Currently, most of the existing electronic payment systems are in the control monopoly of centralized industry giants, and this status quo has led to many problems, such as complex and ambiguous payment rules, excessive discretionary power of platforms, inefficient dispute management, and high fees.

In addition, the traditional electronic payment ecosystem involves too many intermediate steps, which also makes cross-border transactions too costly and inefficient; besides, security and privacy issues are also very urgent.

For project developers, the cumbersome reconciliation, settlement and clearing processes also make the flow cycle of funds further increase.

All of the above shows that the centralized organization that holds the power actually does not pay attention to the user experience, payment product innovation, merchant and user interests and other such user concerns. And over time, this will undoubtedly make the development of the payment industry stagnant. Therefore, the current payment industry is in urgent need of a new force to replace the traditional model, and blockchain is undoubtedly a quite suitable choice.

As we all know, blockchain is decentralized, de-trusted, open and transparent, consensus-based, traceable, and tamper-evident, which can bring great innovation opportunities for the change of the payment industry and allow merchants, consumers, and relevant participants in the payment industry to enjoy the benefits of open, fair, low-cost, and unrestricted trade.

Today we will introduce Alchemy Pay, a payment gateway dedicated to seamlessly connecting cryptocurrencies and global fiat currencies for businesses, developers and users.

Alchemy Pay: a rising star in the payments industry

Founded in Singapore in 2018, Alchemy Pay is a payment gateway that seamlessly connects cryptocurrencies and global fiat currencies for businesses, developers, and users. It is dedicated to providing convenient fiat and cryptocurrency acceptance services for online and offline merchants and enabling mainstream users to conveniently access cryptocurrency services and platforms.

The Alchemy Pay Ramp solution integrates with platforms and dApps via plugins or APIs to provide an easy transition from fiat to cryptocurrency. Currently, Alchemy Pay supports payment cards in 173 countries with over 300 payment channels, it has offline capabilities to remit over 50 local fiat currencies to users, and has access to over 2 million merchants through partnerships with organizations such as Binance, Shopify, NIUM and QFPay.

On the team side, Alchemy Pay's core team members have more than 10 years of experience in the payments industry and have an in-depth understanding of the market needs, pain points and trends in the payments industry.

In terms of technology, Alchemy Pay consensus protocol can be deployed on various public chains, such as Bitcoin, Ether, Stellar, EOS, Vite, etc., while integrating Layer 2 payment solutions including Lightning Network, Thunderbolt Network and Stateful Channel Network.

At the same time, Alchemy also pioneered the payment industry PULLPAY protocol, i.e., it supports blockchain to reauthorize both PULLPAY and Lightning Network PULLPAY payment methods to meet the needs of multiple scenarios for online and offline subscriptions.

As for the economic model, ACH Token is an ERC-20 incentive utility token issued by Alchemy on the Ether blockchain. It is an integral part of the Alchemy Pay network. It is used for transaction fees, network usage rewards, and to reduce transaction costs. Also, ACH tokens are pledged, rewarded and paid as fees to drive and incentivize all functions of the ecosystem.

Products and Main Businesses

Currently, Alchemy Pay provides real-world cryptocurrency acceptance for businesses and mainstream-friendly access to cryptocurrency and Web3 services for users. It is building bridges between the cryptocurrency and fiat worlds to drive cryptocurrency adoption.Alchemy Pay currently offers the following main products:

1. Cryptocurrency Ramps

The Ramps service enables users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through preferred legal payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, popular regional mobile wallets and domestic transfers.Ramps also provides users with the ability to sell cryptocurrencies and send funds to bank accounts in over 50 legal currencies.

2. NFT Checkout

Alchemy Pay NFT Checkout is designed for brands, creators and marketplaces that want to make NFT easily accessible to their users. This mainstream-friendly solution enables users to purchase NFT using credit cards, debit cards and local payment methods just like any other e-commerce transaction.

3. Cryptocurrency Payments

Alchemy is an all-in-one payment system that enables businesses to accept fiat and cryptocurrency payments and perform local fiat settlement. By using Alchemy's cryptocurrency acceptance payment system, businesses and e-merchants can enter the cryptocurrency market at low cost.

Core Business Systems

Alchemy's core business systems include the account system and payment business system.

1、Account System

Alchemy's account system mainly includes standard account, merchant account, enterprise account and smart contract account.

1）Standard Account

Standard accounts can be divided into cryptocurrency accounts, credit accounts, points accounts, coupon accounts and other cryptocurrency asset accounts according to asset types (subjects). They are mainly used to meet the daily use needs of ordinary users.

2) Merchant accounts

Merchant accounts are divided into: merchant-issued points accounts, merchant-issued coupon accounts, credit accounts, cryptocurrency accounts, and member accounts. It is mainly used for users who run online/offline services.

3）Corporate accounts

Corporate accounts are accounts mainly used for corporate users, which support multi-level account systems to meet the needs of corporate multi-level management systems. Enterprise account types are divided into corporate credit account, cryptocurrency account and corporate asset securitization account.

4）Smart contract account

Smart contract accounts are divided into credit contracts, escrow contracts, decentralized dispute processing contracts, credit rating contracts, decentralized trading contracts, cross-chain trading smart contracts, merchant bond contracts, clearing contracts, settlement contracts, security fund contracts, network access/exit contracts, etc. It supports complex transactions and community governance, including decentralized dispute resolution, credit rating, decentralized exchanges, cross-chain transactions, clearing and settlement, etc.

The same user can have multiple types of accounts, for example, a business can have a standard account, a corporate account, a merchant account, and a smart contract account to meet the needs of different business scenarios.

2、Payment business system

Alchemy's payment service supports PUSHPAY mode of active payment and PULLPAY mode of pre-deduction.

1）PUSHPAY mode

The payer initiates the payment request and authorizes the payment through the private key it holds. It is similar to the online payment method of online banking.

2）PULLPAY mode

The payer pre-authorizes the payee to automatically debit the designated account, and the payee initiates the debit request at the subsequent payment without the need for the payer to re-authorize the private key. It is similar to the current pay-as-you-go (pre-debit) model.

Based on these two models, Alchemy payment business system provides a rich set of payment types, including

A. Cryptocurrency payments

B. Credit payments

C. Points payment

D. Combination payments

E. Guaranteed payment

F. Targeted Payments

G. Subscription fee (withholding)

H. Bulk collection/payment

I. Split Check

J. Transfers

K. Cross-border payments

Conclusion

The traditional payment system has come to a bit of a standstill. As the lifeblood of people's assets, it is difficult to expect institutions to move away from their dominant position to iterate and innovate on their own, so there is actually an urgent need for transformation in the payments industry.

Thus, the need to transform payments through Web3 technology is urgent. Alchemy Pay, which we are introducing today, has its own solution to this problem, and I think we can wait and see how it develops.