In a recent announcement, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, said that it has launched its own payment technology company – Bifinity.
Bifinity, the new payments firm from Binance, in association with Checkout.com, will enable users to utilize a fiat currency on and off ramp, thereby enabling them to use digital currency for retail purchases.
In a statement, the company said that it hoped the technology will enable businesses to use crypto and reach out to a wider audience with a simple fiat to crypto transaction process.
Bifinity has promised that it will offer intuitive merchant APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), as well as low payment processing fees. It will also offer a user-friendly front-end entry point for buying and selling of crypto assets. In the statement, it also said that the company will work with other exchanges, including Singaporean firm Eqonex, a digital financial services company.
President of Bifinity, Helen Hai, said in a statement that the company hopes to accelerate mass adoption of crypto. She also said that the company has witnessed greater demand for fiat to crypto on-ramps, in an effort to close the divide between the existing finance industry, and the centralized and decentralized crypto economy.
The announcement marked the formal launch of Bifinity which has been out of the news since last November, during which time it was providing services to Binance.
Bifinity to offer a wide range of services beyond payment processing
A spokesman for the company states that a partnership between Bifinity and Paysafe will provide a deep understanding of fiat-to-crypto payments, as also a white label digital wallet from an embedded finance solution.
The company also said that it intends to use the partnership to improve fraud detection, which currently is an issue that cryptocurrency will need to address to become a mainstream payment mechanism.
Currently, blockchain payments are unchangeable and irreversible without passing the transaction through a trusted third source. This was the exact problem that Bitcoin wanted to eliminate when it was first launched.
The company announced that it also plans to expand beyond the European base of checkout.com. It intends to use Paysafe’s card processing and bank transfer capabilities there, with a plan of expanding to LatAm using its real-time payment service in the next few months.
Max Rothman, VP-crypto at checkout.com said that the company expects traditional commerce to be outpaced by e-commerce, especially with the trend that cryptocurrencies are showing.
Currently, Bifinity supports over fifty cryptocurrencies, and with the checkout.com partnership, will accept Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express, Diners Club, Maestro and JCB. Bifinity also supports Apple Pay, Google Pay and Visa Checkout.
Not just payments
Bifinity’s vision is to increase the freedom of money on a global scale, said a company spokesperson. In line with this, Binance has a much broader vision for Bifinity, which extends beyond payment processing, even beyond making cryptocurrencies the norm.
The company positioned the launch of Bifinity as just a part of a much broader push into Web 3.0. The company stated that its goal was to break the control current technology giants have over the Internet and information economy, and also to prioritize privacy and control of personal information.
Rothman echoed this, while mentioning that the company aims to lower the barrier for merchant entry into cryptocurrency transactions, thereby facilitating their entry into the Web 3.0 opportunity that lay ahead.
