GRAFT NETWORK

But have you ever wondered why you can’t pay for your dinner at any restaurant with cryptocurrency, especially after the increase in value they have enjoyed? The problem is, most existing cryptocurrencies are not designed specifically for point-of-sale.

Today i am going to tell you what Graft is and how it is being designed to function. Towards the end of the article, i also made a video showing how to use the Graft wallet .
The aim is to help you really understand the goal of the project , so that you can better visualize its potential. I started doing research on cryptocurrency several years ago, and it didn't take long for me to realize that cryptocurrencies are designed with the primary goal of being a currency, having the potential to be the future of our financial world.

Fungible and fast, like cash

Safe and immutable like a check book

Ubiquitously compatible, with fast transaction authorizations and credit facilities like credit cards

Decentralized, without a single point of control, like bitcoin

OBJECTIVE AND AIM

Their aim as decentralised digital currencies is to become a replacement for centralised and privately owned fiat currencies created and controlled by the central banks of the world. Unfotunately however, despite being brilliantly designed to potentially replace fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies were not designed to replace or even work along side with already existing payments systems, this is something that is extremely important to understand.
In order for you to really understand what the Graft network is all about, you really need to understand this difference. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or litecoin are decentralized currencies or online cash. Their network simply allows its users to send cryptocurrencies between each other, not to provide payment services or payment solutions. This is one of the main reasons cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or litecoin have not gained any sort of attraction in becoming adopted for everyday use other than for perhaps online payments or as a speculative investment. Consumers and merchants around the world have become accustomed to utilising a variety of features and services provided by payment platforms that provide payment solutions Cryptocurrencies that are primarily designed as currencies are not payment platforms or payment solutions

AN ANALOGY FOR UNDERSTANDING THE GRAFT NETWORK

Lets imagine that (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash and Monero) are to the (Dollar, Euro, Pound and Yen), as the Graft network is to the Visa or Mastercard networks. Visa and Mastercard allow consumers and merchants to transact with each other through the use of their network via debit cards and credit cards and provides them with a wide variety of features and services.
This is similar to what the Graft network intends to do, but it will do it for the world of cryptocurrencies. Graft aims to be a global decentralised payment processing network which brings to cryptocurrencies all of the features and services consumers and merchants have become accustomed to utilising for over half a century. Their objective is to make cryptocurrencies as easy and convenient to use as debit cards and credit cards. You can think of Graft as a Visa or Mastercard of cryptocurrencies but it doesn't just stop there. Graft also aims to be a universal payment platform, so it won't just be limited to accepting cryptocurrency payments. With Graft, merchants will also be able to accept all sorts of payment options like Visa, Mastercard, American express, Discover, Paypal, Amazon payments, Apple pay, Samsung pay, and any other payment service that is available for us to use anywhere in the world.
Graft is being built as a decentralised one stop payment network that can process all sort of payment options including the one we have all come to love which is cryptocurrencies.

HOW DOES GRAFT INTEND TO DO ALL OF THESE OR HOW WILL IT WORK

Well first of all, if you have been around the cryptocurrency space for a while, you will know that the two biggest challenges cryptocurrencies face in obtaining mainstream adoption is being too slow for merchants to accept its payments and being too volatile where merchants risk loosing value on any goods they sell.

Graft intends to solve both of these problems by mimicking the way debit and credit card transactions are processed, and it will do it in a way that keeps the entire process decentralised. Understanding the Graft network really isn't difficult once you understand the little of how debit and credit card transactions are processed.
Lets quickly break down the steps to get a better understanding
There are two steps to every debit and credit card transaction, they are:-
Authorization and Settlement

• Authorization
  This occurs the moment you swipe your debit or credit card through a merchants point of sale terminal. This is where the merchant is informed by the card's network whether the transaction is approved or declined. This step takes about three seconds or less.
• Settlement
  This occurs behind the scenes and it is where the funds are debited from your bank and deposited into the merchants bank. This step takes about 2-3 days.

