Is Blockchain the future of real-time B2B payments?

A digital transformation is sweeping the B2B payments ecosystem.

PYMNTS recently sat down with Gary A. Vecchiarelli, CPA, CFO of CleanSpark, to talk about the evolution of business-to-business (B2B) in gaming, and how he sees B2B crypto as payments representing the spearhead of industry innovation.

“It’s an extra step when you pay with crypto,” says Vecchiarelli, “but the benefits outweigh it.”

Near-instant or real-time payments (RTP) across the blockchain cost businesses less to process than transferring funds, as well as taking significantly less time than waiting for ACH payments to come through.

“The transit is without a doubt better than the current banking system,” Vecchiarelli tells PYMNTS. “I push a button and get the crypto, get the confirmation, it’s as simple as that.”

Need for greater utilization

B2B technology has evolved rapidly in recent years, but a business is only as effective as the supplier network and technology stack of its partners. As a result, many organizations that invest in their processes and systems sometimes find themselves with the same old problems.

Headaches on either side of a B2B transaction are generally due to asymmetries between the preferred payment methods as well as operational friction around the integration of these receivables.

Vecchiarelli sees tools being developed to offer different payment methods across all-in-one dashboards as a natural evolution. “It will be – and already is – most efficient for a company to be able to go to one dashboard and pay multiple bills using one or more methods. I am very excited to see what solutions will come in the next year or two. I see tools being developed that will be able to offer different payment methods that will involve crypto. Absolutely.”

The flexibility to use preferred payments, on both sides of the transaction, is a fundamental value proposition of all-in-one platforms.

Vecchiarelli tells PYMNTS that he sees the biggest obstacle to using crypto for B2B payments is that the use of digital assets across the business landscape, as it stands now, is pretty shallow.

Given the turmoil sending shockwaves through the crypto industry following the collapse of FTX, it makes sense that CFOs might seem leery of trusting using the alternative asset class for something as important as their organization’s payment processes.

“I think with recent events there might be a bit more of a ‘monkey-see, monkey-do’ situation around [the adoption of crypto payments], says Vecchiarelli. “People are going to wait for someone else to do it first.”

Establishing trust

There are risks around crypto that need to be addressed for it to trickle down from the vanguard to, well, let’s say the cavalry.

“My personal opinion is that there is a big parallel between these 20,000 crypto coins and the dot-com era,” Vecchiarelli tells PYMNTS. “At the end of the day, it’s a competition as to which coins will survive. There isn’t wide enough trust in many of them, especially if they’re not decentralized. Unless all 20,000 can make a case for their use, we’re probably just watching bitcoin and ethereum that, from a business and operational, even fiduciary point of view, make sense.”

Most Main Street businesses operate in default risk environments, supported by know-your-customer processes and long-standing controls. Crypto has none of that.

“The industry is not regulated yet,” says Vecchiarelli. “As a CFO, we go this way either to have very robust controls and risk assessments or to try to operate quickly – you have to find the productive balance between compliance requirements and business needs.”

B2B blockchain transactions, at least those using decentralized cryptocurrencies, add transparency and accountability to the payment process, he adds. Saying: “Even with the auditors, they can also go and verify transactions independently. As blockchain and the technologies built on it become more common and used, our internal controls, policies and procedures will need to evolve to take advantage of these improvements and improve the quality and strength of our business operations and business.”

It’s an exciting time for CFOs as operational processes are increasingly consolidated into practical dashboards. A new era of payments-focused technology is building, both on and off the blockchain, and there are a number of opportunities for leaders to take advantage of as they look to grow, evolve and ultimately transform their businesses.

How consumers pay online with stored credentials
Convenience prompts some consumers to store their payment information with merchants, while security concerns give other customers pause. For “How We Pay Digitally: Stored Credentials Edition,” a collaboration with Amazon Web Services, PYMNTS surveyed 2,102 U.S. consumers to analyze the consumer dilemma and reveal how merchants can win over holdouts.