Psypher246
New member
Hello Dash Users,
This pre-proposal thread is to discuss the possibility and requirements for a proposal to integrate Dash into the many innovative payment services available in South Africa. This is my first proposal, so I am reaching out the the community for their advice and guidance.
Why South Africa?
South Africa has a very large IT industry and has been at the forefront of technology for decades. Based on the high level of technology jobs there are many people who are actively using cryptocurrencies for retail, mining and investment. Till now the regulatory environment has been favourable to crypto's and has not indicated any restrictions, only that crypto's are subject to the general principles of South African tax law and are taxed accordingly. The regulatory bodies are currently evaluating Bitcoin so new regulations may appear soon. Local banks are also testing the possibility of using Ethereum to connect them together and have also created their own currency
See:
Reserve Bank to begin testing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulations
How your Bitcoin earnings are taxed in South Africa
South Africa's Banks Are Going DIY to Test Ethereum's Blockchain
Springblock – South Africa’s first step to a national financial blockchain
There a number of exchanges in South Africa, the largest and most known being Luno (Formerly BitX) however they only support Bitcoin at this time with no plans to support others. Cryptochange does support fiat (Rands) to Dash but I have no experience using them.
South Africa has a very vibrant alternative payment method industry and there are 4 particular merchant services which I would like to highlight, which are perfect for Dash integration. Also credit card fraud is a huge issue in South Africa, no-one trusts anyone to be alone for 2 seconds with their card. Every transaction must be scrutinised for card cloning.
1. SnapScap
SnapScan is a QR code based payment app which allows any merchant to accept credit cards without the need for any physical equipment, like a card reader. All they need to show the user is their QR code and state the product/service cost, which they enter into the app after scanning the code. It's no different than paying for things using a Dash wallet and scanning a QR code. The only difference is that the user enters their credit card details into the app and is stored there permanently. The merchants pay SnapScan a 3% fee, which is less than other gateways charge in SA, and get their income sent to their bank account on a monthly basis.
The average merchants who accept SnapScan are street and farm markets, coffeshops, delis, roadside food stalls and in Cape Town the street parking attendants.
2. Zapper
Zapper is a SnapScan clone of sorts, however Zapper made more progress with restaurants that SnapScan did with the small business owners. Zapper figured out a way to inject their barcode into the till slip without the need to integrate with the PoS services, who were naturally sceptical when they approached them. Instead they worked with the restaurants and attached a devices to the printer cable which added the barcode inline. Now people no longer have to worry about a waiter walking away with their card and making a clone. With Zapper you can pay from your phone, let the app work out the tip, and your card never left your wallet.
Both these services have built in merchant directories and often offer specials through the app. These services have made South Africans very comfortable with using their smartphones to make payments via scanning a barcode. I have not seen anywhere else in my travels quite such a large adoption of payment methods which does not involve reading your card, touch-less or otherwise. Only in the US and UK have I seen some places use contact-less payments, but not nearly as prevalent as SnapScan or Zapper is in SA. I use it multiple time a week and is very fast and very convenient. They achieved the near utopia of simple payments without crypto currencies.
3. PayFast
PayFast is a typical payment gateway which is integrated into many eCommerce platforms. In 2014 they announced support for Bitcoin as a payment method via integration with the above mentioned Luno, which allowed up to 30 000 merchants to now accept Bitcoin through PayFast. This would be similar to BitPay integration with PayPal. However it's good to note that due to the recent slow down of the Bitcoin network I was unable to complete a transaction in the time allotted when using Bitcoin and others have told me that same. I had a long conversation with the team leader on crypto's at PayFast and indicated to him that they should investigate Dash for this specific reason.
4. Pick n Pay
Pick n Pay is a very old retail grocery chain who have recently announced that they have been trailing Bitcoin as a payment method in partner with Luno and Electrum. Electrum themselves are a key potential partner for Dash integration.
So with that primer on the local South African payment environment I want to make the following proposal.
Integration of Dash as a payment method and merchant pay out method
South Africa's crypto market is starting to boom and Dash is relatively unknown in SA. In a recent poll on a very popular technology news site 53% of the readers stated they own crypto's with BTC and ETH being the most popular while Dash (owned by 10% or respondents) was in 7'th place behind Monero.
These payment services seem perfect for integration with Dash, both as a method for the user to pay, but also as a method for the merchant to cash out in. In the same way that at BitPay you can cash out a percentage into fiat and leave some in Bitcoin.
What are the communities suggestion on how to progress a proposal like this? Having not done a proposal myself before and not knowing what funds would be required to achieve this, where do I get started? I myself am also not able to dedicate a large portion of my time, having a full time demanding job, however where I can assist with is getting in touch with the right people at these services and opening a dialog between them and the Dash core team, but I'm not sure how that works. I read about the Dash and BlockCypher partnership and thought that this proposal seems to fit in the category.
It would involve some evangelising of Dash's properties and potential to these services and that I am also able to help with but I need assistance from the Dash team and community. So please let me know what I need to advance this further.
I believe there is a massive opportunity for Dash to be widely used in South Africa based on the environment I described above. The timing is also just right to start improving awareness of Dash in the country.
