Free PEY 3D-Printed Bitcoin Payment Terminals Are Spreading Across Germany
Entrepreneur, Ricardo Ferrer Rivero has developed a working prototype of a 3D-printed Bitcoin payment terminal called PEY. The PEY terminal uses iBeacon technology, so that users who have the PEY app installed on their phone, will receive a push notification informing them that a local retailer accepts Bitcoin payments.
Rivero’s inspiration behind creating PEY was to make it even easier for customers to pay with Bitcoin. With a single swipe from their home screen, the PEY app will load and is ready to complete a transaction. The PEY terminal transmits payment information via NFC, or the user can scan a QR code to complete the transaction quickly and easily. Because the PEY app communicates directly with the PEY terminal, users don’t have to search through apps to find their Bitcoin wallet.
Also read: BitPay Reveals Answer to Apple Pay: One Tap Mobile Bitcoin Payments
Twelve retailers in Hanover, Germany have already started accepting Bitcoin via PEY including a cafe, supermarket, travel agency, bakery, restaurant, hair salon, and a pub. An additional 38 locations have agreed to start accepting Bitcoin and are expected to receive their own PEY terminals soon. Rivero is delighted that so many retailers have signed up so far and wants to grow to 100 merchants. Currently, merchants have good a reason to sign-up because PEY is giving its terminal and its software away for free.
In regards to charging for its system, Rivero said,
We currently charge no fee, basically because we see ourselves as a hardware company. So we’re giving it to people and trying to learn from it.
The prototype version of the PEY terminal uses an Android phone as its processor, but Rivero hopes to be able to replace this with a Raspberry Pi in the next version, in order to make the technology as widely available as possible. The PEY app is now available in the app store, and more information on the project ca be found on their website.
Image from PEY and Shutterstock.
