Blockchain company Empowa, which specializes in providing affordable home loans to low-income African households, recently announced the integration of the Hedera decentralized ledger in its platform. 

The integration will enhance the speed and ease of fiat payments from tenants and service providers on Empowa’s payment tracking app, Empowa Pay. 

The details  

• In a blog post, Empowa announced the incorporation of the Hedera Hashgraph alongside Cardano into its ecosystem.
• According to the announcement, the integration will enable Empowa to monitor and record transactions while maintaining the familiarity of traditional payment methods for tenants.
• The company said Hedera’s strategic partnerships with African financial institutions made it perfect for Empowa Pay. 
• The Hedera decentralized ledger offers the blockchain company security, transparency and efficiency it can leverage without detracting from existing Cardano-based operations. 
• Recognizing that tenants in emerging markets will be unlikely to adopt cryptocurrencies for rental payments soon,  Empowa disclosed its strategy to integrate with conventional payment channels. 
• Empowa also noted that its Trade and Save products plan to incorporate Cardano and Hedera in the long run to improve market adoption. 

Key quote 

• Speaking with Mariblock about the partnership, Greg Schneider said:

“By working with Hedera who has already been actively integrated into existing financial systems, Empowa Pay can better facilitate the recording of payments, reducing the risk of delayed or inaccurate data entry.

This integration allows for potential smart contracts on both Hedera and Cardano, enabling proactive actions based on such financial information.”

How this works

• Via the integration, Empowa Pay can now record, with confidence, a payment made through a legacy system that has been recorded on Hedera by that provider. 
• The record on Cardano can then reference the transaction ID on Hedera should anyone want to verify it, enabling Empowa to leverage the benefits of the distributed ledger. 
• This new system positions Empowa Pay as the central hub, gathering data from different decentralized sources for easier comprehension while users can cross-verify information by checking the respective blockchains.

Zoom out

• Although this integration has the potential to make tenant rent payments seamless, it also highlights the need for African blockchain companies to abstract on-chain technology to increase adoption. 
• According to Schneider, Empowa aims to meet customers where they are and record their current behaviors on-chain. 

“ If our tenants can make payment, in the same way they always have and, in the background, [these payments are] recorded on-chain, providing the transparency needed for fundraising and activating a series of actions based on smart contracts needed for cost saving, then we have achieved our mission,” he said.