Ripple is a well famed decentralized payment platform providing payment rails primarily for banks and payment transfers. It was the first blockchain solution targeting transfers between financial institutions.
Though ripple does a great job bringing decentralized innovation to banks, the application developer is a giant opportunity comparable to banking in size, where OPEN focuses its attention. Developers are builders who are seen as those who will enable cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to proliferate to our everyday lives. OPEN is building the payment rails that connect payments between all blockchains directly into software applications for seamless blockchain payment integrations, appealing to existing and new applications looking to integrate cryptocurrency technology.
The Payment Connection between the blockchain and Software Applications
To accommodate the complex infrastructure of software applications, OPEN provides a payment infrastructure that provides the missing components today between application payments on a blockchain and the application’s technology stack, for example it’s database. When a user makes a purchase in an application using OPEN not only are the funds instantly delivered to the developer, but the transaction and its data is passed off-chain automatically registering into the application’s database. This is a critical bridge that is holding back existing applications from accepting cryptocurrency as cryptocurrency wallets cannot communicate directly outside of a blockchain.
By providing this bridge OPEN appeals to existing and decentralized application developers who may not want to build this entire functionality from scratch. Further OPEN is blockchain agnostic, enabling multiple developers and blockchains to criss cross their technologies, a solution to the scarce developer communities found across many new and coming blockchains.
OPEN Platform Benefits
Connecting On-chain payments and Off-chain infrastructure
Easy Deployment
OPEN Platform provides an intuitive interface between the blockchain and developers’ applications, which allow for easy integration and deployment. Developers don’t need to learn a new language like Solidity, as the OPEN platform enables them to deploy a payment scaffold that connects directly to the blockchain through the OPEN Rest API. This removes the learning curve of having to learn a new smart contract language.
Blockchain Agnostic
With OPEN, developers can integrate their applications with one blockchain and then connect to any supported blockchain with no additional effort. The core components of the OPEN architecture are meant to abstract away the complexity of the blockchain. Because of this, OPEN can place this layer over a variety of blockchains that enable smart contracts. This means that with one simple integration developers can access a multitude of blockchains. Not only does this save time and effort, but it also protects the developer from having to reprogram their application if the technological landscape shifts.
Lower Fees
In the absence of institutional overhead, transactions processed through the blockchain are much more affordable. OPEN enables transactions directly between the user and the developer. In comparison with transactions processed through app stores like iTunes and Google Play, developers can save up to 27% on each transaction.
Faster Transactions
Due to the decentralized nature of the blockchain, the developer’s transactions are not encumbered by traditional institutional obstacles. Traditional payment arrangements for some businesses may take up to 90 days to clear. In contrast payment cycle is shortened significantly through blockchain transactions, payments clear almost immediately.
OPEN has Unique Benefits for Both Users and Developers
The OPEN Platform is able to seamlessly connect a network of developers and users through its infrastructure layer. This allow users in the OPEN Community to automatically interact with any software application that incorporates the OPEN API, regardless of the platform or the type of cryptocurrency used. Through the OPEN Platform, a developer can set-up a payment scheme for their application (for instance a subscription cost), then use the OPEN API to connect it to their application backend.
Users
Application users receive the ability to pay using cryptocurrency. In this increasingly decentralized economy many individuals that would rather make payments through cryptocurrency than have to transition their assets into fiat and then pay for goods. This immediately makes over $500 billion in liquid digital assets available for use inside developers’ applications.
Developers
By accepting cryptocurrency payments developers are able to get their payments much faster, and pay more affordable transaction fees. Moreover, they gain an audience of users that they can market to, and incentivize to use their software. This method is all done in a seamless manner that does not require technical knowledge about the blockchain to implement.
Blockchains
Blockchains benefit from the OPEN Platform by gaining access to a large developer community that be ported to their technology with ease. This is enabled by the layer of abstraction that OPEN provides between developers and specific blockchains.
OPEN is the Ripple for Software Developers
The sum of the benefits given to developers, users, and blockchains demonstrates that OPEN is set to become the infrastructure of choice for developers, just as Ripple is for banks. Instead of having the developers navigate the complexities of integrating a payment solution with a blockchain, OPEN abstracts the problem away and provides a platform designed expressly for being used inside applications.
The utility of person to person payments important, but there is a growing need for payment solutions for software applications. Developers are thirsty for a solution that allows them to access the over $500 billion in liquid cryptocurrency assets. OPEN satisfies this need.
While Ripple creates cheaper and faster transactions between people, OPEN provides faster, cheaper, more flexible and easy to implement transactions between end users and the applications they interact with.