everything else, Avalanche offers compatibility with other chains,” Emmanuel said. “We know there isn’t going to be one chain for all the world. Ava Labs knows this and chose to develop the right way. That way is going to benefit all of us.”

This post is based on materials provided by Blockpay. For more information, visit Blockpay’s website.

Provided for informational purposes only, without representation, warranty or guarantee of any kind. None of this is as an endorsement by Ava Labs, Inc., the Avalanche Foundation Limited or any of their respective subsidiaries or affiliates, nor is any of this investment or financial advice. Please review this Notice and conduct your own research to properly evaluate the risks and benefits of any project.

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About Avalanche

Avalanche is a smart contracts platform that scales infinitely and regularly finalizes transactions in less than one second. Its novel consensus protocol, Subnet infrastructure, and HyperSDK toolkit enable Web3 developers to easily launch powerful, custom blockchain solutions. Build anything you want, any way you want, on the eco-friendly blockchain designed for Web3 devs.

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