Serial entrepreneur Ricardo Rivero is based in Hanover, Germany, where most shops and businesses deal only in cash. Why do they only deal in cash? Because, in Hanover, there are high fees for merchants to process debit and credit card payments. In turn, Rivero decided to create a cashless, in-store payment option alternative. Instead of going through tedious legislative hoops with banks, he and a team of technologists, software engineers, and industrial designers created a free point-of-sale system.
When Rivero proposed this idea to merchants and asked what their major concerns would be, the answer always hovered around issues such as the complexity and unpredictability of the currency.
After Rivero sold one of his companies called Doctape (project management cloud software), to Atlassian, he wanted to create an alternative to the cash only system in Hanover. Rivero and his team bought some outdated Google Nexus 7 phones from eBay, installed the current version of Android, and began customizing the software and hardware. Rivero and his team brokered an agreement with BitPay, who agreed to process payments and help create a merchant point-of-sale system that would reduce risks associated with Bitcoin price fluctuations.
The first design decision that needed consideration was the fact that the Android phone NFC devices only work with other NFC devices if their backsides are put together. The team reworked the devices so that, after the merchant punched in the total cost of a transaction, the customer could use their phone to pay by approaching without awkwardness and tap to send over their transaction information. As they worked that out, another part of the industrial design team created 3D-printed housing for the phone, to give it a solid shell and a standardized design.
Rivero stepped things up a notch when Apple Pay was rolled out. Apple pay has a very simple user experience, where the customer walks in and pays with one click. Rivero responded by installing iBeacon on the POS terminals, which sends out a push notification when users get close.
What he then needed to make the payment compatible with all Bitcoin wallets was help. He asked Bitcoin wallet companies, but no one could really put in the time and effort required for a quick solution. Luckily, an iOS developer contacted Rivero, interested in working on the project. Immediately, the goal was set: to create an iOS app that would automatically launch any Bitcoin wallet.
This project-turned-company is called Pey. So far in Hanover, 50 merchants have agreed to transact in Bitcoin, and 12 have had the Pey terminal installed. Right now, Rivero is setting up the whole system for free, including providing Internet connections.
Pey will be on the lookout for capital while completing this beta version. If only Pey could find more regions where merchants were overcharged by banks for credit and debit card transactions, he might be able start a chain reaction. If only…
