Checksum: Complete B2B payments for CBDCs II

Today’s payment platforms are not ready to support CBDCs. Checksum’s advanced pymt features & UI enables businesses to easily process checks, invoices, expenses, and payroll for B2B CBDC management.

Comment

Introduction

A market-driven platform for businesses to use the XRP Ledger

With the arrival of CBDCs and stablecoins to the XRPL network, a robust and innovative interface needs to exist which caters to businesses and their ability to manage corporate accounts. The transformation over to the next-era digital financial networks, a decentralized and frictionless system, will not be an easy task for businesses looking to mitigate risk, volatility, and exposure to bad actors.

Business Fintech Applications are Desperately Needed for the XRP Network

The current landscape of applications on the XRPL ecosystem do not yet support financial operators, or companies, seeking to manage key business operations in a compliant way via the XRP ledger. This includes employment, financial consolidation, business accounting, and compliance for tens of thousands of business transactions. With the realization that a fintech business platform is desperately needed, Checksum arose to serve businesses with a reliable and sustainable way to send instantaneous payments via the XRP network, supporting accounts payable and accounts receivable operations for SMBs, and corporations.

Checksum is an all-in-one B2B CBDC Compliant Payment Solution

In anticipation of CBDCs and the observed market opportunity for developing payment-rail integrations with them, the checksum whitepaper provides a comprehensive POC proposals for a unique AR/AP B2B payment management platform that integrates with the XRP Ledger to unleash sophisticated payment functionality that all businesses can easily access.

The following hackathon submission document will cover relevant business developments and product developments that have been made since Phase I of the hackathon.

Business Developments B/w Phase I & Phase II

Partnership Development with Stably for Solution Extensions

What is Stably?

Stably provides regulatory compliant stablecoin infrastructure and multi-chain fiat on/off ramps for emerging blockchains, enabling users in 200+ countries to easily buy/sell stablecoins using traditional payments. Stably has partnered with Ripple to be the official service provider of the USD stablecoin on the XRPL.

Stably’s Solution Extension Capabilities

When Whirledlabs attended the 2nd annual Apex Dev summit for XRPL developers in Las Vegas, we met with the Stably Business Development Team to discuss the feasibility of integrating Checksum with Stably to solution-extend:

  • KYC compliance for Checksum business users
  • On-ramp/Off-ramp functionality to enable interoperability between traditional finance and digital finance
  • Cross-Chain Stablecoin Forex Functionality through the Stably App

Current Status of Partnership & the Combined Benefits this will bring to the XRPL ecosystem

After confirming its feasibility, Whirledlabs has signed a letter of intent with Stably to integrate Stably’s features and services with our platform which will provide the aforementioned solutions for Checksum users. From this partnership, Checksum will reserve the right to charge bips for all the on-ramp/off-ramp transactions as a form of revenue sharing with Stably for facilitating users on their services. As a result of this partnership, the XRPL ecosystem, in addition to having a dedicated Ripple affiliated stable coin that is far superior to Etherium’s USDC token in terms of transaction fees and transaction speed, the ecosystem will now also have a dedicated business payment platform for business adoption and the facilitation of commerce using the USD stablecoin via the XRP Ledger.

Parallel Development of Crossmark; Browser Extension Wallet - Sister Product

Introduction to Crossmark; bringing the metamask wallet standard to the XRPL

Whirledlabs’ vision for an XRP ledger-powered financial future does not just end with the business sector. The end users (employees, the average speculator, and consumers) also need a dedicated wallet for management of personal finances & peer to peer USD  transactions on the XRP ledger. The solution for this is a novel Whirledlabs wallet called Crossmark; an XRPL non-custodial browser extension wallet akin to Metamask that aims to significantly help proliferate the dissemination of XRPL-web3 web-browsers due to overall developer familiarity with creating the browser-extension web3 user experience.

Giving Checksum end-users a powerful wallet to manage their personal funds

On the Checksum platform, employees of businesses that use Checksum for Payroll Operations will not only have the option of providing their XRPL wallet address of choice, but to provide for a more seamless and interoperable end-user experience, employees & contractors of businesses that use Checksum for XRPL-backed Payroll Payments, will be provided with the option to create a wallet with CrossMark (a sister product to Checksum) in addition to other integrated wallet options. The advent of using the CrossMark wallet is that we will also provide Crossmark wallet users with On-ramp/off-ramp KYC functionality through a parallel partnership with Stably. Furthermore, the Crossmark wallet also has an integration with Xumm so that Xumm wallet users can also access a web3 browser based user experience from their desktop. The unique architecture design of Crossmark’s digital wallet will allow Checksum to enable better user experiences for end users receiving payments & also provide richer data insights (such as payment notifications from employers & smart-contract-like payment notifications).

