A French money transfer company has turned to blockchain technology to increase efficiency and cut down costs.
As the world continued to progress, so too does technology. From civilization’s first wheel to the latest mobile phone, when humans have a need or a want, technology evolves to satisfy it.
Nearly 10 years ago, blockchain technology was created. However, it has only recently been acknowledged as having the potential to truly revolutionize, and satisfy the needs of, a range of industries, including the finance sector.
Blockchain Finds a Home at Tempo
According to reports, Tempo is one such company that is actively exploring and incorporating blockchain technology into their business. The French money transfer service has partnered with Stellar to provide an improved customer experience through distributed ledger technology.
Tempo’s director, Anthony Barker, said:
[Tempo’s] original focus was remittance and international payments, and it’s since sort of switched to small value payments. The stuff that banks don’t handle well.
He explained some of the challenges that consumers can experience when transferring money:
These non-bank companies [like Western Union] are not small. Unlike the banks, we typically have to have our money sitting in the country when we want to do a payment. So, when you go to someone like a Western Union, they’ll have some money sitting in the other country and they’ll do a payout from their account in that country to make it faster. So, you have this problem of using money using the SWIFT settlement system, and it’s really expensive, cumbersome, and slow.
A Match Made in Decentralized Heaven
This was the main reason cited for turning to blockchain technology. He then touched on the problems facing banks when it comes to smaller payment transfers less than $10,000:
It’s really expensive, it’s a nightmare [with correspondent banks]; money gets locked up and there’s no idea where it is or where it’s been blocked.
Barker briefly mentioned his positive feelings on towards open-source protocol, like Stellar:
I have a strong belief that open systems win in the long run.
Another reason for the collaboration was that due to French law, Tempo was only allowed to partner with a licensed company, which is what they found in Stellar. Barker concluded then that “Stellar was sort of a natural fit for us.”
Blockchain’s characteristics such as immutability and efficiency allow it to be integrated not only into the financial industry but into a whole host of other sectors as well. While it is by no means a blanket solution to every single business out there, it could be the answer to providing more streamlined services and happier customers.
Do you think that the blockchain boom is only beginning? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock