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Crypto researchers whipped open source payment processors within a week. This allows buyers to tap on their mobile device’s crypto wallet and pay items without the processing fee typical of terminals such as credit cards and Square.
Tim Robinson, head of Crypto Research at VC Firm Blueyard, shared a video of a device that pays on your phone with the Metamask app.
The terminal he calls Freepay has several different components, such as a screen where you can enter the amounts that the NFC reader and the seller will charge.
“We’re supposed to replace Tradfi rather than joining them,” Robinson said.
Robinson used Freepay to build a companion app for sellers using Android apps for customers, but please note that Freepay only works with Metamask and Coinbase wallets (at least in its current format).
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Over the past few months, from Coinbase to Metamask, Avalanche and Solayer, Crypto Firms has announced their own variety of crypto payment cards using traditional payment processors such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
However, these well-known Tradfi companies have a wide reach, but their fees are not insignificant and can cut back on the company’s revenue or pass high costs to consumers.
For visa credit card fees per transaction, between 1% and 2% and above, AMEX fees are usually higher, ranging from 1.4% to 2.5% or above.
Of course, blockchains come with their own fee set, but ultimately they depend on the chain used. Prices for Ethereum L2 and Solana will be much lower, especially when considering the additional fees added to use a square device, taking into account the credit card fees and 2.6% extra charges.
“I started with L2 support, which is what I know best, because it’s open source so anyone can extend it,” Robinson told me in a DM for Free Pie.
However, the use of crypto in the US comes with some tax rules. This can be prevented from being used as a payment method, as it is more complicated than payments in stable currency.
But hey, if you want to use your code in a way from your wallet to wages directly from your wallet, Free Pay looks like one potential way to make you do just that.