Hundreds Deloitte employees lined up to buy coffee and cupcakes. Deloitte team’s payments were facilitated via a contactless payment card connected to a blockchain-based system. Created and developed by UK blockchain startup SETL, the trial showcased how blockchain technology could come to be integrated into the retail shopping experience – without altering the payment habits of consumers.
For the trial, customer funds were deposited in a Metro Bank client account, issued to individual accounts on the SETL blockchain and tied to user identities created and verified on Deloitte’s own blockchain ID system, formally unveiled earlier this month.
Payments were instantly processed, and the customer and merchant balances updated in real time, features that Anthony Culligan (founder and product CEO of SETL) said could bring benefits to bank and merchant customers if widely deployed.
One of the first mainstream examples of the use of blockchain in a retail payment card transaction, the trial could be viewed as taking an alternative route to providing many of the benefits digital currencies may have provided if widely adopted by merchants.
Expected to go into production by 2018, the system was created for UK retail bank Metro Bank and took place under the FCA’s ‘regulatory sandbox’.
Aimed at encouraging the wider use of financial technology, the scheme allows FinTech companies to test new products and services in a live environment, but under regulator supervision.
