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STK – Instant Point Of Sale Payments With Cryptocurrencies

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Although cryptocurrencies have boomed in popularity this year, it has yet to gain enough traction to actually become a mainstream financial tool like real cash.

The single biggest barrier to mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies is accepting it as a payment option for everyday commerce. With an estimated $22 trillion consumer spending taking place yearly, there is surely space for cryptocurrencies to fit in.

Despite the rise, cryptocurrencies are almost never used like how national currencies are used to pay for everything from a cup of coffee to your favorite lunch downtown. What’s stopping you from paying for your latte with Bitcoin or Ethereum, for example?

It happens because only a few select merchants accept cryptocurrencies online; the point of sale payments are also extremely rare in addition to that. Today, cryptocurrency holders must first exchange cryptocurrencies into their local currency to make purchases. This poses some problems as the process is not only time consuming, it also comes with expensive fees. Yes, there are businesses that accept Bitcoin as a payment option but they can barely be counted on one hand.

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That does not even factor the long confirmation times for these transactions to go through yet.

Currently, Bitcoin transactions take about 10 minutes to process which is far too long for point of sale purchases.

Ethereum transactions are significantly faster at an average processing time of 24 seconds but realistically, who’d wait nearly half a minute just for one payment to be processed?

Is there a real solution to this problem that’s limiting the adoption of cryptocurrencies?

Introducing STK

STK Token Personal Finance Platform BlockchainSTK, in conjunction with the STACK digital wallet, allows cryptocurrency holders to purchase instantly through point of sale systems hence enabling users to use cryptocurrencies like real money.

This can happen because STK facilitates real-time cryptocurrency transactions at points of sale just like a credit card. The main goal of the platform is to make cryptocurrencies more practical as well as enabling transactions that are fast, cheap, and borderless. So, instead of just allowing users to perform crypto-crypto transactions, Stack allows businesses and users to perform fiat-crypto transactions. Essentially, users can spend cryptocurrencies like cash but use STK tokens as the transaction currency instead.

With the integration of the STK token into the STACK digital wallet, you can use cryptocurrencies anywhere you want and at any point of sale globally.

What is STACK?

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STACK is a convenient mobile app developed to provide an alternative to traditional banking. It aims to become a better way to spend, save and share your money without expensive fees.

The STACK app provides users with various features such as real-time notifications, easy savings, financial IQ, and a mobile tap-to-pay functionality to pay at points of sale.

The app also integrates with global payment networks that enable worldwide usage of the STACK wallet. The wallet contains 10 sub-accounts which can hold up to 10 unique currencies of which it can be both cryptocurrencies and local currencies.

How does STK work?

STK works by allowing you to use your smartphone app as a digital wallet to store your money safely and access it anytime.

This digital wallet can also make transactions anywhere in any currency with the STK token.

All of these happen directly in your smartphone using the Stack app.

The Stack app allows you to spend your tokens at points of sale anywhere in the world without any problems. What ties everything together is the use of state channels in the Stack platform.

State channels are a technique used for making offline transactions with the same security guarantees as an operation on the blockchain. So rather than storing every transaction on the blockchain, the platform will create state channels between the customer and STACK. These channels then used to provide real time transaction guarantees on the blockchain.

Once the process is finished, transactions of customers will be automatically funded through STK’s liquidity pool to make point of sale purchases work instantly. To enjoy access to this system, users are required to hold at least one STK token which grants access to the STK State Channel which is exclusively for token holders. In simpler terms, users get to enjoy all the benefits of a blockchain transaction while purchasing stuff online or in physical stores.

A practical example of how STK works

1. State channels are created for transactions

For a transaction to happen, the user needs to load STK tokens into the Stack mobile wallet.

What this does is that it authorizes the creation of a state channel on the STK platform. Both the user’s smartphone and the Stack platform now have a copy of the current state of the channel.

2. The transaction is made and the state channel changes

The money is then spent by the user at a point of sale machine using the Stack app. What happens next is that the user will receive a visual prompt in the Stack mobile wallet showing the transaction amount.

This works exactly the same as tap-to-pay mobile apps today.

Behind the scenes, the user authorizes a transaction to send the equivalent cryptocurrency to the STK platform.

The STK platform then receives the signed transaction instantly and co-signs it. This allows the STK local currency account to be authorized and enabled to pay the requested purchase through its global payment network on behalf of the user.

3. Funds are kept ready

As long as the state channel is open, there will be absolutely no fees when conducting transactions between the user and the STK platform.

4. Withdrawing funds

If the user wants to retrieve all or part of their STK tokens in the channel that has not been sent to STK, they can do so by withdrawing their funds.

The user then signs and releases a withdrawal request.

Making partial withdrawals are also allowed so users can keep the state channels open for future transactions within the STK platform.

5. Closing of the state channel

A state channel is closed when one of the parties signs and publishes a close request to the State Channel.

This will result in a timeline during which either party can submit their most recent transactions hence determining the final state of the channel.

The STK token sale

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STK Global Payments will launch the STK token for sale. The Presale is now live until 12th of November and you can get up to 20% discount with a minimum investment of 85 ETH. The Main Sale will start on the 13th of November.

Token name: STK

Token base: Ethereum (ERC-20 compliant)

Token supply: 1,000,000,000 (550,000,000 on sale during the token sale)

Token sale duration: 13th of November, 2017 to the 24th of November, 2017

Token sale target: 3,600 ETH minimum – 310,345 ETH maximum

Token exchange rate: 1 ETH = 1489 STK

STK Network’s Website

STK Network’s whitepaper