Blockchain to create winners and losers
Ordering a pizza is a fairly mundane transaction for many Australians. But when Laszlo Hanyecz convinced a Florida man to deliver two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins in 2010, he made history for the first real-world bitcoin transaction. Today, cryptocurrencies can be used to purchase everything from clothing, technology and homewares to travel, artwork and fine dining. What is most interesting about bitcoin though, is the blockchain technology on which it is based — a revolutionary platform which is spawning applications across a broad array of industry sectors and functions. Just a few examples include smart contracts, neighbourhood microgrids for buying and selling energy, the protection of intellectual property, anti-money laundering […]
Peppermint’s Mobile Bill Payments platform commences under its agreement with Metro Gas
Peppermint Innovation Ltd is pleased to announce pilot testing of its agent mobile bill payments technology has commenced under its agreement with Metro Gas Sales Inc. (Metro Gas). Metro Gas delivers Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) to over 60,000 Filipino households, via an established network of 50 delivery personnel, who on average make 15-20 deliveries a day, 7 days a week. The pilot will test Peppermint’s purpose built mobile agent payments platform, with Metro Gas delivery personnel using the Peppermint powered Metro Gas Agent App to offer customers the ability to pay household bills at the time a delivery of LPG is made. The offering will provide customers’ with front door […]
zipMoney and Shopify announce strategic partnership
zipMoney Limited is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Shopify, one of the world’s leading and most recognised ecommerce platforms with over 377,500 businesses globally. Zip has a strong focus on Australian Small Business, where there are 2.5 million businesses seeking to sell goods and services both online and instore. With a simple setup and subscription-based model, Shopify has strongly supported the transition of this community to the digital world. The partnership will further accelerate the growth of Zip’s digital wallet solution, zipPay, online and instore. Zip already process payments for hundreds of Shopify merchants and this strategic partnership will help to accelerate the acceptance of Zip at the […]
Australia to be a cashless society by 2022
Cash is predicted to make up only 2% of all payments within the next five years. If you still pay for your morning coffee with a crisp $5 note, you’re a rare breed and clearly missed the “cash is no longer king” memo. New research shows that the number of cash payments received by Australian merchants has plummeted by 46% between 2010 and 2016 alone and currently makes up less than 10% of all payments. According to the research by market analyst East & Partners, if this trend continues, cash payments across Australian businesses are predicted to fall below 5% by 2019 and below 2% by 2022, creating a virtually […]
You can email your bills to this fintech and it will pay them – after checking they’re not scams
A Melbourne fintech startup has commercially launched its new service today, where customers can send their utility bills for the system to automatically make the payments after intelligently sorting out scammers. Gobbill, founded in 2015 by Shendon Ewans and Quentin Marsh, has developed the service after receiving financial support from Microsoft’s BizSpark startup programme and partnering with the federal government’s Stay Smart Online campaign. “We decided to create Gobbill because we were finding it increasingly time-consuming to manage bill payments. We decided there had to be a better way to manage bills and still be in control of our payments,” said Ewans. After registration, the user just needs to email […]
Proptech meets fintech: Construction software platform Aconex eyes payments
Aconex is planning to expand into financial services by using operational data about subcontractors and their projects to help lenders price credit to them. The business that sells construction software to let companies exchange project information and track progress was looking to develop a payments function on the back of its newly launched Connected Cost product, executive director and head of product and engineering Rob Phillpot said. Aconex saw an opportunity to ease the cashflow pain felt by subcontractors, who often had to wait for payments from higher-level contractors even though they had already paid their own costs, Mr Phillpot said. While some subcontractors, particularly larger ones, factor their invoices […]
Australian cashless future finding favour
Powering the payments process will be fintechs such as Australian start-up Assembly Payments, which provides a single payment platform that is compatible with various disbursement channels, with clients so far including Gumtree, Airtasker and carsales.com.au. Online innovations such as Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa are already enabling customers to shop via voice-activated transactions, while messenger apps and social media heavyweights such as Facebook are making forays into the banking and payments space. World of opportunity Fintech digital payments are forecast to be worth $1.8 billion by 2020 in Australia alone, and are proving to be a major disruptor of the banking sector. With increased convenience, flexibility and low-to-zero fees, could traditional […]
Digital wallet progress in Australia is slow but on the rise
The technology is ready. Banks know how to use it. Consumers want it now. So just when will we get the digital wallets we’ve been promised? What seems like a straightforward question with an equally straightforward solution has become mired in politics, as tech companies and banks disagree on the right way to deliver convenient mobile payment experiences and Australia’s competition watchdog and courts are forced to step in to mediate. But there have been small breakthroughs lately in what experts say is a sign that digital services will replace dog-eared wallets and overstuffed purses within years rather than decades. While Google Android phones were first to add secure Near […]
