Finablr’s Swych introduces blockchain-based global gifting and shopping platform using Stellar Network

Swych, a digital gifting platform which was acquired by financial services giant Finablr last month, has announced a blockchain-based platform that it believes will significantly reduce the fees and other friction points associated with cross-border gifting.

In its official release, the company said that it is introducing blockchain technology to its platform to provide “unparalleled security, high performance, and instant settlements.”

“Our blockchain-powered platform will bring long overdue innovation to the $400B gifting market, now expected to grow to $700B by 2024, by making each gift a perfect one for recipients while eliminating loss of value through any fees or foreign exchange conversions,” CEO and Founder of Swych, Deepak Jain, said.

To address the inefficiencies associated with plastic gift cards, traditional gift card networks, and distribution schemes, Swych said that it tapped the Stellar Network to enable new horizons for cross-border gifting, as well as new use cases such as loyalty redemption, employee incentives, frictionless travel shopping, and easy access to merchant offers.

With the platform’s blockchain elements operating seamlessly in the background, Swych users would be able to easily send, redeem, and swych digital gift cards without any prior knowledge of blockchain technology, and without compromising on transaction speeds, security, and flexibility of the popular Swych gifting service.

“By using the Stellar Network, Swych enables instant and secure purchases redeemable with any of their retail partners across the globe. Swych is leading the way forward in the gifting industry by integrating blockchain technology and we’re excited to see how the industry will continue to evolve,” Director of Partnerships of the Stellar Development Foundation, Lisa Nestor, said.

The Swych gifting network enables frictionless cross-border person-to-person or business-to-consumer gifting and empowers instant digital gifting transactions with zero fees, agnostic of underlying fiat currency or geography. Any gift sent through the Swych platform can be “swyched,” redeemed, and spent at any retailer on the Swych network.

“Working with Stellar and bringing the inherent advantages of the distributed ledger technology to the forefront, we intend to provide an example to the entire community of how blockchain can be used to solve a real-world problem that pretty much any consumer can identify with,” Jain said.