RiskTech A.I. Scalability — Efficient Crossborder Blockchain Payments
FIX risk-cybernetics protocol by Finamatrix.AI scales with any blockchain payment platform, solving the base currency conundrum while reducing transactional costs.
STATE OF TECHNOLOGY FOR MASS ADOPTION
FIX digital asset by Finamatrix.AI integrated with FIX risk-cybernetics protocol resides on Waves, one of the fastest blockchain that transacts more than 100 transactions per second.
Zilliqa uses sharding to increase the number of transactions per second to 2488 and more as the network continues to grow. Sharding is a method of splitting and storing a single logical dataset in multiple databases. By distributing the data among multiple machines, a cluster of database systems can store larger datasets and handle additional requests. Sharding is necessary if a dataset is too large to be stored in a single database. Moreover, many sharding strategies allow additional machines to be added. Sharding allows a database cluster to scale along with its data and traffic growth.
With the Waves-Tron inter-blockchain partnership, further linkages with other major blockchains will take place over time, increasing the entire blockchain network, making more payments on the blockchain possible, increasing efficiencies compared to the current situation. The TRON protocol with Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism is one of the largest blockchain-based operating systems in the world and consistently handles 2,000 transactions per second. Waves-based tokens like FIX of the Waves blockchain will be available on the TRON blockchain via Gravity and automatically listed on TRON’s DEXes and DeFi services (like TronTrade or PoloniDex), which means that users and developers from the TRON ecosystem will be able to trade, hold, and use Waves-based tokens.
WHY BLOCKCHAIN PAYMENTS?
Blockchain is essentially a digital ledger which records data and lumps them into “blocks”, which are then securely encrypted and chronologically bound together into a “chain”. The ledger is distributed across all parties within a network, where all parties have to come to a consensus to authenticate the transactions. It is, therefore, a form of distributed ledger versus the traditional ledger which is maintained by a centralised institution, thus removing the need for a central intermediary.
Highly secure: The fund transfer data is recorded in the digital ledger which, once encrypted, cannot be modified or tampered with. This keeps the transaction information private and secure, reducing the risk of fraud.
Faster turnaround time: With the removal of the intermediary and the need for manual processing in the traditional payments setting, fund transfers are directly conducted between the originating bank and receiving bank in a straight-through process which cuts down processing time. For instance, funds transfers between OCBC Singapore and OCBC Malaysia which typically require up to 1 day could be completed in less than 5 minutes.
More transparency: With the removal of the traditional intermediary transaction platform, there is the visibility of transaction flows between senders and recipients and the transactions can be much more easily tracked.
Lower cost: The distributed nature of blockchain’s digital ledger removes the need for centralised institutions (intermediaries) and manual processing, which translates to lower cost.
BANK INTER-OPERABILITY
OCBC back in 2016 was one of the first to use blockchain to make the first payment, while some banks over the years have made claims that cryptocurrency on the right blockchain made transactions more cost-efficient and effective than the traditional SWIFT system.
Amid a continued push for financial inclusion for all Filipinos as aligned with the Philippine government’s mandate, UnionBank on June 27 last year used blockchain-based tokenized fiat to successfully remit from OCBC Bank in Singapore to an account holder at Cantilan Bank, a rural bank in Surigao Del Sur. This was made possible by combining the features of both the Adhara platform and UnionBank-UBX i2i platform. i2i, which is the Philippine blockchain platform is managed and operated by UBX, the fintech subsidiary of UnionBank, which used the UnionBank-backed tokenized fiat called PHX.
THE RURAL UNBANKED POPULATION
Blockchain-based platforms connect rural banks to one other. This provides rural banks, which are currently financially excluded, access to value-added services, thus enabling a banking-as-a-service platform. Blockchain platforms aim to bring millions of unbanked people to the financial system by connecting rural banks to a country’s main financial network.
At present, rural banks have limited access to financial networks, and remittances from overseas can take five to seven days to be credited to a beneficiary’s account. The alternative for people residing in these areas is to use non-bank remittance counters, which often require in-person transactions on the sending and receiving sides, and are subject to high fees.
SCALABILITY?
Originally launched as a pilot in 2017, JPMorgan’s Interbank Information Network (IIN) powered by Quorum, a blockchain platform based on Ethereum protocol, focuses on minimizing friction in the global payments process, enabling payments to reach beneficiaries faster and with fewer steps. ConsenSys’ recent acquisition of Quorum, a private fork of Ethereum that does not involve mining, uses the Ethereum Virtual Machine or EVM, has more than 330 banks in the network, but still has issues of not being scalable enough in terms of transactions per second.
Fintechs are also looking to disrupt cross-border payments. Most fintech solutions currently available are in the retail space and tend to focus on reducing foreign exchange spreads. Ripple is an example of a fintech looking to disrupt correspondent banking for cross-border payments at commercial scale.
SINGAPORE BLOCKCHAIN
Singapore has developed a blockchain-based payments network that could enable faster and cheaper international settlements.
The final phase of the years-long ‘Project Ubin’ saw the Monetary Authority of Singapore team up with state investor Temasek and JPMorgan to develop the prototype multi-currency payments network.
An international settlement network, modelled after this payments network prototype, could enable faster and cheaper transactions than conventional cross-border payments channels.
Commercial applications include cross-border payments in multiple currencies, foreign currency exchange, and settlement of foreign currency-denominated securities.
RISK-CYBERNETICS PROTOCOL
When it comes to getting paid, merchants know which base currency to receive to pay off their bills, however, when it comes to free cash, the decision of which currency to hold becomes a conundrum as currency values fluctuate relative to one another. One would choose a currency that appreciates faster relative to others to increase purchasing power.
With the increase in inter-connectivity of the 100+ global payment systems that become payment blockchains, large databases of payment and foreign exchange data become big-data that provides important statistics that can be optimized to provide arbitrage opportunities and to predict how prices will perform.
FIX risk-cybernetics protocol (with atomic portfolio selection) on FIX digital asset addresses this problem. The algorithms automatically optimize data to switch between currencies to relatively cheaper currencies and sells relatively more expensive currencies within certain timeframes that satisfy payment requirements.
The risk-tech A.I. that runs on FIX resides on Waves blockchain, and soon on Tron blockchain, when linked with other major blockchains and payment platforms including the SGD blockchain, provides the potential of processing millions of transactions per day as mass adoption becomes a reality. This efficiently manages liquidity and FX risk globally at the lowest cost possible.
The greater adoption of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies will hence reduce unnecessary points of friction in payments and remittance. This means bank-to-bank cross-border remittance will promote financial inclusion, particularly in underserved areas, as customers will see significant cost savings and near real-time transfers at the touch of a button on their smartphones. This is due to blockchain’s advantage where transaction records are accurate, immutable and transparent allowing for atomic verification and subsequently, atomic settlements.
Finamatrix.AI provides tech services to companies and individuals in both the traditional payment and blockchain payment space and will soon describe the use case of a major client in preparation for our pre-IPO.
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