Page 75 - Pay Magazine s2014

What the blockchain Can Do for Gift Cards
volume 8 • fall 2015
Viewpoint
By Guillaume Lebleu, Gyft
In Viewpoints, prepaid and emerging payment professionals share their perspectives on the industry. Paybefore endeavors to present many points of view to offer readers new insights and information. The opinions expressed in Viewpoints are not necessarily those
of Paybefore.
By now, everyone in financial services has heard of the blockchain—the technology
underlying bitcoin. Many of the biggest names in financial services have announced projects to re- search its potential uses ranging from accelerating the settlement of publicly traded financial instru- ments, to removing the friction
in international trade, or time- stamping and authenticating contracts or other identity docu- ments. While the role of bitcoin itself is still in question, there is a growing industry consensus that the blockchain may become to value, what the Web has been
to information.
So, what’s so exciting about the blockchain? It’s a ledger with unique properties that make it an excellent choice for a group of independent entities to track asset transfers they trade with each other. (See “Blockchain 101.”)
Here are some of the pros:
1. It’s a permanent record of asset transfers that is practically impossible to tamper with.
2. It’s transparent, meaning publicly auditable, but still provides privacy.
3. It guarantees that all entities involved agree on a state or
paybefore.com 73