Request Network
In this series I highlight various blockchain projects and analyze their use case, briefly look at their team, and examine how they compete with traditional companies. I am not going to investigate coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as there are many overviews out there that do an incredible job of explaining their platforms. The first project I am going to discuss is Request Network .
In traditional markets, person-to-person payment gateways are big business. Request Network (REQ) uses blockchain to provide the same service. Their use case is listed right in their name; their platform has been established for users to request money from an external source. This transaction can be between friends, landlords, retail stores, or corporations. You may be thinking that this isn’t anything new; however, by using blockchain technology, REQ can implement a continuous trickle of funds to users for a fraction of the costs of traditional companies.
Trickle payments on invoices
While this isn’t a term the company officially endorses, I find it is the best way to describe their developing system. Let’s look at a few different examples of this in action.
If you have just rented an apartment, your landlord will send you a request for your monthly rent ($1500). Instead of providing them a cheque for $1500 at the beginning of the month, the smart contract implemented through REQ would withdraw small amounts depending on your chosen increment over the course of the month and send it instantly to your landlord. You will eventually be able to set up the terms of the transaction so that it is withdrawn every day, hour, or minute. You could budget your monthly future expenses based on exactly how much money you have in your account.
This method of payment is ideal for contract workers, as it provides continual payment based on work completed. Contract workers can sleep a little bit better at night because they are able to access funds already earned and are not worried about any missed payments at the end of a project. Companies benefit because it saves them the worry of sending out payment retainers on work that may not be completed, and allows for capital to remain in the company instead of being locked up for longer periods.
Currently, you can only send out invoices through REQ; they have not reached the point in their roadmap of full functionality.
E-commerce
One of the barriers to blockchain adoption has been the ability to spend cryptocurrency freely through retail and online stores. REQ has created a gateway that allows web-based stores to accept payments using their native REQ token and Ethereum. The plug-ins allow integration with e-commerce giants such as Woo-commerce and Shopify.
Project updates and roadmap
In the cryptosphere new projects will often hit the ground running with frequent progress updates, but these eventually dwindle down to one a quarter or none at all. Here is where REQ has really separated themselves from the competition. They provide investors and enthusiasts with project updates on a weekly or biweekly basis. These little check-ins add significant value to their project because they are very transparent in their workflow, challenges, and achievements. They post all of their updates to their blog .
Their roadmap is displayed on their website in a Kanban layout, featuring current protocol and app development projects, followed by future tasks and then completed items. This dynamic roadmap is nice as it shows their product backlog in an organized fashion that is easy to read.
Benefits of blockchain
How does REQ compare to traditional payment companies like Paypal or Square? Paypal and Square are relatively simple to use; you sign up with your email, username, and password. Banking verification follows, where they deposit a few cents in the linked bank account and you verify the values. From here you are ready to link your credit card, give and accept payments, and issue invoices.
REQ is even simpler. You simply use a MetaMask plug-in to access your wallet, input the amount of cryptocurrency (11 different types) you would like to receive, and the payer’s Ethereum address. You can be sending and receiving payments in minutes instead of days.
Next, there is a large difference in the amount of fees involved in each of these services. Square takes around 2.64% for major credit card purchases and 2.9% +30 cents for online invoicing. Paypal takes 2.9% for similar transactions, but is free if you’re sending money to a family member or friend (as long as the funds are in your Paypal or linked bank account and not from a credit card). REQ charges a small fee of 0.05%–0.2% plus network fees. This makes them quite a bit cheaper to use for general invoicing and purchasing versus traditional methods.
Finally, blockchain gives three big advantages over traditional markets. First is that it gives users a bit of an identity shield. Traditional payment companies require you to fill out all of your personal information and sign up for an account and their email list; this is not required by REQ at this time. Next, with the increase in buyers opening up fraudulent charge-backs on online selling platforms, blockchain adds a level of seller protection because transactions are not reversible. Finally, using REQ transactions for accounting purposes simplifies bookkeeping because all of the transactions are saved in the distributed ledger of the network. As long as the transaction number is known, the inflow and outflow of money can be easily recorded.
Final thoughts
Request Network has been continually and consistently developing and releasing items. While they have struggled to grab the attention of investors, they continue to produce a working product that follows their goals as laid out to the public. Their continued progress combined with transparency puts this company ahead of many other who over-promise and under-deliver. I am looking forward to seeing how their company progresses and eventually competes with mega-corporations like Paypal.