High-level Overview of Checksum (dApp) vs Crossmark (Wallet)

At a high-level, the Checksum payment platform and Crossmark wallet are sister products in the Whirledlabs ecosystem that can complement each other. Checksum is the XRPL-integrated payment platform with a front end user-interface that unleashes advanced payment types for business with the touch of a button. Whereas CrossMark is the XRPL wallet that is used for web3 browsing, storage, and digitally signing/authorizing transaction types on the ledger, prompted by the Checksum platform. Please contact us hello@whirled.io if you would like to learn more about Crossmark, get access to our whitepaper, or request a demo.

Back to Checksum’s Scalable Platform Design

Checksum is providing the entire XRPL user-base with an all-in-one business payments management solution that will be akin to the likes of Paypal for instant payments and Quickbooks for facilitating on-chain accounting, invoicing, and payroll.

The following capability map for Checksum provides a high-level picture of the overall services & capabilities that will be offered:

You may click on the links to view relevant supporting resource documents.

Includes:

Latest Checksum Feature Stories Developed for CBDC Phase II

In the CBDC Phase I hackathon project, we revealed the UI for the platform and planned core features for the platform.

In this Phase I hackathon video, we also demonstrated the onboarding process for net new business users to create an account and their ability to send new invoices that were automated through email.

In this CBDC Phase II hackathon video, we demonstrate the onboarding process for adding new employees of existing Checksum business users. Furthermore, we wanted to demonstrate in our video that the data-tables are working. For instance, once the new employee user finishes onboarding and provides their information, the business operator who initiated the onboarding process for that employee, will now be able to view the employee record information (importantly, including their wallet address to receive payroll funds to) updated within the employee management database. The aim with this was to show that we have relational databases live, synced, and working. Please note that the exact same onboarding process used for adding new employees will work very similarly to onboarding new vendors as well. There are also other user story features that we wanted to highlight in the draft submission paper, that we were not able to fit into a 3-minute demo video. All the relevant user stories for Phase II are provided in the sections below.

Automated Payroll Processing on Ledger with Checksum

Checksum’s automated payroll processing feature will allow account payable/HR operators using Checksum, to schedule payroll payments or send immediate payments to employees registered in the Checksum employee database. The Payroll Management dashboard will allow operators to monitor the current payroll status for employees. The primary payment method for payroll that we plan to roll out first on our platform will be the USD ticker (Stably stablecoin) on the XRPL. However, we plan on providing additional DeFi & CeFi based payment railing options in the future as well (including card payments, bank transfers, alternative XRPL backed tokens (such as foreign stablecoins), and other digital payment network alternatives) by broadening our partnerships with payment providers over time.

User Story: Accounts Payable & HR Operators Onboarding a new employee or contractor

  1. If the employee or contractor has not been onboarded onto the Checksum payroll platform database yet, then the company operators (AP or HR) can create a new employee (or contractor) profile in the database by adding their email, name, address, and other relevant information on file (including the associated business name of the employer)
  2. Once the relevant information has been added, particularly an accessible email, then the company operator can send the new employee/contractor an onboarding email template (button available in the payroll dashboard to automatically send an email) where the recipient will be able to create an employee checksum account, add a wallet address to receive payments, and provide relevant tax & SSN information that will be updated in the employee/contractor database.

User Story: Employee/Contractor Receives a Checksum onboarding email from employer & is added to the system

  1. The new contractor or employee receives an email from the company. The email contains instructions with a link for the recipient to create a new employee/contractor checksum account that matches their email.
  2. The recipient creates a Checksum Employee payroll account & is required to create or add a wallet to their account. The options for adding a wallet are as follows:
    • Create a new wallet with checksum
    • Add an XRPL public address
    • Import an existing wallet with Seed phrase
    • We plan on adding additional wallet options in the near future

Visual of “add wallet” options

  1. Once the recipient provides the wallet information, including any other requested onboarding information, then the company will see the information updated on their end and the employee/contractor will be ready to receive payments on the XRPL.

