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Introducing Sagecity IPS

SageCity’s Internal Payments System (IPS) is a financial infrastructure tool for enterprise. It allows for immutable tracking and management of a user’s assets and data but primarily focuses on financial balances.

The main benefit of this innovation is that by using sidechain technology on the SageCity network, enterprises can accurately distinguish users and their financial resources in a secure and low-cost manner. IPS works in conjunction with payment processors by tracking payments received into a user’s account and assigning them representative tokens for that payment.

With it, enterprises can:

  • Limit the involvement of payment processors;
  • Gather real-time analytics; and
  • Have a sidechain foundation that can be used to handle further processes in the future.

 

The Cryptocurrency Token

A token is deployed on the sidechain network and the tokens are held by the platform operator, ready for use. Tokens are divisible and can have their own value. Or, they be used to accurately represent a fiat currency, for example: £1 = 1 Token or £0.59 = 0.59 Token. Value can be enforced by the token operator as, in order for them to be circulating, they must have been paid for by a user. This allows an enterprise to maintain its own internal stablecoin. There are also opportunities to monetise elements of this solution for the enterprise.

 

Focusing on a Positive User Experience

On the intended platform, a user would proceed to the payment portal as expected. The user would input their card details, confirm, and approve the charge. That money is then facilitated by the payment processor and transferred from the user to the enterprise’s bank account. Once the transaction is successful, the platform operator issues a fiat equivalent in the token. This then sent to the user’s unique account and can then be used on the platform in their desired way.

When a user spends or sends those tokens, they choose their destination and hit a “Buy” or “Send” button. Once confirmation is received, tokens are sent to the desired destination.

In platforms in which redemption or “cashing out” happens, the tokens are sent to the platform operator and the equivalent in fiat is then sent from the enterprise bank account to the destination as requested by the user. The payment processor carries out this last step.

We believe that the blockchain revolution should be almost silent. Users should seamlessly carry out their usual activity and behaviours. They don’t need to know that they have adopted a form of cryptocurrency. Our goal with IPS was to make sure that the product doesn’t negatively impact the experience.

IPS has revenue benefits as an enterprise can allow users to have a “balance”. It can then introduce simple practices to get users to commit more in spending to the platform. Setting up a minimum deposit amount is an example of this.

 

What’s in It for Enterprise?

1. Operating Costs Reduction

SageCity’s IPS mechanism reduces the involvement that payment processors have over the handling of money. With one of our pilot companies, we calculated that we saved them around 80% in transaction fees.

2. Real-Time Analytics

By using a cryptocurrency token on a blockchain you automatically gain a standardised way to track and monitor all data circulating on the network. You can track user balances, exactly when, how much and to whom they are sending transactions. As a result, you can view and collate real-time reports.

3. Accurate and Secure Recordkeeping

Blockchain technology is immutable as all data is verified and encrypted when it gets added to a block. Sidechains also have an added layer of “backing up” with the main SageCity network. This means that it is near impossible for someone to manipulate balances or information and it eliminates key person risk.

4. No Downtime

As long as you have at least one node on the sidechain, the network will run 24/7/365 with little to no latency issues.

5. Scalable and Adaptable Infrastructure

While the IPS and SageCity blockchain technology is being used to manage financial balances, a blockchain can store any type of data. This means that we have extremely adaptable infrastructure. In the future, it can be used to handle extra functions and features.

 

Implementation

By the time this product is available to the public, a user will be able to input some custom information such as token name and Stripe API key. Then, the sidechain and token will be deployed. The user is given a program to run alongside the SageCity Wallet, some instructions, and code to insert into a few elements on their platform. The setup is incredibly straightforward.

To cover maintenance, the enterprise can purchase a small amount of SAGE from our company to pay monthly network fees.

 

Our Goal with the IPS

Over the last 3 months we’ve seen a clear demand for this type of system. This demand came mostly from innovative startups and SME’s. These have led us to design the product and roll out a small pilot program with 3 local Edinburgh companies.

