I asked some colleagues curiously, as to why the ATMs I tried using for the day kept failing. Although, I know how difficult it is to get cash from the machines these days due to the limited cash flow of the redesigned Naira notes, my account had been debited without me getting my cash on several occasions. Upon reading some news recently, I stumbled on this summise and it answered some of the questions I had deep down on the subject:
Firstly, most times when Network latency occurs, the ATM or POS machines cannot communicate quickly enough with the bank’s core infrastructure, from where the transaction request will be relayed to the switch. The delay most at times can cause the transaction to take longer than the ATM’s or POS's expected processing time, which then leads to a failed transaction.
The high failure rate with these switch operators isn’t always their fault as banks and other payment gateways tend to experience glitches more frequently than is attributed to the switch.
Blockchain has been the solution to the problem and is being used as a payment switch solution in Nigeria.
A switching company is one which facilitates payment-related communication among different payment service providers.
Nigeria’s leading switching companies include; Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), Interswitch, Flutterwave and recent Zone network which is a product built on the Hyperledger Fabric, an open-source, enterprise-grade blockchain framework. The zone network of course needs access and a licence to use or build on the protocol. It is gaining adoption and attention, with more banks and payment systems. With it still in its current test phase for most of the queued up organization requiring its service, it has shown progress and promise of excellent service delivery.
Is it a step in the right direction, if countries or business/banking organizations turn to a new switching network in this inflation times?
Will countries trying to adopt massive cashless economy benefit positively if they adopt a new switch network?
Will more cost be incurred during such change or more cost saved?
https://www.mariblock.com/exclusive-how-blockchain-is-processing-1-million-worth-of-atm-transactions-daily-in-nigeria/