The number of individuals using cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services via mobile computing applications might soon be increasing as simultaneously the cost of making these transactions decline and the speed at which they are made improves.
Numio, a provider of a mobile application that enables individuals to access the Ethereum exchange for transferring cryptocurrency, will soon add support for Layer 2 cryptocurrency protocol. When added to a blockchain platform, the protocol increases throughput without impacting the immutable nature of a transaction.
Support for an instance of Layer 2 cryptocurrency protocol will provide the foundation for everything from being able to pool transactions to making it possible to buy things at a store using the Numio mobile application, says Numio CTO Tim Allard. The protocol being employed by Numio was developed by zkSync to enable transactions made using the Ethereum blockchain platform to occur in near real time and are 100 times less expensive than they are today, notes Allard.
Also read: Potential Use Cases of Blockchain Technology for Cybersecurity
Cutting Out the Middleman
The Ethereum blockchain has been gaining traction as a network for making payments using a decentralized finance (DeFi) model. However, the platform suffers from slow transaction speeds and fees that are too high to make using it for everyday e-commerce or in-person transactions made at a retail outlet feasible. Because Ethereum transactions are decentralized, there’s also no way any entity, including Numio itself, could access, freeze or withhold a cryptocurrency as there is when, for example, the Zello mobile application is employed to transfer funds between bank accounts. “There’s no one in the middle,” says Allard.
Fresh off raising $1.2 million in seed funding, the Numio mobile application is available on both Apple iOS and Google Android devices. It allows users to make payments using a biometric form of two-factor authentication that enables users to prove their identity to a third-party platform without having to send additional identity documents.
Crypto Controversies
Cryptocurrencies themselves are the subject of heated debate spanning everything from whether they are actual legal tender to whether they encourage illicit activity when they are employed to, for example, make a ransomware payment. Advocates for cryptocurrencies contend the platform being used to make those payments are being turned into a scapegoat for issues that authorities are not able to contain without or without a digital payment system.
As for the legality of cryptocurrencies, valuation is determined by individuals having faith in a finite number of digital coins, which is community determined. The issue that governments have is those individuals are not physically limited to conducting transactions within the bounds of a border they control.
There are already many retailers that accept digital currencies as a form of payment. There are even automated teller machines (ATMs) that enable individuals to acquire Bitcoins that are then stored in a digital wallet. The digital horse is out of the proverbial barn and there’s no going back. The issue now is what is the sensible way forward that also provides the most maximum benefit to all.
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