User Story: Accounts Payable & HR Operators Sending Payroll Payments to on-boarded employees

Once the employee/contractor has completed the onboarding, then the company operator can now send payroll payments to the corresponding employee/contractor.

  • Screenshot showing the newly onboarded employee appearing in the employer’s database
  • The Company Operator fills out a form to instantiate a payroll payment & selects the employee/contractor profile to send it to.
  • The company wallet from which payment is made for the salary payment can be chosen. Remember that Checksum corporate users have the ability to create sub-accounts for different categories, similar to a treasury with designated budgets for designated departments or projects.
  • The first token we plan to make available for payments is the (Stably) USD stablecoin but for cross-border payroll payments to employees and contractors, we plan on adding additional corresponding stablecoins for those jurisdictions.
  • The Company Operator can save the payroll payment form as a draft (for completing later), delete it, or send it. A full history of disbursed funds for Employees or contractors will be available on the platform .

Note: It’s possible that we may be able to automate the payroll process further by creating a partner integrated hours scheduler (or even building out our own generic in-house hours scheduler) where our platform is primarily responsible for initiating the corresponding manager-approved-hours payments. We can also set up a payment schedule internally that requires manager approval for automatically disbursing funds.

User Story: Contractor or Employee Receives Payroll Payment

  1. The Employee or Contractor will both receive an email notification, Checksum dashboard push notification, and will see the payment as complete in their payroll dashboard.
  2. The funds will appear in the wallet that the employee linked to their account.

User Story: Contractor or Employee Wishes to withdraw funds to a bank

  1. Through our partnership & integration to the Stably platform, USD stablecoin payroll recipients will be able interoperate their funds and convert them from digital currency to fiat currency. The Checksum UI will have a section for users to navigate to the Stably platform, connect their wallet, undergo KYC, and connect their bank account to the Stably platform in order to withdraw funds from their digital XRP wallet into their traditional bank account.
  2. Stably has operations in 200+ countries, meaning that should employees of non-USD currency nations choose, they can securely save their payroll payments in USD stablecoin before then using the Stably integration to convert USD (XRPL) into the national fiat currency of choice.

Note: We may also plan on offering in-platform DeFi lending pools for users to have the option to lock their funds into the equivalent of a “savings account” for generating monthly yield on their savings that are provided to the lending pool (new feature being rolled out on the XRPL with automated market makers).

Employee Expense Processing & Reimbursements

Note: The Checksum platform is intended to have two different user type views.

  • The Corporate user type view for AP/AR operators
  • And the Employee/Contractor type view

This is relevant to point out because we intend to take advantage of the invoice form feature that AP/AR operators already use in the invoice section category, but repurpose this section for the employee user type view where employees can submit invoice requests to their company to request reimbursements and process company related expenses, similar to how AR operators send invoices requesting payment. For the AP operator of the company, they will see the employee requested expense reimbursements in the invoice section category (but there will be a tag to differentiate it as a reimbursement request). Meanwhile, the employee on their end will be able to monitor the lifecycle status of said reimbursement request.

Invoice Processing On Ledger

Checksum’s automated invoice processing feature will allow account receivable operators using Checksum, to send invoice requests to vendors and monitor the invoice status life cycle within Checksum’s UI section for invoice management. Users will also get notifications in their dashboard everytime the invoice status changes. The primary payment method for initial invoice settlement on Checksum’s platform for its planned rollout will be in the USD ticker (Stably stablecoin) on the XRPL. However, we plan on providing additional DeFi & CeFi based payment railing options in the future as well (including card payments, bank transfers, alternative XRPL backed tokens, and other digital payment network alternatives).

User Story for Accounts Receivable Operator Creating an Invoice:

  1. The Accounts Receivable Operator adds the vendor’s name & email to be saved in the database.
  2. The Accounts Receivable Operator generates a new invoice and selects the vendor profile to send it to.
  3. The Accounts Receivable Operator adds invoice details on the invoice form, including a custom email template.
  4. The Accounts Receivable Operator can save the invoice as a draft (for completing later), delete it, or send it.

Note: In Phase I hackathon video, we demonstrated the process above and the ability to automate emails from the platform for sending vendors invoices via email.

