What Is W-Pay?

Liquidity can sometimes be a big problem in the cryptocurrency world. Trading platforms need ample liquidity to match buyers and sellers on both sides of the order book. Bringing more volume to service providers is not an easy feat, but W-Pay may soon represent a welcome change. This new service is a payment network which offers instant global multi-currency solutions. If there is initial interest in W-Pay to begin with, it may have a significant impact on this industry.

W-Pay is a Multi-asset Off-Chain Liquidity Solution

Cryptocurrency-related service providers of all types would not mind having more liquidity options at their disposal. They have been looking into creating off-chain solutions which do not clog up the main networks. W-Pay may be a powerful solution in that regard, thanks to its off-chain multi-asset approach. This service was designed for liquidity providers, merchants, and trading platforms alike. On paper, all of those industries can benefit from this new concept.

It does not take much effort to see some parallels between W-Pay and the Lightning Network. Both projects provide off-chain solutions with the potential to support not just Bitcoin but other currencies as well. W-Pay has been in development for over two years now and can support several dozen cryptocurrencies at the same time. This new network has built-in support for fiat currencies as well, which makes it a rather unique creation.

The W-Pay environment was designed in such a way that all transactions can be performed in a trustless manner. There is no need to wait for blockchain confirmations, which is one thing holding global cryptocurrency adoption back right now. Additional liquidity providers will be added over time to ensure this service can scale as well. The latter aspect is rather interesting, as it indicates the demand for W-Pay may be a lot larger than one would assume.

Other main selling points of W-Pay include fully-automated machine-to-machine payments with no fees, no customer chargebacks, and no gateway fees whatsoever. This solution was mainly designed for merchants and retail service providers. However, it is thanks to platforms like these that all services will eventually lower their prices across the board in the future. That is how this is supposed to work, anyway, even though everyone knows all too well that companies will not part with their profits that easily.

For the time being, accessing the W-Pay network can only be done through invitation only. The company’s business partners will gain access to this new platform in October. Everyone else will be able to reap the benefits of this new off-chain liquidity solution come November. By supporting so many different blockchain assets, there will surely be a big interest in W-Pay from day one. Supported currencies include Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Ripple, and several others.

Last but not last, it appears W-Pay also provides support for bidirectional payment channels. Users can put funds in a multisig channel address to commence the exchange of payments. Payments can only be made when both parties sign off on the transaction accordingly. It will be very interesting to see how this venture plays out in the long run. The concept of W-Pay itself is pretty intriguing and may be the liquidity solution so many service providers have been looking for.