The word 'graft' has a couple of different meanings. It might bring to mind a graft of living tissue, where two previously separate systems are brought together. Where I'm from, the UK, it has another meaning- hard work; to be a grafter is to be someone who completes a long or difficult job.
Both of these meanings are appropriate for Graft, a decentralised payment processing network for buyers and merchants.
Two separate systems
Imagine two separate money boxes. The first is your fiat money box, in which you get paid your salary and pay out any bills and living expenses. The second is your cryptocurrency. Maybe you put some of your fiat money in here and have seen your investment grow. Maybe you're a miner. Maybe you've earned it here on Steemit.
In an ideal world, you'd be able to use both as easily as each other, but the reality is much different.
A lot of hard work
With the explosion of interest in cryptocurrencies that has gripped 2017 and promises to continue into the New Year, more and more people are holding (and indeed HODLing) a variety of coins. But the methods for using crypto to pay for everyday goods and services are expensive and time consuming to set up and manage. You'll need to exchange it, and paying it back into your regular bank account is never easy and rarely cheap. Its akin to cars catching on before any roads were built- you might own a shiny new Mercedes but good luck driving it anywhere.
And that's just the buyer. A merchant who wants to accept Bitcoin will have to use a system separate from their own POS, have no way of knowing the extent of any transaction fees, and no way to preauthorise the transaction. Worse than this- both sides (the buyer and the merchant) have to pay fees.
The Graft Network
Graft is hoping to make the entire process quicker, easier, and at a lower cost to both buyers and merchants whilst maintaining security. Graft stands for Global Real-time Authorisations and Fund Transfers. An open-source, blockchain-based payment network that places no fees on the buyer (the merchant pays a small fee in GRF tokens for usage of the Graft network).
For a merchant this allows instant confirmation of funds received and lower transaction fees. Those two factors alone make acceptance of cryptocurrency payments far easier. But Graft goes further- it can allow pre-authorisation (which is important for some transactions such as pay-at-pump petrol stations, hotel bookings, etc), and can even help merchants to identify buyers or verify their age.
For a buyer it means that all the inherent benefits of cryptocurrency- security, anonymity, and decentralisation- become open to their everyday spending habits and needs. No transaction fees are levied against them whatsoever, and it suddenly becomes possible to complete low-value transactions quickly- buying that cup of coffee with Bitcoin just became a reality!
“We’ve tried to provide the best user experience for buyers and better fees to merchants, and we succeeded,” said Slava Gomzin, founder of GRAFT. “GRAFT payment transaction can take various convertible cryptocurrencies or local fiat currencies in the form of credit/debit card as an input. The automatic instant conversion will help adopt GRAFT payments by mainstream users who are not familiar enough with cryptocurrency ecosystem and still feel more comfortable with the traditional method of payment, but seek better security, privacy, and full anonymity of their transactions.”
A first-rate team
Graft has some serious expertise behind it in POS, security, and blockchain technology. Founder Slava Gomzin, a security and payments expert has written books on the security of current POS systems and the fundamentals of Bitcoin. Alongside him as founder is Dan Itzkis, who has previously worked at Cisco and Moderro Technologies. Its clear that the team has a deep understanding not only of the state of current POS protocols but also how to scale a product and make it a success.
So when can I get it?
An open source beta is available now for Graft POS and Graft wallet. An ICO of the GRF coin will begin in January 2018, and Graft is working with major payment providers to give scale to its network. You can access the public testnet here
For more information
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