PayStand Taps Blockchain For B2B Payments Certification

Blockchain technology could have major implications for B2B payments, and some of the top use cases for distributed ledger include cross-border payments and smart contracts. B2B payments company PayStand has another possibility for the tool.

An announcement Wednesday (Oct. 26) said PayStand now supports certification and notarization of payments using blockchain technology, allowing businesses to access an independent and secure way to verify that a payment has been made and that the information joined to the transaction has not been tampered with. According to the firm, it offers businesses an alternative to the notaries and auditors that generally manage payment certification.

The use of blockchain for payment certification enables a new level of security in trade finance and other B2B payments that can be plagued by fraud. According to PayStand, trade finance fraud amounts to nearly $4 trillion every year because of flaws in recordkeeping.

The firm added that it utilizes the immutability of blockchain to ensure that the record of transactions made is untampered and secure.

“Our newest blockchain certification product demonstrates our continued commitment to help enterprises leverage the cutting-edge and digital native technology to improve their payment, invoice and billing process,” said PayStand CEO Jeremy Almond in a statement.

According to the company’s announcement, existing PayStand users can choose whether they would like their payments and transactions to be certified. When enabled, all payment requests that are linked to invoices see their data verified on the blockchain for both sender and recipient. PayStand noted that information isn’t stored on the blockchain, only the certification and audit trail.

“As the world becomes more digitally driven, it only seemed logical to document financial transaction with a more convenient, secure method,” Almond added. “By using the blockchain, we’re giving businesses the opportunity to eliminate human error.”

“A blockchain-certified payment receipt creates greater trust for all parties, enables added compliance and transparency in the system, makes for better digital tracking and identifies fraud more easily,” the CEO added. “There’s no doubt that blockchain processing will become more integrated with businesses’ financial processes.”