Grab, StraitsX pilot use of earmarked money during SG fintech festival | AsiaTechDaily

by James · October 31, 2022

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StraitsXpart of the Southeast Asia Digital Financial Services Group, Fazz and Graba leading superapp in Southeast Asia, will test the issuance of Purpose Bound Money (PBM) in the form of commercial digital vouchers during the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) 2022.

During SFF, 5,000 selected trial participants will be able to use PBM in the form of digital coupons through their preferred blockchain e-wallet application. T

hi can use the vouchers sponsored by Temasek to make purchases at selected F&B outlets at SFF 2022, in addition to participating Grab’s merchant partners such as Ishiro at the Expo and Flash Coffee, Han’s, Hotpot by Seoul Garden and LiHo at Changi City Punkt.

GrabPay, Grab’s payment service, is working with StraitsX and digital currency payment gateway TripleA to support the last mile settlement of PBMs. This is done by accepting StraitsX’s XSGD on the Polygon chain, and reflecting the Singapore dollar-pegged stablecoin as SGD in the participating merchants’ GrabPay accounts.

GrabPay will also be the main payment processor for the PBM pilot at SFF this year – it will pay out participating merchants in SGD on demand, removing any need for merchants to invest in end-of-day reconciliation between two accounting systems.

“We see this as transformative for the development of the digital asset space, as PBMs can form a new foundational infrastructure for payments, ensuring secure transactions, ease of use and seamless integration. Building on the work StraitsX has done with the Singapore dollar stablecoin, XSGD, the issuance of PBMs further how blockchain technology and stablecoins can be used in real-world scenarios,” said Liu Tianwei, Deputy CEO of Fazz.

PBM is being explored as part of Project Orchid, building on the concept and possibilities of both programmable payment and programmable money.

This pilot project will delve into the enablement of PBM for widespread distribution of money for commercial purposes, and its interoperability with e-wallets, payment systems and rails and blockchains, allowing consumers to purchase goods and services through their preferred platform with PBM tokens.

PBM will enable individuals and organizations to embed logic-based relationships in the form of smart contracts that are automatically verified when submitted for transfers. At the same time, payments can be made more efficient, as the PBM token will unpack and release the underlying digital currency, transferring it to a merchant’s digital wallet in real time.

The digital currency can then be used by the recipient immediately for other payments. In this pilot, the digital currency will be reflected as SGD and paid out to the participating merchants in SGD.

Apart from StraitsX, Grab and Temasek, other supporting partners include: ADDX, AltLayer, Automata, Coinbase Wallet, Digital Treasures Center (DTC), Fomopay, Sequence, TripleA, Trust Wallet and VISA.

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