Graft intends to solve this low cryptocurrency problem by mimicking the debit card transaction process and utilize what i call supernodes to authorize transactions and miners to settle transactions. Authorisation on the Graft network will take about 3 seconds or less, and the settlement will occur within a few minutes. Graft also intends to solve the price volatility problem by utilizing what they call service brokers which will allow merchants to not only receive payout in their cryptocurrency of choice, but also in their local fiat currency.
Graft is a decenetralised payment network which means it runs on its own blockchain. The Graft team has decided to implement cryptonote as an underlining transaction recording protocol, this is the same protocol that is used to run the monero blockchain, and even enables all transactions on the Graft network to be secured, completely private and untraceable. This means that their blockchain is based on proof of work and is supported by miners which earn block rewards for helping sell off transactions. The supernodes which are based on proof of stake earn their rewards by provided instant real time authorizations. The service progress which will felicitate crytocurrency and fiat currency exchanges as well as various other services are hosted on top of supernodes and charge a fee everytime this service is used.
In order for Graft to compete with additional payment systems, it needs to provide merchants with the same set of tools they currently have at their disposal, by this i mean the same transaction types in payment flows after they have been accustomed to utilising.

PROBLEM GRAFT IS SOLVING

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin don't offer transaction types most merchants rely on when transacting with consumers. An example of this would be a transaction type known as Pre-Authorisation or ''PreAuth''

Pre-Authorization

Pre-authorization is a debiting credit card transaction commonly used at gas stations restaurants, hotels and environments alike. It is where the consumer swipes their card first prior to knowing the total amount of the transaction. The merchant then completes or finalises the transaction once the amount is known. This is something that is not currently possible with cryptocurrencies and it is a major roadblock on the road to mainstream adoption.
Graft intends to solve this problem by offering consumers and merchants the flexibility of using cryptocurrencies with a wide variety of transaction types similar to how they can with traditional payment systems. This will enable consumers to use their favorite cryptocurrency for everyday purchases anywhere Graft is accepted. Graft will also offer its users the ability to transfer funds in three different ways which is unique to the Graph blockchain. These are:-

• SEND
• PAY
• TRANSFER

SEND

The SEND option is similar to how users on other blockchain transfer funds, and its speed is dependent on the blockchain's time. For example, if you use Bitcoin, you would know that with this option, the sender is responsible for initiating the transaction and is also responsible for paying the transaction fee, you can think of it as the ''Bank wire Transfer'' of cryptocurrencies, slow but still way faster than traditional bank wire transfers.

PAY

The PAY option which is unique to the Graft blockchain allows its users to pay at any Graft enabled point of sell terminal or the Graft point of sell app instantly and in real time. This option is based on Graft's real time authorization technology and is supported by the Graft's supernode, in this case, the merchant is the one who initiates the transaction by requesting a payment from the buyer. It is extremely important to know that with this option, the payer does not pay any transaction fees. The merchant is the one who is responsible for the fees, and as far as i am aware, there is no otherblockchain out there to offer such a feature. This is similar to how consumers and merchants have become accustomed to transacting, and you can think of it as paying with a debit or credit card by using your favorite cryptocurrency instead.

• Zero fees to the buyer
  Graft transaction fees are always charged to the merchant, just like with traditional credit card payments. Small purchases with cryptocurrency will be finally affordable
• Pay Anywhere with Major Cryptocurrencies
  GRAFT allows using your favorite cryptocurrency at point of sale
• Easy Top-up’s and Exchanges
  Quick exchanges enable transfer among currencies at the time of payment, enabling “pay with any currency” features

TRANSFER

Finally, we have the TRANSFER option. This option also unique to the Graft blockchain and initiated by the sender allows users to transfer funds without either of them paying any transaction fees.

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This option is similar to a free bank ACH transfer, but instead of it taking hours or even days to recieve funds, it will only take a few minutes. It is important to know that the transfer fee will only be available to Authenticated Graft network users. Graft network participants will have the option to proove their identity to the network using zero knowledge proof authentication technology without having to compromise their privacy. This brings me to the next very important point.
In order for Graft network participants to remain compliant with anti-money laundering regulations, Graft will provide resources for machine based identity verification and fraud detention via its supernodes. Graft will also be providing a User Management Service which would allow users to share identity attributes such as name, age, sex, home address or any sort of identity information merchants are required to obtain in order to legally complete a transaction. The User Management Service will come with advanced authentication features such as multi-factor authentication with biometrics allowing users to gain access to their accounts through combination of elements. This will also help prevent inexperienced blockchain users from having lost key problems,, allowing them to regain access to their accounts form a variety of devices. Graft will also allow network participants to take a risk based approach to every transaction by assigning a reputation score for every user on the network. The users reputation score can be seen as something similar to a credit card score and will be dynamically updated based on their interaction with the network. Users will aslo have the option of linking their identity to their accounts which will help raise their score. Consumers and merchants will then be able to view each other's reputation score and quickly determine whether or not they like to proceed with a transaction

