Electra (ECA), an open source blockchain venture using Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol to facilitate digital payments, will start trialing its main software solution in January.
Referred to as “ElectraPay”, the product operates as a financial administration system that will allow vendors embrace a crypto payment mechanism that does not necessitate intermediate service providers, credit card firms or banks to finish trades.
Robert Bakker, co-ordinator and board member of Electra explained that ElectraPay is administration software that enables e-commerce provider to accept ECA, the native cryptocurrency of Electra, through a Woocommerce plugin for WordPress.
Bakker detailed further by saying “ElectraPay is a management solution which allows a merchant to be paid in ECA directly in their ElectraPay account. After receiving payment, merchants can then withdraw to their wallet when ready.”
As per Bakker, the official roll out of ElectraPay will be disclosed after the completion of trial phase.
An official blog post indicated that the Electra team is currently looking for vendors to trial ElectraPay. Bakker stressed that ElectraPay also handles payments of other business divisions such as sales and inventory, among others.
Nevertheless, ElectraPay needs to battle with top crypto payment processors such as BitPay, which is currently linked with 40 e-commerce platforms and point-of-sale systems.
When queried about how ElectraPay is distinct from BitPay, Bakker replied “Bitpay is a wallet, and that is all.”
But BitPay characterizes an organized checkout and inherent invoices for merchant webpages.
“ElectraPay has its own global wallet where payments are merged. Merchants then decide when and how much ECA they want to withdraw (wherever they want, the wallet can be used to hold, exchange or sell). The merchant is able to decide and have full control of what to do with their earnings.”
Electra became a member of the international Electronic Transaction Association (ETA) in March 2019.
Several large vendors across the globe and payment gateways are ETA members. This includes Amazon, PayPal, Apple and Square. As per Bakker, Electra is the first blockchain endeavor to join ETA.
As top retailers such as Nordstrom, Starbucks and Whole Foods start accepting Bitcoin as payment, several online retailers are expected to follow suit.
Nevertheless, with platforms such as BitPay and several more, it is difficult to estimate how many ecommerce firms will install ElectraPay.
To compete with top crypto payment processors, the company intends to implement ElectraPay at Shopify, BigCommerce and other popular e-commerce software.
Even though Electra will function with the assistance of plugins, there are plans to incorporate ElectraPay into point-of-sale (PoS) machines.
“There are some exciting plans about ElectraPay extending to the mobile app payments industry, making this a one stop solution for merchants managing their online crypto payments. The project that offers a crypto-pos solution that is also compatible for ElectraPay is not announced yet. This will happen in due course.”
