Making payments internationally has never been easy, and while advances have been made to better the process, nothing seems to be that clear of a solution. Until now. Blockchain has seemingly been the solution to quicker and more efficient transactions overseas, and has recently picked up its biggest supporter to date, IBM.
IBM and a blockchain startup Stellar have teamed up with the goal to make international payments easier for all parties. Their end goal is to “reduce the settlement time and lower the cost of completing global payments for businesses and consumers.” The current method takes far too long and can be extremely difficult to navigate, and with the partnership of these two corporations hopefully things can come together more smoothly. TechCrunch gave readers an example of a real life scenario using IBM’s system:
IBM said its service could be used to connect a farmer in Samoa with a buyer based in Indonesia, while covering more than just the payment itself. ’The blockchain would be used to record the terms of the contract, manage trade documentation, allow the farmer to put up collateral, obtain letters of credit, and finalize transaction terms with immediate payment, conducting global trade with transparency and relative ease…
Companies looking to make advances like this can create outstanding opportunities for the growth of small businesses. Cost and time can be a big factor in decision making and have hindered the overseas expansion of smaller businesses. IBM has clearly seen this and that is why the computing company has teamed up to try to make things smoother and easier on all parties looking to do business internationally.
Obviously there will be a lot of trial and error before anything permenant can happen, but there are over a dozen banks in the initial group with expansion in the near future, proving that IBM is on the right path.
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