Emerging Applications in the PayFi Industry: AI Payments, Micro Payments, and Innovative Deposit Solutions

This article will delve into several highly promising emerging application scenarios in the PayFi field: AI payments, consumer-oriented micropayments, and innovative deposit and withdrawal solutions.

AI Payment

The combination of AI and cryptocurrency payments holds tremendous market potential and is expected to disrupt multiple industries, such as data labeling, model training, and content creation. As AI assistants become increasingly popular, the application of cryptocurrency payments will expand into mainstream industries. In the future, AI assistants may help users with everyday tasks like ordering food, shopping, and arranging itineraries.

market opportunities

• The revenue sources of the AI payment platform include transaction fees, subscription fees, and various small payment systems for AI services.
• Advantages of Stablecoin Settlement: Compared to traditional banking systems, stablecoin transactions can achieve real-time cross-border settlement around the clock, with faster speeds and lower fees, making them very suitable for AI-driven small transaction needs.

Case: Skyfire

Skyfire is committed to building a powerful and scalable payment infrastructure for AI agents and users, which mainly includes the following key components:

1. Payment and Wallet Infrastructure:

   • Skyfire Wallet Service: Provides a funding channel for global transactions.
   • Payment is authorization: Real-time settlement of USDC.
   • Micro-payment support: Assist AI agents in conducting permissionless, high-frequency, low-value transactions.

2. Open Protocol ( AI Market ): Integrate all AI-related products and services. AI agents can connect to the necessary resources and make payments through the Skyfire open protocol. This includes decentralized computing power markets, data labeling markets, automated datasets, AI model APIs, etc.

3. Identity and Verification Layer: Assign an identity (KYA) to each AI agent, providing identity identification for agents, users, and enterprises using Skyfire products. Transactions can be traced through KYA, ensuring compliance and accountability, verifying agent identities, and ensuring transaction security.

4. Integration Tools: Supports over 160 large language models, providing datasets, high-quality content, and API access to web services, and prepares integration tools for developers.

Key Success Factors

• AI Payment Layer Network Effect: Skyfire integrates AI markets and payment layers, attracting more users by consolidating various AI markets and service providers, while generating revenue for AI service providers in both Web2 and Web3, creating a bilateral flywheel effect.

• Compliance and Security: Verifiable identity (KYA) and transaction history ensure transaction security, effectively preventing fraudulent activities, and the payment authorization system further enhances transaction trust.

• Strong Community: Collaborating with LLM providers, data markets, and enterprise-level AI companies to strengthen the ecosystem. Currently, over 1,500 developers are using Skyfire's tools and services.

Consumer-Oriented Micro Payments

Blockchain-based small consumer payments combine innovative models, showcasing the immense potential of global instant settlement and decentralized protocols. By cutting out intermediaries and costs, this model could disrupt industries such as cryptocurrency trading, content creation, gaming, and live streaming, especially in emerging markets. Low commission rates, ease of cross-border payments, and high penetration of mobile devices make cryptocurrency an ideal solution.

market opportunities

• Target market: covering daily transaction scenarios for consumers such as ride-hailing, gaming, digital media, live streaming, content creators, and online communities.

• Sources of income: trading fees, revenue from partnerships with content platforms, and integrated income from decentralized finance ( DeFi ).

Case: A trading platform

The platform supports users to buy and sell Meme tokens using methods such as Apple Pay, with the following main features:

• Self-custody wallet: Users can create an account using their email and password. The platform generates embedded wallets for supported blockchains through multi-party computation (MPC) partners.

• Fee Structure: The platform charges fees on transactions to cover management costs and ensure a smooth experience. Fees are tiered based on transaction amounts, and network fees are paid by the platform to prioritize order processing.

• Referral Program: Users can earn rewards by recommending friends to use the platform. Once both the referrer and the referred party complete identity verification, both parties can receive rewards.

Key Success Factors

1. User-friendly interactive design: The interface is simple and intuitive, simplifying the buying and selling process of Meme cryptocurrencies. It supports multiple fiat payment methods, lowering the entry barrier for new users.

2. The speed of token listing: The platform's ability to quickly list popular Meme tokens is crucial.

3. Efficient recommendation mechanism: The recommendation system promotes user growth, enhances community interaction, and accelerates platform adoption by rewarding referrers and new users.

4. Compliance and Security Assurance: The platform strictly adheres to local regulations and implements robust security measures. This compliance and security framework enhances user trust and lays the foundation for sustainable development.

Case: A certain Web3 game accompaniment platform

The platform is a Web3 gaming companion platform and payment gateway, where streamers can receive small payments and tips through cryptocurrency.