User Story for Accounts Receivable Operator Sending an Invoice:

  1. If the Account Receivable Operator sends the invoice, the recipient of the email (the corresponding Accounts Payable Operator) will receive an email and will see the subject header for the invoice, including the invoice number.
  2. The Accounts Receivable Operator can now monitor the status of said invoice in their Invoice Dashboard database. Including if the vendor has yet to pay the invoice on time or if the vendor has completed payment. They can send reminders (emails) that are generated from the Invoice Management Category of the Checksum dashboard. If the Accounts Receivable Operator needs to cancel the sent invoice or mark it as complete, they can do so from their invoice management dashboard, similar to Quickbooks’ Invoice management dashboard. When the invoice is paid by the corresponding business, the status of the invoice will update to “completed”.
  3. We would like to include more advanced payment request options as well for sending invoices, such as the ability for businesses to offer conditional payment options like:
  4. Pay Using the following link that expires in 15 days and receive a 2% discount
  5. Pay using the following link that expires in 30 days and receive 1% discount
  6. Pay using the following link(s) to break down your overall payment over the course of 2 months, etc.

User Story for the corresponding Accounts Payable Operator, processing the received invoice:

  1. When the Account Payable Operator of the corresponding invoiced business opens their email, they will see the details for the invoice which includes the XRPL wallet address to send the funds to for settlement of the requested invoice, and the token of choice to pay in, etc.The idea for the emailed invoice is that it will contain a unique payment link or QR code that any wallet can scan to send payment with any wallet, assuming that the wallet has the funds necessary to complete payment.
  2. If the vendor does not have a Checksum account and wishes to create one, the original invoice email will include a link for onboarding new users to Checksum (not necessary for completion of the invoice but it is an added convenience).
  3. If the Accounts Payable Operator has a Checksum account, in addition to getting an email, if that email is associated with their checksum account, then the checksum platform will also give them a notification in their dashboard & will provide a status update on the invoice section for pending invoices. The status for invoices will update over its lifecycle. The possible options are Reject, Accept, Pay Invoice Now, Schedule Payment for later, etc.

Funding Traditional Payment Rails for Completing Expenses off-ledger

In addition to Checksum being a XRPL Payment platform for businesses, we also want to provide the ability for businesses to track off-ledger expenses as well, much like Quickbooks does as the premier accounting software. For example, when businesses execute a direct payment on-ledger using their wallet, they can then categorize/memo the type of expense incurred for compliance, accounting, and tax purposes. Similarly, when a business needs to execute a payment off-ledger, we want to provide the means by which the business can specify what those funds will be for, so that the business can retain a high-level accounting cash management view of all their inflows and outflows of funds.

One way for Checksum to achieve this off-ledger payment processing is through the Stably integration. A business will be able to transfer funds from Checksum - through the Stably integration - to their traditional fiat banking account. From that bank, businesses can pay with a debit card, wire transfer, or funding of their credit card. In the future, we would like to develop a card & or bank partnership to provide checksum business users with the ability to directly transact funds in their wallets, with a debit card.

Potential Market Applications

Interoperability

Checksum Provides Multi-Network Support for Wallets

While the Checksum platform was initially conceived from the idea to empower businesses to interact with CBDCs, the opportunity for enabling USD stablecoin support on the XRPL was quickly made available through our partnership with Stably (Ripple’s official stablecoin partner). While Checksum plans to publicly launch with USD stablecoin support first on the mainnet, the ability to configure our network infrastructure to support private networks, CBDC networks, test networks, and NFTs are also available within the  Checksum platform. Under the advanced options section in our platform, users will be able to select a specific wallet from their list of added wallets and view their corresponding token holdings within different networks (hot swapping networks).

Considerations for different denominations of CBDCs

In order for different denominations of CBDCs to interoperate, similarly to how different denominations of stablecoins will interoperate, either the centralized application infrastructure will need to be created or the decentralized application infrastructure will need to be provided but for this to occur on ledger, we will have to wait until the automated market maker amendment is passed on the XRP ledger. The reason for this is because individual CBDCs will technically operate on their own private side chains. In order for cross-network CBDC transactions to occur, bridges b/w the main network and private side networks will need to be established. On the mainnet, wrapped CBDC coins on the mainnet AMM or integrated Dex can theoretically facilitate interoperability of CBDC coins. Either that or centralized exchanges with CBDC network support (probably banks) will need to facilitate cross-coin exchange conversion. Once the necessary infrastructure is built, we are confident in our technical comprehension of the ledger’s technology to be able to eventually provide cross-network & asset exchange support.

