Tassat will prove that blockchain technology should be boring. The new product just recorded $800 million in transactions in one weekend

While blockchain projects usually evoke ideas of decentralization, Tassat has taken a different approach. The New York-based company created TassatPay, a private blockchain-based solution for commercial banks that allows its corporate customers to send instant payments 24/7, 365 days a year. Since 2019, TassatPay has processed over $500 billion for customers such as Signature Bank.

TassatPay allows a bank’s customers to transact with each other, although it does not allow payments between customers of different banks. With the launch of the digital interbank network, B2B customers in any member bank will be able to trade with each other. Currently there are three participating banks: Cogent Bank, Customers Bank and Western Alliance Bank. Customers completed around 400 transactions totaling over $500 million within eight hours at the start of the launch weekend.

Tassat may lack the name recognition of a few other cryptofintech disruptors, but its moves demonstrate the varied use cases for blockchain technology. As CEO Kevin Greene explained to Fortunea lack of hype among average crypto followers is intentional – Tassat’s product is exclusively for commercial, non-consumer customers, with the understanding that the vast majority of payments are business-to-business, rather than business-to-consumer, or B2C.

The landscape of B2B payments is still quite antiquated. Although digital solutions are on the rise, an estimated 40% of B2B payments in the US are still made via paper checks, with payments limited to business hours.

Greene said he saw the potential of blockchain and realized that financial institutions could use the technology for digital payments, but without the risks of decentralized systems. Instead, Tassat has built a permissioned, proof-of-authority-based blockchain—a concept that may repel the early boosters of cryptocurrencies, but one that has proven attractive to Tassat’s customers.

“We think the banks are well positioned to disrupt the disruptors,” Greene said.

Large banks have long searched for their own blockchain solutions. It was the startup R3, a consortium backed by some of the most powerful global banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, although it didn’t gain much traction. JP Morgan now has its own blockchain team called Onyx, as well as a digital currency – JPM Coin – to facilitate global payments.

Greene said Tassat is specifically targeting smaller regional and community banks with the understanding that they are less likely to develop their own bespoke payment methods. “We think it’s important for traditional banks that aren’t mega-banks to be empowered with blockchain,” Greene said.

“The theory is that all creativity exists in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley,” he added. “What we see is that when we empower banks with blockchain, they are creative, because they know their customers.”