OTHER UNIQUE FEATURES GRAFT PLANS TO OFFER AS PART OF ITS PAYMENT PLATFORM

• A native Multi-Cryptocurrency Wallet
• Merchants Smart Contract Tokens
  Merchant token is a predefined smart contract that allows creating a private token that belongs to its owner. Unlike some other smart contracts and token platforms, creation of GRAFT merchant token does not require any programming and can be done by anyone.
  
  This will allow any merchant to implement those important business features with minimum efforts and low cost. All the merchant token fees are paid to the current supernode authorization sample.

It is extremely important to know that with this option, the payer does not pay any transaction fees. The merchant is the one who is responsible for the fees

The merchant always pays the token transaction fee, which means the buyer never pays the fee. Transaction fee is applied to each transaction with a merchant token, including adding, issuing, and redemption.

• Vchains
  
  With respect to this, merchants can now create their own private Vchain, which is only accessible only by this particular merchant and will contain all information about its tokens. Vchain will allows connecting multiple points of sale or even creating a chain of multiple stores.
  VChain Fees
  There is initialization annual fee for creating a new Vchain smart
  contract, and renewal fee. Those fees are required to securely process
  the smart contract and prevent system abuse.VChain Fees
  There is actually an initialization annual fee for creating a new Vchain smart contract, and also a renewal fee. These fees are actually required to securely process the smart contract and help prevent system abuse.
• Decentralized Crowdfunded Credit Cards
  This category consists of credit consumers, credit providers, identity providers, and merchants (sellers).

Anyone with GRAFT Wallet (a free app) can become a credit consumer. Anyone with GRAFT Wallet and a positive balance can become a credit provider. Anyone with GRAFT Point of Sale (a free app), or a third-party point of sale integrated with GRAFT SDK, can become a merchant.

FEATURE COMPARISON – GRAFT VS. OTHER CRYPTOCURRENCIES FOR PAYMENT PROCESSING APPLICATIONS

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SECURITY

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I will like to talk about few points from the table above.

Transaction fees

From the table above, you can see the Transaction fees comparison section.

The merchant always pays the token transaction fee, which means the buyer never pays the fee.

If you are send cryptocurrency to a friend, it will be free at least for small amounts of transactions
For a small purchase, if you have ever used Paypal for ebay i.e. to sell something, for a small amount, the fees can get costly. If you take a look at the the table, you can see that there is already an initial fee of $0.5, then a percentage. But with Graft, they are saying 1 cent per transaction. 1 cent for me is really amazing, its about as low as you can get.

Security

Security and protection are important part of any business, industries, or payment ecosystem. The highest level of security can be achieved if security is part of the system design rather than an add-on created after implementation is done. The security of any payment system is not just information security but has to include financial security as well. Also, in addition to standard security features inherited from its predecessors, GRAFT plans to implement several enhancements from which both buyers and merchants benefit.

• Untraceble transactions
  Some cryptocurrencies for example, Bitcoin and the like have been billed as the payment method of the future. However, many people have wrongly believed that cryptocurrencies are anonymous like cash and don’t really understand how a person's identity can be revealed.
  While the Bitcoin technology can support strong anonymity, the current implementation is usually not very anonymous. Bitcoin and the majority of other transactions are pseudo-anonymous, because transactions takes place via pseudonyms (addresses) that can originally be traced back to the parties when clustered together.
  But Graft's transactions are untraceable, unlinkeable, and anonymous with invisible transaction fee and fee amount. Bitcoin is said to be 'transparent' with transaction fee and amount visible. All transaction data are published online. Anyone can see the flow of Bitcoins from address to address. This so called transparency of transactions is the reason that the currency is not anonymous.
  A quick analogy: Lets say a large number of people in a large hall wanted to exchange money while remaining anonymous. They do so by all wearing masks! Are the participants anonymous? Sort of: no one can immediately tell who any individual is, but this arrangement allows anyone to observe how money changes hands. If anonymous Eve gave Alice a coin, Eve can monitor the blockchain (the transparent ledger of transactions) to trace the coin for its entire life span. So we see that Bitcoin is not really anonymous
  
