Problem: 

Merchants in the real world own everything but their analogous sovereignty on the Internet is non-existent.

• They have to pay for a host of centralized services from Banks to Technology companies to operate their businesses successfully 

• Their margins are crushed and all the benefits of their services are relegated to the profit making entities acting as an intermediary between them and the end-consumers

Solution: 

LedgerVendor provides a way to organize, and coordinate the merchants to help build the required toolchain for their operations with the aim of maximizing profits while aligning the incentives for all the stakeholders involved 

Why this idea?

The benefits of blockchain and crypto-based technologies are relatively common knowledge yet there are no products or services in existence that have been able to transform the broader human society in any meaningful way. My learned understanding increased my conviction in the technological platform shift loosely termed web3 and with it the promise of delivering real value to small businesses, individual service providers, and finally to the end-users.

Will people want it?

I have talked to tens of different business owners, in different markets, who depend on the legacy digital and financial infrastructure to operate their businesses, Most of them are not happy with the archaic systems, and most importantly, they pay on average anywhere between ~3-8% per transaction due to the interchange fees, assessment fees, and payment processing fees. Plus, almost all of the systems that the merchants use are often siloed and they do not have an integrated way to reward loyalty to their top customers. Having a public blockchain-based identity for their businesses that can invoice/bill and charge their customers will not only enable them to manage their critical operations in one place but also allow them to gain reputation on-chain for their services leading to more opportunities in the future. This significantly impacts the SMBs in two key ways: 1) Reduction in operational expenses 2) Via Reputation, it opens another avenue for acquiring a new class of customers.

Plus, over time, through the platform, the SMBs and the end-users will also gain access to the sophisticated financial products that are part of the broader DeFi ecosystem. All of the above, together with the native-token incentives will make the platform a 10x better experience for all the stakeholders. 

Why now?

The progress and ease of smart contract development and deployment in public blockchains recently have increased the feasibility of using them for consumer applications. For example, since the last time I wrote this blog, Solana announced a library for payments. 

Also, given the geopolitical climate and support for SMBs, the timing feels opportune to test and validate the markets with tools to drive new consumer change. Additionally, there are reasons to be optimistic given there are bills under consideration for a clear regulatory framework for Stablecoins in the US and in the UK, which I hope will provide a basis for other countries to follow. 

**How will it work?

**

How big is the opportunity?

Small businesses and individual service providers, together, form over 50% of the GDP contributing over 70% of the employment globally. Even though they make an outsized contribution to the economy, they mostly still rely on a few centralized technology providers for their mission-critical online operations. Blockchain and crypto-based incentives provide a new opportunity to give control back to the small business owners and reward their customers for their loyalty to their businesses. Enabling this ecosystem and supplementing it with a native token will immensely reduce the friction of trade and commerce. More importantly, for end-users, this will provide the context and the information they will need about a service or a product, backed by real transactional data, before making decisions.

Problem: 

Merchants in the real world own everything but their analogous sovereignty on the Internet is non-existent.

• They have to pay for a host of centralized services from Banks to Technology companies to operate their businesses successfully 

• Their margins are crushed and all the benefits of their services are relegated to the profit making entities acting as an intermediary between them and the end-consumers

Solution: 

LedgerVendor provides a way to organize, and coordinate the merchants to help build the required toolchain for their operations with the aim of maximizing profits while aligning the incentives for all the stakeholders involved 

Why this idea?

The benefits of blockchain and crypto-based technologies are relatively common knowledge yet there are no products or services in existence that have been able to transform the broader human society in any meaningful way. My learned understanding increased my conviction in the technological platform shift loosely termed web3 and with it the promise of delivering real value to small businesses, individual service providers, and finally to the end-users.

Will people want it?

I have talked to tens of different business owners, in different markets, who depend on the legacy digital and financial infrastructure to operate their businesses, Most of them are not happy with the archaic systems, and most importantly, they pay on average anywhere between ~3-8% per transaction due to the interchange fees, assessment fees, and payment processing fees. Plus, almost all of the systems that the merchants use are often siloed and they do not have an integrated way to reward loyalty to their top customers. Having a public blockchain-based identity for their businesses that can invoice/bill and charge their customers will not only enable them to manage their critical operations in one place but also allow them to gain reputation on-chain for their services leading to more opportunities in the future. This significantly impacts the SMBs in two key ways: 1) Reduction in operational expenses 2) Via Reputation, it opens another avenue for acquiring a new class of customers.

Plus, over time, through the platform, the SMBs and the end-users will also gain access to the sophisticated financial products that are part of the broader DeFi ecosystem. All of the above, together with the native-token incentives will make the platform a 10x better experience for all the stakeholders. 

Why now?

The progress and ease of smart contract development and deployment in public blockchains recently have increased the feasibility of using them for consumer applications. For example, since the last time I wrote this blog, Solana announced a library for payments. 

Also, given the geopolitical climate and support for SMBs, the timing feels opportune to test and validate the markets with tools to drive new consumer change. Additionally, there are reasons to be optimistic given there are bills under consideration for a clear regulatory framework for Stablecoins in the US and in the UK, which I hope will provide a basis for other countries to follow. 

**How will it work?

**

How big is the opportunity?

Small businesses and individual service providers, together, form over 50% of the GDP contributing over 70% of the employment globally. Even though they make an outsized contribution to the economy, they mostly still rely on a few centralized technology providers for their mission-critical online operations. Blockchain and crypto-based incentives provide a new opportunity to give control back to the small business owners and reward their customers for their loyalty to their businesses. Enabling this ecosystem and supplementing it with a native token will immensely reduce the friction of trade and commerce. More importantly, for end-users, this will provide the context and the information they will need about a service or a product, backed by real transactional data, before making decisions.