Founded in 2013, Omise is a venture-backed payment services company operating in Thailand, Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia. OmiseGo, created by this company, is a separately operated extension platform. It is owned by its users and token holders, not Omise.
OmiseGO (OMG) is a white-label eWallet, smart contract platform and ERC-20 token (the Ethereum code standard). OMG uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm and has a total supply of 140,245,398 with a current circulating supply of 102,042,552 tokens.
OMG is a decentralized bank, exchange, and asset-backed blockchain gateway. OMG’s ultimate goal is to be a “preeminent high-value exchange and settlement platform”. Think of a decentralized Ripple + universal remittance bridge to interconnect fragmented payment processors, legacy rails, and decentralized blockchains.
This means helping the unbanked get banking services (through their open-wallet infrastructure) and facilitating unprecedented interchangeability between the many siloed legacy rails (ACH, VISA, Paypal) and decentralized blockchains (like Ethereum). This could even potentially include more obscure assets like airline miles or loyalty points.
OMG is based on ERC-20 which defines recognized smart contract code functions across the Ethereum eco-system
This could include transferring a token or accessing general token data (symbol, supply, balance). This accelerates growth by allowing developers to leverage pre-existing components and code bases. There is a dedicated team in the hundreds with potentially thousands of auxiliary developers helping update and expand the Ethereum platform (which ERC-20 is based on).
This creates a predictable user experience and uniformity of operations without developers having to recreate, retest and relaunch blockchains. Wallets like MyEtherWallet, for example, support holding balances of any ERC-20 based token.
The problem with legacy financial network and what problems does OMG solve
Traditional payment networks like FedWire, CHIPS, SWIFT and ACH are currently in place to process local, national and even international payments. These services can extend to things such as asset exchanges and derivatives.
These centralized networks allow an entity to have unilateral control of above-mentioned legacy rails and financial services. This not only creates data security risks, but also higher costs for end users and a monopoly like market environment.
Enter the blockchain and OmiseGo
Although new rails like Paypal and Venmo create pressure for a more competitive network, the same centralized counterparty risks apply. Also, most legacy networks are typically unwilling to allow interchangeability across providers instead protecting their network with a “winner take all” mindset.
OMG wants decentralized wallet development and ability to send funds across networks
The goal is to build a fully decentralized peer-to-peer system to enable “asset agnostic” value exchange in real time on an Ethereum-based blockchain. (This means any decentralized or fiat currency pairs or ERC-20 tokens)
A Software Developers Kit (SDK) is a collection of pre-defined programming functions allowing developers to code faster and more efficiently
In the same way we “click” an app to open it, there are hundreds and thousands of lines of code behind that function. (Similar to any user interface on an operating system)
This a free open-source, white label “eWallet” model allows developers to create their own styles, designs and even custom app integrations. This could handle cross-wallet transactions, payments, transfers and even rewards points.
Omise will open up its current established base of financial services to OMG users and developers
Omise the company has an actual product and service namely being a payment processor for merchants including such giants as Alipay which opens them up to 450+ million Chinese consumers.
This is not including the potential for “unbanked” users who are many of the 6 billion cell phone users worldwide who will now have access to a banking and merchant services through their mobile device.
Due to shared capabilities from their parent company Omise, OMG developers will have access to:
- Omise maintained payment gateways
- Credit and virtual cards
- Over the counter and direct debit
- Real-time settlement of transactions
This means all the current financial services offered by Omise will be bundled along with the decentralized open-source application and codebase allowing for a blending of the best of both worlds (centralized financial services supporting decentralized technology).
So, a wallet holds a balance of funds (ledger) but how does the interchange (trading) of funds work?
This is where a decentralized exchange comes in (similar to the Bitshares DEX). The wallet shows a balance of funds maintained by the OMG ledger but to take it to the next level an exchange mechanism is required.
Orders are synchronized and validated with every block in a decentralized order book.
Through Ethereum smart contracts, ether (the name for units of Ethereum) can be locked up with the activity of the OMG blockchain and allow eWallet pairs to occur over Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, in effect creating liquidity.
What’s even more interesting about this potential is that not every payment must be on the decentralized exchange. The recent first-ever Lightning Network transaction of Bitcoin to Litecoin is a proof of concept that eWallets could leverage cross chain “swaps”.
Ultimately, the OmiseGO blockchain facilitates eWallet interchange with a decentralized exchange, cryptocurrency pair matching, order book validation, and compliant clearinghouses without ever taking full-custody of funds.
Source https://coincentral.com/what-is-omisego/