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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
Mugglehead Magazine
Alternative investment news based in Vancouver, B.C.

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The Mugglehead technology roundup: eCommerce and wealth edition

Here are five companies blazing a trail for the future of eCommerce.

ecommerce
Photo by Mark König via Unsplash

Here are five companies blazing a trail for the future of eCommerce.

Jack Henry’s launches new standalone real-time person-to-person payment system

Jack Henry (NASDAQ:JKHY) launched its standalone person-to-person (P2P) payments solution.

The company’s solution is uses the Payrailz Digital Payments Platform. Jack Henry acquired it September 1. The solution is available for standalone implementation of part of a strategic component of the full platform.

“The demand for P2P payments is strong and growing, and offering instant payments has evolved from a competitive distinction into a competitive necessity. Jack Henry has been on the leading edge of faster payments offering our clients ready-built conduits to the new networks. Our experience supporting more than 400 financial institutions that are already live on the Zelle® and RTP® networks, with another 156 in various stages of implementation, has demonstrated that many banks and credit unions are offering access to multiple faster payment networks,” said Tede Forman, president of payment solutions at Jack Henry.

Jack Henry is a fintech company that’s working to strengthen connections between institutions, individuals and the businesses they serve. It’s a S&P 500 company that offers banks and credit unions an ecosystem of modern capabilities including the ability to integrate with other fintechs. The company has been in existence for 45 years And has approximately 8,000 clients.

Jack Henry offers way to send money to virtually anyone. It’s an open loop solution, which means it does not require senders and receivers to belong to the same payment network. The solution can handle one-time and recurring payments using the recipients cellphone number or email address. It also includes split-pay functionality, funds settlement, and crediting funds from checking and savings accounts, debit cards and Venmo. The company intends to add more in the future.

The platform reduces the threat of fraud with a multi-layered approach involving one-time passwords (OTP) and an Fraud Monitor. Presently in development, the monitor will score 100 per cent of P2P payments in real time when it’s complete.

Tradecentric and Coupa Software collaboration brings best for eCommerce

TradeCentric is strengthening its presence on the Coupa App Marketplace, a subsidiary of Coupa Software (NASDAQ:COUP), and works to enhance the value both companies get from the Coupa Business Spend Management (BSM) platform.

Coupa’s BSM Platform is cloud-based and gives companies greater vision and choices required to make better spending decisions. What it does is connect businesses with pre-built solutions across supply chain, procurement and finance.

“eProcurement is innovating at a rapid pace, and sophisticated businesses need technology solutions that best support an increasingly digital buying and selling environment. We’re proud to have TradeCentric on the Coupa App Marketplace as it provides our customers access to an automated and integrated purchasing experience that can connect with virtually any leading supplier eCommerce system,” said Roger Goulart, executive vice president of business development and alliances at Coupa.

TradeCentric used to be called PunchOut2Go. It gives purchase orders and invoice automation solutions to companies to assist with their transaction capabilities. It’s not quite a eCommerce or an eProcurement company, but a mixture of both. What it does is give B3B buyers and suppliers an opportunity to connect, automate and scale their digital trading through a cloud-based platform.

Invoice automation provides support for all the up to date transport protocols, standards, documents and formats with authentication for document delivery. Also, the company’s purchase order acknowledgement gets the seller’s nod and translates any application information before returning to the buyer. The acknowledgement also includes sender contact information, order details, forms and delivery and terms of transport.

The company’s solutions will now be available in the Coupa App Marketplace.

Best in B2B

Read more: Future Fintech puts Orbit E-wallet on display for Chinese students studying abroad

Read more: The Mugglehead technology roundup: high tech edition

Buyers simply select the products they need from a seller’s eCommerce store. TradeCentric mediates communication between the eProcurement and eCommerce platforms, transforming the data into the necessary format to create the PO and invoice based on the customer’s requirements.

“We are dedicated to providing customers a streamlined and integrated B2B commerce experience. As a leading procurement solution, Coupa plays an important role in helping us deliver on our goal,” said Troy Lunch, CEO of TradeCentric.

“TradeCentric is proud to be part of the Coupa App Marketplace and a trusted CoupaLink technology partner. We look forward to continuing to enhance our collaboration with Coupa to further help businesses around the world connect with one another and achieve better, more seamless trade for all.”

Bonanza Goldfields and Prosynergy want to take on digital assets industry

There’s more than just cryptocurrency in the digital asset space as Bonanza Goldfields (OTC:BONZ) knows all too well. Blockchain technology, which underpins cryptocurrency, has multiple potential uses in the proliferation and transformation of our understanding of wealth. First among them is the authenticity that blockchain technology maintains as part of its core function, which can be used to certify everything from art to real estate.

