Minima and Minipay pilot blockchain-based retail payment system

Led by Michal Borowiecki, Minipay’s payment app uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to make payment experiences more seamless and easy for people accustomed to paying for retail shopping by tapping their phone. Hitherto cryptocurrencies have been better at storing value than transacting in a traditional way, like retail payments; by using Minima’s protocol, Minipay will put the customer experience at the forefront of payments.

Michal Borowiecki said: “It’s an enormous privilege to be a winner of the Minima Innovation Challenge. This success will enable me to devote more time to developing on Minima and bring not just one, but several early minidapp ideas to reality and grow my contribution to the Minima community. What really excites and interests me about Minima is the focus on decentralization, which is the thing that matters most for blockchain technology, alongside the small footprint and scalability that it brings.”

Michal continued; “In principle Minipay could be implemented over any blockchain that supports L2 payment channels. Minima having L2 and p2p communication (Maxima) built-in from the start and being light enough to run entirely on the mobile phone makes developing and delivering a holistic seamless solution so much easier.”

The Minipay app will make the payment experience as easy and familiar as possible. This will be done by offering the standard on-chain transactions with payments requested, by presenting a QR code for the payer to scan or by emitting the request (address, amount, tokenid) over NFC technology for the payer to scan contactlessly – creating and transacting over and settling off-chain payment channels. Once a payment channel is established, payments can be made instantly and transactions can be made contactlessly even in the temporary absence of an internet connection.

Cryptocurrencies are currently used predominantly as a store of value and methods for market speculation, but their usage as an everyday payment mechanism has hitherto been limited. If a cryptocurrency, such as the Minima token, becomes an everyday medium of exchange, this will increase its security and price stability and enable more adoption among people and businesses who favour decentralization.

Minima’s Head of Partnerships, Adam Feiler, said: “Working with Minipay has proven how versatile Minima protocol is, and how it can have a huge impact in the financial sector. By using our decentralized blockchain, Minipay will disrupt the payment industry and be a strong innovator in bringing about greater global financial inclusion.”