We’re working closely with them to understand their needs and make sure our system is as accessible and beneficial as possible. So that when we release the solution globally on our SAGE store, the product can handle all kinds of usages.

We also see a natural progression of this system into the gaming industry. In 2017, $22 billion was generated in gaming micro-transactions. This is a figure that was no doubt hampered by payment processors and financial middlemen. We believe that indie game developers in particular will find this beneficial. IPS provides a way to reduce these fees by providing a framework to track and assign balances to users. That being said, IPS is an industry agnostic system and we would be happy to explore adaptations to suit other industries.

 

Interested in knowing more or want to explore using IPS within your enterprise? Drop the Sagecity team an email team@sagecity.ioto know more.

Greetings from a new Scottish fintech

Blog by Adam Greenberg, founder of SageCity

Welcome to our first blog post and a big thank you to Fintech Scotland for inviting us into the community. We are an early stage business and have been really touched by the warm welcome we have received from everyone in the community when we attended the fintech fusion event on Thursday.

One of the most explosive growths in the fintech sector in recent years has been the emergence of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Our team have gravitated around the industry since 2013 and we’ve seen the technology evolve from initial Proof of work systems to smart contracting all the way through to DAG technology and mimble-wimble protocol (We didn’t make that last one up).

Blockchain technology is often heralded as the beginning of a new technological era and it has now reached a point where the stage is set for some good old-fashioned adoption. At SageCity, our focus is on bridging the gap between the technology and those who could truly benefit from it. Edinburgh has a vibrant and successful startup industry with some amazing ideas for the future and we’ve been fortunate enough to rub shoulders with a few and offer our support in their vision. Since our inception in August, we’ve been working with local Edinburgh based businesses who are facing challenges which are limiting their business potential by taking the time to listen and design blockchain solutions which are not only successful but efficient and sustainable for the future.

Blockchain had become a bit of a buzzword in recent times with a lot of loosely linked terms tossed around alongside it and that makes it difficult to decipher and comprehend. At its root, we like to think of blockchain as the swiss army knife of ledgers because of the multiple functions and purposes it can serve. Blockchain technology at its core has three key qualities which depending on the situation can offer a number of long and short term benefits to businesses, especially startups and those looking for a competitive edge.

 

It’s adaptable

Blockchains are system agnostic meaning they can be adapted and managed where and when required. Their primary function is often finance related but can equally be data or communications orientated. They can be the top dog running the show or compliment an existing system, be public or private and in some cases, both. The key advantage here is that unlike typical traditional solutions, blockchain technology is extremely flexible and can often be adapted and built upon with minimal difficulty.

 

It’s cheap to operate

In most cases, we can design systems where the only maintenance cost related to a blockchain is the electricity that the computer or server consumes to remain online. Also, depending on the business model, these costs could be cancelled out by the issuance of tokens as a “reward” for those running the blockchain and creating forms of circular economies within the overall business’ ecosystem.

 

Its reliable and secure

Blockchains come in many shapes and sizes but they are almost always designed to be peer to peer. This means that the network has no single point of failure which can be crucial for modern businesses. The nature of peer to peer makes sure that the integrity of the data stored within is virtually untamperable and that content is also heavily encrypted making the blockchain an ideal candidate to be reliable and secure.

Our long term vision is to be able to provide tailored blockchain solutions to startups and businesses around the globe and make deployment a quick and hassle free experience. We’ve got some interesting concepts in the works which we are looking forward to sharing soon which will not only be useful for our endeavours but could be utilised by other Fintech companies who offer industry leading products and solutions.

Hopefully you’ve found this introduction into SageCity and blockchain interesting and hopefully even enjoyable. We are proud to be part of the Scottish Fintech community and looking forward to sharing our journey and helping others on theirs too. We love talking blockchain so if you have any questions you want to bounce off us we’d be happy to help at team@sagecity.ioand sure to follow us on twitter @teamsagecity to stay in the loop.