At present, the latest development coming out of the blockchain and web 3.0 space is digital ownership tokens (DOT), which make broad use of the authenticity and provenance aspects of the blockchain.

“As a company, we are always looking for new products and services we can offer our customers.  One key area of growth we see will be in the regulatory and compliance space.  The management team of Prosynergy has many years of legal and regulatory experience, hence we are definitely very well placed to offer this service with Prosynergy as our partner,” said Raymond Chua, CEO of Marvion.

Bonanza is a Nevada-based holding company engaged as a media distribution business. It provides authentication, valuation and certification, service, sale and purchase and others and the media it chooses include movie and music media. It does this by using both traditional channels, but also through blockchain tech, and specifically through DOTs.

Memorandum of Understanding

Bonanza subsidiary Marvion entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Prosynergy Consulting to develop and offer services required by virtual asset stakeholders, which gives the companies the avenue needed to get into the US$37 billion digital assets industry.

The MOU lays out a number of different services the companies will provide. These involve smart contracts. First, we have smart contact review services for virtual asset products, along with smart contract technological support capabilities. Additionally, there’s advising on enforceability of smart contracts in digital ownership tokens (DOT) and virtual asset projects. Further, the MOU continues, with advise and support virtual for asset stakeholders for their corporate set up, governance and licensing matters, and assistance and advice for corporations per ESG requirements.

In addition to the services listed above, Marvion will take responsibility for reviewing, assessing and providing support on all smart contract and web 3.0 tech related matters. Prosynergy will additionally be responsible for compliance, regulatory and structuring advice.

“We are very excited to be working with Marvion.  We are always looking for good partners to help us extend our business networks and Marvion definitely fits the bill.  With its reach across South East Asia, Europe and the United States, I am confident that we will be able to benefit from Marvion’s connection to open these new markets,” said Louie Lee, founder of Prosynergy.

The digital assets market is projected to read USD$37.24 billion in 2022, according to Statista. Total revenue is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.30 per cent, and hit USD$82.71 billion by 2027.

The future of eCommerce also includes blockchain (and bitcoin)

Even if you factor in Bitcoin’s performance over the past month wherein it rose over 8 per cent, it’s still down 64 per cent for the year. It’s also  down even further when it’s all time high is factored in. But it’s still around and it’s going to be around for a good long while, and the stats bear out that the longer a cryptocurrency is around, the less volatile it gets.

That’s true of Bitcoin as it is of others, like Ethereum. But this technology is still in its infancy. Still, Bitcoin’s price fluctuates based on the pressures imposed by supply and demand, investor and user sentiments, government regulations and media hype.

The coin’s 30-day realized volatility has sharply declined in recent months, according to Noelle Acheson, author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter.

For right now, though, there’s Cash App and the like. Block Incorporated created Cash App as a payment process app. It’s since added support for Bitcoin transactions, allowing users to both send and receive the crypto through the lightning network.

The Lightning Network is a layer-2 network built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The intent is to improve the scalability and allow for instant payments between multiple participants. The lightning network has limited efficacy despite some developments made over the past few years.

An underexplored opportunity

LQWD Fintech (TSXV:LQWD) (OTCQB: LQWDF) is one of the only public companies working with the lightning network, having launched 17 nodes on the network in June, connecting 17 countries.

CashApp has been one of the first mainstream projects to support Bitcoin since 2018.

CashApp users in the United States can use the app.  But not all states can use the app. Citizens of New York State, for example, won’t be able to use the service. Also, nobody outside of the states can use the app yet.

Boost Mobile provides services for the underbanked

Boost Mobile, a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) is a telecommunications company. It’s involved in 5G networks, phones, remittances options and the like. It’s not unheard of for telecommunications companies to expand out into eCommerce and other avenues, but it is uncommon.

Boost Mobile launched OmniMoney by Boost Mobile, which is a value-added service giving mobile access to money transfers, debit cards and no-fee digital checks. Also, the company added in-store deposits to some Boost Mobile stores, and anticipate going nationwide in the next few months.

Users deposit money in their account and get a debit card that works at point of sale and ATM devices. It also eliminates fees an gives discounts on Boost’s wireless service, including free remittances to Mexico of up to $1,000 per month with premium unlimited plans.

OmniMoney by Boost Mobile is available for download in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store

The OmniMoney eCommerce app offers:

  • 24/7 online customer support
  • Instant security with the OmniMoney app to freeze, unfreeze, or cancel your debit card
  • No minimum balances or monthly fees for active users
  • No credit check required
  • Account and card management via the OmniMoney app
  • Access to 400,000+ ATMs in the United States for withdrawals and deposits

 

 

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