StraitsX, a part of Fazz, is pleased to announce that users will be able to utilise Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) vouchers in the Singapore Pitstop Pack industry pilot for payment of goods and services at over 200 merchants outlets. These NFT vouchers demonstrate a commercial application of Purpose Bound Money (PBM) are set to be used by over 20,000 users from 7 September 2023 to 31 December 2023.
The Singapore Pitstop Pack industry pilot by Grab, Fazz, and UOB builds on the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Orchid initiative*. The digital vouchers available in the Singapore Pitstop Pack is an example of PBM, which allows conditions such as validity period and type of merchants to be specified when making transfers in digital money. When a consumer pays using PBM, funds are transferred to the merchant immediately once the terms of use are fulfilled, without the need for a separate reconciliation process.
To supplement the scale of issuance and usage for the vouchers, Grab, a leading superapp in Southeast Asia, serves as the main consumer wallet provider for users to redeem and utilise these NFT vouchers, with Fave as a distributing partner for users to purchase the vouchers. The vouchers are available for purchase as the “Singapore Pitstop Pack” on Fave.
Other key partners of the industry pilot include merchant acquirers such as FOMO Pay and Liquid Group; bringing on popular merchants including KOI (FOMO Pay), JUMBO Seafood (FOMO Pay), and IRVINS (Liquid Group).
This industry pilot revolutionises mainstream domestic payments while maintaining.a familiar payment flow for both merchants and consumers alike. StraitsX is leveraging on an open-source blockchain to bring PBM, backed by underlying store of value in the form of XSGD to the masses.
The industry pilot offers an integrated experience of using blockchain wallets for physical payments at numerous merchant acceptance points across Singapore. For consumers paying with the vouchers, the user experience remains just as seamless as traditional QR payment flows with payment compatibility between the widely-used Grab app, and SGQR’s payload format.
For merchants, last-mile settlement is done through automated unwrapping of PBM’s underlying XSGD value to the Singapore dollar on the backend. This allows participating merchants to receive payments in Singapore dollars immediately, keeping existing operational flows status quo for merchant operators, with the added benefit of removing any need for manual end-of-day reconciliation between accounting systems.
The NFT vouchers will be themed the Singapore Pitstop Pack, with payment acceptance ranging across over 200 merchant outlets, curated for their popularity amongst locals and tourists in Singapore including:
From 7 September 2023 to 31 December 2023, both locals and international travellers to Singapore will be able to purchase the Singapore Pitstop Pack on Fave, before redeeming the vouchers in their Grab Web3 Wallet. Users can then use their Grab Web3 Wallet to scan payment QR codes at participating merchant outlets, and select the vouchers to be used for payment. Vouchers are issued in $1, $2, and $5 denominations, with a total value of $14 in NFT vouchers per Singapore Pitstop Pack.
Together with other industry leaders, StraitsX had contributed to the technical infrastructure standard and potential use cases for a programmable digital Singapore dollar, including stablecoins such as XSGD.
This industry pilot builds upon the first Project Orchid pilot at the Singapore FinTech Festival held last November, expanding its scale, and usability:
The result of this industry pilot will be used to inform StraitsX on the design and selection of infrastructures for stablecoins to become a more widely accepted mode of payment both domestically and internationally.
For international visitors to Singapore, the Singapore Pitstop Pack industry pilot provides first-hand experience of blockchain payments. In the near future, StraitsX aims to enable acceptance of foreign currencies through domestic QR payload formats. To illustrate, visitors to Singapore would be able to use their existing domestic e-wallets for a seamless payment experience in Singapore using their local domestic currency. At the same time, merchants in Singapore will continue to receive fiat as they do as part of their normal payment acceptance flows, with the entire back end powered by XSGD and the StraitsX payment infrastructure.
*Project Orchid is an ongoing initiative led by MAS to develop the competency and digital infrastructure needed to issue a digital Singapore dollar domestically. Please refer to this link for more information.
**Enjoy additional incentives from Mount Faber Leisure Group, JUMBO Seafood, MINT Museum of Toys, and IRVINS when payments are made with Singapore Pitstop Pack vouchers.
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