Blockchain Shared Ledger for Sub-Merchant Onboarding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current payment processing systems lack a secure and accessible format for storing sub-merchant information, preventing payment facilitators and acquirer processors from offering tailored partnerships and services, resulting in lost opportunities and revenue.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a blockchain-based shared ledger system for sub-merchant onboarding, which receives and stores information, generates onboarding decisions, and transmits electronic offers to sub-merchants, ensuring secure and immutable data storage and enabling 'soft-underwriting' for targeted service offerings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a payment facilitator uses traditional data storage methods for sub-merchant information, then the system is simpler to implement, but the data security and accessibility are insufficient, preventing tailored service offerings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a blockchain network as an intermediary layer between the payment facilitator and sub-merchants. This blockchain intermediary provides secure, immutable storage of sub-merchant data while enabling controlled access for personalized service offerings, thus enhancing reliability without requiring the payment facilitator to build complex security infrastructure from scratch
Solution Approach 2:
The blockchain ledger serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a secure database for storing sub-merchant information, a verification system for data integrity, and an access control mechanism for personalized offerings. This multi-functionality addresses the reliability need while the standardized blockchain protocol keeps implementation complexity manageable
2Adaptability or versatility
If sub-merchant information is not stored in a secure, accessible format, then storage and processing is simpler, but opportunities for tailored partnerships and additional revenue are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by storing comprehensive sub-merchant information, underwriting data, and contract details in the blockchain ledger during the onboarding process. This advance preparation of structured, accessible data enables the payment facilitator to immediately generate personalized service offerings and partnerships without information gaps, thus preventing revenue loss while enabling adaptability
Solution Approach 2:
The blockchain ledger provides real-time feedback mechanisms by making sub-merchant data accessible to the payment facilitator, enabling continuous identification of customization opportunities. This feedback loop allows the system to adapt services based on stored information and capture revenue opportunities that would otherwise be lost
3Adaptability or versatility
If comprehensive sub-merchant data is collected and stored, then personalized offers can be generated, but data security and privacy protection become more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain network acts as a secure intermediary that stores comprehensive sub-merchant data without exposing it to unauthorized access. The decentralized, immutable nature of blockchain provides inherent security against data breaches while maintaining accessibility for authorized personalized offerings, thus enabling adaptability while mitigating security risks
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements beforehand cushioning by using blockchain's cryptographic security and immutability features to protect data before any security incident can occur. This preventive approach cushions against potential data security risks while allowing comprehensive data collection for personalized services
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for generating and maintaining shared ledgers for sub-merchant onboarding includes receiving a request from a payment facilitator to onboard a sub-merchant, receiving information about the sub-merchant from the payment facilitator or the sub-merchant, providing the information about the sub-merchant to a third party, receiving underwriting information corresponding to the information about the sub-merchant from the third party, generating an onboarding decision based on the information about the sub-merchant and the underwriting information, storing the information about the sub-merchant, the underwriting information, and the onboarding decision to a shared ledger, and generating and transmitting an electronic offer of a product or a service to the sub-merchant based on the stored contents of the shared ledger.