We are happy to announce the Request Network to the Steemit community.

First things first:

• You’ll find our website here
• Our whitepaper is available here
• And you can get involved in our slack here

What are we building?

Request is a layer built upon Ethereum which disintermediates payment requests.

What does that mean?

Every  time you receive an invoice, a receipt, or make a payment online, a  third party is used to generate and share this request. This third party  is usually PayPal, Stripe, or any accounting software.In the near future, instead of using a third party, you’ll create your request directly on the blockchain which will enable a seamless payment experience. This process carries a number of benefits:

• It will be cheaper
• It will be more secure because you won’t share your financial information
• It will be easier to pay, thanks to the blockchain interoperability between the payee app and the payer app

And this is just the beginning; Request builds upon this concept even further.

• Request works with every currency
• Request enables accounting in real time
• Request improves financial audit with smart algorithms on the blockchain
• Most interesting is the fact that Request allows machines to pay each other within a standard framework

The  network consists of 3 layers. The core layer includes the most  fundamental smart contracts used to create and detect payment requests.  The extensions layer adds taxation and business rules. Finally, the  application layer allows financial organizations to access invoices and  facilitate payments.

The bottom line is that not only do we know how to implement such a process, but we have already created a working prototype. Our team has been working on payment networks and blockchain since 2014, and we are backed by ING bank and the YCombinator which provide valuable advice.

If you want to get involved in our work, the best way to help is to review our whitepaper and highlight anything that you don’t find clear enough. 

The team looks forward to seeing you on our slack!