Considerations for different denominations of Stablecoins

While it will take some time till CBDCs roll out, Checksum has been given access by the Ripple CBDC team to test XRPL private network support that conceptually represents private CBDC networks. However, given our market opportunity to immediately empower businesses with XRPL-powered USD stablecoins, we plan to roll out the platform with stablecoin support first and CBDC support later once it is more readily available.

Sub-accounts for better internal asset management segmentation

With XRPL stablecoin support, the Checksum platform will support the ability for different stablecoins, XRPL tokens, and NFTs to be held in the same wallet. The Checksum platform also supports internal wallet segmentation through the use of sub-account functionality. Allowing corporations to hold different sub-account for holding different categories of assets, within the same wallet.

Retail-Facing Applications

While the original inspiration for Checksum was to build an interface that works with a CBDC private network for any human to interact with a CBDC, the development priority for getting to market more quickly shifted to stablecoins. As mentioned in the Interoperability section, Checksum still plans on providing cross-network, multi-asset support which includes CBDCs. However, we have the opportunity to GTM more quickly with stablecoins. With XRPL stablecoins managed on Checksum, businesses of underbanked developing nations will have the ability to conduct commerce on-ledger with each other, with a reliable stable token value on a superior payment rail technology. Business to Business payments, as well as Business to employee payments, can be conducted via the Checksum platform. Individuals from Venezuela and Haiti have already expressed deep desire for a Checksum-like application. We see those markets as prime incubator testing ecosystems for onboarding businesses that desperately require these types of services. Furthermore, in terms of integrating to existing financial systems, our partnership with Stably will provide on-ramp & off-ramp support for over 200+ national jurisdictions and currencies. In other words, businesses in any of these jurisdictions will have the ability to connect their bank accounts and convert their fiat to XRPL tokens (CBDCs, Stablecoins, NFTs, other assets) and vice versa.

Financial Inclusion

Countries with limited access to financial tools such as Venezuela, Haiti, and other underbanked populations, have developed market economies that are largely reliant on the use of USDC-Eth stablecoin or other other more risky & less efficient stablecoins. The XRPL USD stablecoin is a US regulated stablecoin built for XRPL payment rails. This means 3-4 second transaction speed and trivially small transaction costs. Providing businesses in these countries with access to superior DLT payment rail technology with a UI that provides comprehensive accounting and AP/AR tasks and operations would greatly benefit the underbanked populations of the world, allowing them to be included in the digital transformation of money, possibly serving as a disruptive incubator for testing this technology in those markets first.

For example, South American businesses largely import goods and services from the United States & vice versa. Going through traditional payment rails causes much friction, whereas going through alternative DLT systems for cross-border transactions is also common, it largely happens disconnected from traditional accounting software (off the books) because current accounting software technologies are still largely disconnected from DLT data feeds, something that may change in the near future. The advent of Checksum in this situation, is that it can not only facilitate on-chain accounting & implement off-chain accounting, but it can also facilitate AR/AP payment processing on-chain! Thus, Checksum will equalize spending power from traditionally marginalized communities through stablecoins first, and later on through access to CBDCs.

What’s Next For Checksum & Whirledlabs

This hackathon has given Whirledlabs the opportunity to create a proof of concept/minimum viable product that will largely benefit the XRPL ecosystem & empower businesses by improving their day-to-day payments processing using XRPL technology. We have pivoted our strategy to go to market more quickly by incorporating USD stablecoin support on the XRP Ledger. By going to market more quickly to test B2B payments with stablecoins, we will be able to use best practices to more pragmatically incorporate CBDC payment support once CBDCs do launch.

After winning Phase I, we went on to create a whitepaper to help readers comprehend the product’s intended capabilities, roadmap, and budget. With this information, we have submitted a grant to Ripple to request funding for furthering the development of our product vision into reality. We feel privileged and honored to have had such a highly-esteemed and diverse panel of judges. We would like to encourage you to contact us at Whirledlabs ( hello@whirled.io ) if you are interested in further discussing the products that we envisioned.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates