Stellar Community Fund

By Emigro

Emigro

SCF #17

$46.4K

Legacy v4.0 Award

Awarded

The traveler's digital wallet. Cross-border, card-less, instant payments for the tourism industry. "International Pix"

Products & Services

Although I believe that there'll be multiple use-cases for Soroban on Emigro, it doesn't make sense for me to start there. I have to get payments working and get a client base on the core product, before working on more sophisticated features. The first product is a smart-phone based cross-border payments app for retail tourism-related payments, whereas the tourist and vendor will both need the app at this time, but with the goal of moving towards app to account payments. A tourist will pre-load their (recoverable) self-custody Emigro wallet through an anchor in their home country, via the Emigro interface. They're then able to travel to other countries and make cash-less and card-less retail payments where Emigro is accepted for their trip expenses via QR codes containing the vendor info plus the payment details for them to scan. With path payments the currency exchange, at the best rate, and payment is completed at the point-of-sale, therefore a traveler doesn't need to exchange and hold currencies other than their own. But, the ability to exchange and hold other currencies does exist if the traveler/vendor wants to hedge against fluctuating exchange rates. The payment will settle instantly with the vendor in the currency that they chose and can be instantly off-ramped to their bank account by their home country anchor via the Emigro interface. Although fiat-backed stablecoins are used, (with XLM as an intermediary), the traveler/vendor doesn't need any knowledge of crypto, and all of the confusing web3 UX is stripped away. The traveler/vendor doesn't have to deal with gas or wallet address strings, their wallet key is their email address or another code they choose, mimicking how Pix operates in Brazil and that others will follow. This is a safe way for people to get started with and use digital currency, and can be a gateway for future products. There are problems solved for both the travelers and the vendors; Travelers - no need to exchange and carry cash for regular tourism payments, saving money and also being less susceptible to losing money via theft - no need to carry credit cards for regular tourism payments as they're not universally accepted, the vendor may add a fee to accept the card, and international cards are not available to all (plus their high fees) - transparency regarding the fees involved in making payments, with the small on/off ramp fees, but free transfers (payments) and no markup on the exchange rate Vendors - no need to hold large amounts cash from tourism clients, with more safety and no in-person bank deposits required - no need to have a point-of-sale credit card machine if you are a very small vendor, or you can save money by accepting fewer credit cards as a larger vendor. there is also more access to consumers as only smart phones are required for the payments - instant settlement with no charge-backs, and the ability to immediately send the money to a bank account or another user (free)