Key Success Factors

• Solving the payment difficulties for creators: Traditional streaming platforms have high commission rates, long payment cycles, and geographical restrictions. This platform offers instant, low-cost blockchain payments, effectively addressing these issues. For global content creators, especially those in regions with insufficient coverage by traditional payment systems, it resolves significant pain points.

• Low-cost trading promotes income equality: the platform allows mid-tier influencers to earn higher income from trading. It eliminates commissions from Web2 platforms, ensuring that income distribution is more fair and reasonable. This is highly attractive to gig economy workers seeking better revenue sharing and faster payments.

• Achieving scalability with Web3 infrastructure: By adopting Web3 protocols, it ensures that its payment gateway is decentralized, scalable, and secure. The transparency and security of blockchain provide a trust foundation for creators and users, while also enabling the platform to meet the demand from a small number of transactions to millions of transactions daily.

• Future Directions of the Creator Economy: As the creator economy develops, the platform is taking a leading position in the fields of decentralization and cryptocurrency-native monetization. With the increasing popularity of NFTs, digital assets, and Web3 applications, the platform can serve as a comprehensive payment solution. Streamers and creators can not only earn income through regular live broadcasts but also monetize their influence through tokenized content and fan tokens.

Innovative Deposit and Withdrawal Solutions

Efficient deposit and withdrawal solutions play a key role in the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency. These solutions build a bridge for users and institutions relying on fiat currency to access crypto assets or participate in decentralized finance ( DeFi ).

market opportunities

• Rising Demand for Stablecoins: The usage of stablecoins in remittances, DeFi, and cross-border trade is continuously increasing, leading to a growing demand for the conversion between fiat currency and stablecoins. With the improvement of relevant laws and regulations, there will be greater development opportunities.

• Layer-2 and Multi-Chain Expansion: The deposit platform can integrate with Layer-2 networks and cross-chain support, reducing costs and enhancing transaction speeds, allowing users to access a diverse cryptocurrency ecosystem.

• Enhanced Accessibility: Embedded payment solutions and wallet-free access simplify the onboarding process for cryptocurrencies, attracting novice users and driving broader adoption.

• Emerging Market Potential: Deposit platforms typically leverage mobile products to penetrate emerging markets with weak financial infrastructure, while providing enterprise-level tools and collaborating with payment partners to access institutional and traditional payment networks.

Case: A new type of Web3 bank

The bank provides users with a seamless and zero-cost conversion experience between fiat currency and cryptocurrency. Its main product features include:

• Tokenized Deposit: Presenting fiat currency in the form of ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Each token corresponds 1:1 with the fiat currency held in custody, ensuring stability and credibility. The system supports instant, transparent transactions and can seamlessly integrate with DeFi services.

• NFT-based account access: Users receive a unique non-fungible token (NFT) as a digital identity for account access. This method replaces traditional usernames and passwords, enhancing security and user control. The NFT is stored in the user's blockchain wallet and is used to access services.

• Debit Card Integration: Provides a debit card linked to the user's account, supporting spending at merchants worldwide. Users can top up the card through the decentralized application (dApp) and view the balance in the specified currency.

• Compliance Assurance: The bank is regulated by regulatory authorities. The platform complies with anti-money laundering ( AML ) requirements and undergoes regular financial and regulatory audits to ensure user compliance and fund safety.

Key Success Factors

• Strong network effects: Establishing tokenized deposits as a universal standard to promote interoperability and build a self-reinforcing ecosystem that connects traditional finance ( TradFi ) and decentralized finance ( DeFi ).

• Regulatory advantages and cost leadership: With a banking license obtaining endorsement from the traditional financial system and access to the SWIFT/SEPA network. This regulatory status allows it to offer highly competitive prices to partners and users, making it a trustworthy and efficient web3 banking solution.

• Integration of fiat and cryptocurrency: By tokenizing bank deposits, facilitating instant fiat-cryptocurrency conversions, and synchronizing on-chain/off-chain ledgers, seamlessly connect traditional finance with decentralized finance to create a smooth and user-friendly ecosystem.

• Scalable partnerships: Provide integrated Web3 banking solutions that easily integrate with major wallets and exchanges, expand application reach through revenue-sharing models, drive network growth, and enhance platform utility.

Conclusion

Blockchain has tremendous potential in redefining the global payment system. From AI-driven microtransactions to consumer small payments, and to fiat to cryptocurrency conversion solutions, PayFi innovations address the long-standing inefficiencies of traditional finance while opening up vast market opportunities. The integration of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and decentralized finance paves the way for scalable, secure, and cost-effective solutions.

PayFi is like a bridge, leading us towards a more inclusive, transparent, and efficient financial future. Although it still faces challenges in regulation and infrastructure, the outlook is clear, and the future is promising.