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  From the image above, anyone can see the flow of Bitcoins from address to address. Alone, this information can't identify anyone because the addresses are just random numbers. However, if any of the addresses in a transaction's past or future can be tied to an actual identity, it might be possible to work from that point and guess who may own all of the other addresses.
  With Graft, there is optional zero-knowledge proof user authentication hence anonymous accounts and transactions
  

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GRAFTS AVAILABLE SERVICES

1. GRAFT MOBILE WALLET

This is a wallet application designed to manage your GRF holdings as well as set up the “top up” rules between other currencies, credit cards and GRAFT.
The applications are in alpha state, and while designed to be functional on Graft test network, have not been rigorously tested and are not feature complete.

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Below is an animation video i personally made on how to use the Graft wallet, it easy and simple

2.GRAFT CRYPTOFIND

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All Crypto – Friendly Venues Are Finally Listed in this App designed by Graft Blockhain technologies. It actually discovers nearby venues or locations that accept cryptocurrencies as payment. Basically, it’s a self-spreading network, linking crypto buyers and merchants.
The network intends to rid the issues that the current cryptocurrency payment system is facing, eliminating long waiting intervals and high fees per transactions.

Users also have the ability to earn rewards by encouraging companies or persuading them to accept cryptocurrency as payment and then to enlist on the application. Merchants benefit from this as their client base, customer size will expand and serve people who are comfortable buying with cryptocurrency.

So as a smart guy that i am, i will naturally use those crypto-friendly venues instead of others.

Check out this video made by the Graft team on how Cryptofind works

3.GRAFT MOBILE POS

GRAFT aims to undercut existing merchant and POS solutions by reducing the fees and confirmation times involved in transactions.

4.Graft Verifone Integration

GRAFT is one of the first applications on the platform and first one to enable cryptocurrency payments using Verifone’s terminals.

After working closely with the Verifone team over the last six months on developing and certifying GRAFT Network integration using Verifone’s brand new Connect application platform, we’re proud to announce passing of the main phase of the rigorous certification process as of the end of last week, making GRAFT one of the first applications on the platform and first one to enable cryptocurrency payments using Verifone’s interactive series payment terminals.

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The integration app is running on the RTA Testnet, so not yet compatible with the Mainnet (pending Full Supernode release), and some of the configuration options are pending Verifone platform updates. However, merchants and other eco-system participants can start testing things out in preparation for the launch on Mainnet.

Overall, we’re very happy to be partnering with Verifone, excited about the push into enabling alternative methods of payment and other interactive applications on their formidable new terminal platforms.

SUMMARY

Graft is based on CryptoNote protocol and Monero code, which provides a higher level of privacy, untraceability, and unlinkability of transactions, right “out of the box”, without any additional actions or fees required from either buyer or merchant. So each payment on Graft network is “visible” only to the merchant and buyer involved in the transaction, just like in the real world of credit card payments, or in fact even better as there is no central authority in between.
With all of these features combined, I believe Graft has a potential of completely reshaping the entire payment industry, by bringing decentralization and making cryptocurrency payment easy, faster and cheaper to use.
When i first heard about bitcoin, i felt it had the potential of giving us a world where we can be free of the control of financial institutions, but the more i learned, the more its limitations became apparent. Bitcoin can not bring us to that ideal world on its own as it is not designed to replace the way consumers and merchants have become accustomed to transacting.
People always want to use bitcoin because they think it is faster, easier and cheaper to use, but it actually isn't. In my opinion Graft is much closer to bringing us that ideal world that we are all looking forward to.

You can visit the links below to get nore info on what Graft is more about.

GRAFT NETWORK WEBSITE

GRAFT NETWORK WHITEPAPER

GRAFT NETWORK TWITTER

GRAFT NETWORK BTCTALK

GRAFT NETWORK FACEBOOK

GRAFT NETWORK REDDIT

GRAFT NETWORK YOUTUBE

GRAFT NETWORK MEDIUM

My tweet is below

https://twitter.com/ChukwuGeorge12/status/1018698148569640966

- ChukwuGeorge12

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