This pre-proposal thread is to discuss the possibility and requirements for a proposal to integrate Dash into the many innovative payment services available in South Africa. This is my first proposal, so I am reaching out the the community for their advice and guidance.
Why South Africa?
South Africa has a very large IT industry and has been at the forefront of technology for decades. Based on the high level of technology jobs there are many people who are actively using cryptocurrencies for retail, mining and investment. Till now the regulatory environment has been favourable to crypto's and has not indicated any restrictions, only that crypto's are subject to the general principles of South African tax law and are taxed accordingly. The regulatory bodies are currently evaluating Bitcoin so new regulations may appear soon. Local banks are also testing the possibility of using Ethereum to connect them together and have also created their own currency
See:
Reserve Bank to begin testing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulations
How your Bitcoin earnings are taxed in South Africa
South Africa's Banks Are Going DIY to Test Ethereum's Blockchain
Springblock – South Africa’s first step to a national financial blockchain
There a number of exchanges in South Africa, the largest and most known being Luno (Formerly BitX) however they only support Bitcoin at this time with no plans to support others. Cryptochange does support fiat (Rands) to Dash but I have no experience using them.
South Africa has a very vibrant alternative payment method industry and there are 4 particular merchant services which I would like to highlight, which are perfect for Dash integration. Also credit card fraud is a huge issue in South Africa, no-one trusts anyone to be alone for 2 seconds with their card. Every transaction must be scrutinised for card cloning.
1. SnapScap
SnapScan is a QR code based payment app which allows any merchant to accept credit cards without the need for any physical equipment, like a card reader. All they need to show the user is their QR code and state the product/service cost, which they enter into the app after scanning the code. It's no different than paying for things using a Dash wallet and scanning a QR code. The only difference is that the user enters their credit card details into the app and is stored there permanently. The merchants pay SnapScan a 3% fee, which is less than other gateways charge in SA, and get their income sent to their bank account on a monthly basis.
The average merchants who accept SnapScan are street and farm markets, coffeshops, delis, roadside food stalls and in Cape Town the street parking attendants.
2. Zapper
Zapper is a SnapScan clone of sorts, however Zapper made more progress with restaurants that SnapScan did with the small business owners. Zapper figured out a way to inject their barcode into the till slip without the need to integrate with the PoS services, who were naturally sceptical when they approached them. Instead they worked with the restaurants and attached a devices to the printer cable which added the barcode inline. Now people no longer have to worry about a waiter walking away with their card and making a clone. With Zapper you can pay from your phone, let the app work out the tip, and your card never left your wallet.
Both these services have built in merchant directories and often offer specials through the app. These services have made South Africans very comfortable with using their smartphones to make payments via scanning a barcode. I have not seen anywhere else in my travels quite such a large adoption of payment methods which does not involve reading your card, touch-less or otherwise. Only in the US and UK have I seen some places use contact-less payments, but not nearly as prevalent as SnapScan or Zapper is in SA. I use it multiple time a week and is very fast and very convenient. They achieved the near utopia of simple payments without crypto currencies.
3. PayFast
PayFast is a typical payment gateway which is integrated into many eCommerce platforms. In 2014 they announced support for Bitcoin as a payment method via integration with the above mentioned Luno, which allowed up to 30 000 merchants to now accept Bitcoin through PayFast. This would be similar to BitPay integration with PayPal. However it's good to note that due to the recent slow down of the Bitcoin network I was unable to complete a transaction in the time allotted when using Bitcoin and others have told me that same. I had a long conversation with the team leader on crypto's at PayFast and indicated to him that they should investigate Dash for this specific reason.
4. Pick n Pay
Pick n Pay is a very old retail grocery chain who have recently announced that they have been trailing Bitcoin as a payment method in partner with Luno and Electrum. Electrum themselves are a key potential partner for Dash integration.
So with that primer on the local South African payment environment I want to make the following proposal.
Integration of Dash as a payment method and merchant pay out method
South Africa's crypto market is starting to boom and Dash is relatively unknown in SA. In a recent poll on a very popular technology news site 53% of the readers stated they own crypto's with BTC and ETH being the most popular while Dash (owned by 10% or respondents) was in 7'th place behind Monero.
These payment services seem perfect for integration with Dash, both as a method for the user to pay, but also as a method for the merchant to cash out in. In the same way that at BitPay you can cash out a percentage into fiat and leave some in Bitcoin.
What are the communities suggestion on how to progress a proposal like this? Having not done a proposal myself before and not knowing what funds would be required to achieve this, where do I get started? I myself am also not able to dedicate a large portion of my time, having a full time demanding job, however where I can assist with is getting in touch with the right people at these services and opening a dialog between them and the Dash core team, but I'm not sure how that works. I read about the Dash and BlockCypher partnership and thought that this proposal seems to fit in the category.
It would involve some evangelising of Dash's properties and potential to these services and that I am also able to help with but I need assistance from the Dash team and community. So please let me know what I need to advance this further.
I believe there is a massive opportunity for Dash to be widely used in South Africa based on the environment I described above. The timing is also just right to start improving awareness of Dash in the country.
