Blackbird Pay: Web3 Payments Platform for Restaurants

Blackbird Labs, a hospitality-tech startup, is launching a new platform called Blackbird Pay, designed to offer a Web3 path to improve the economics of restaurants and change the dining experience for food lovers.

With the launch of Blackbird Pay, operating on top of Blackbird‘s new blockchain network, Blackbird Flynet, an innovation could finally here to address growing hospitality issues that are shrinking margins and eroding cash reserves: it is offering restaurants an end-to-end payments and check settlement network.  

Blackbird seeks to cut transaction costs in restaurants to an average of about 2% per transaction as compared to the usual high fees charged traditionally.

Blackbird Pay: Dining on Web3

The new system runs on the Blackbird Flynet, a layer-3 blockchain based on Coinbase’s Base chain. This ensures low and fast transaction expenses within the Ethereum blockchain.  

At Blackbird restaurants, diners can check in and pay all at once. When they arrive at the restaurant, they tap a NFC-enabled Blackbird puck at the host stand or register. This opens a check directly within the Blackbird app, where they can manage all of their dining expenses, including automatic bill settlement – no more waiting around for the check.

Furthermore, The customer’s dining profile features a Guest Value Score and essential details like dining history and VIP status. This information allows restaurants to provide tailored perks, benefits, points, and exclusive access for their customers.

Diners can select from a variety of payment options right in the app. They can split the bill among their tablemates, use points accumulated through Blackbird $FLY, pay through a credit or debit card, or combine $FLY points with a card.

The app also allows tipping, making it an all-encompassing solution for any kind of payment. Moreover, if users don’t have enough $FLY points, they can purchase more points within the app using traditional payment methods or USDC.

“In the last decade, we’ve seen great advances in restaurant technology, but we have made virtually no progress with payments, which tend to be expensive, cumbersome, and technologically opaque for most restaurants,” said Ben Leventhal, Founder and CEO of Blackbird Labs. “Blackbird Pay changes all of that and we’re excited to partner with the restaurant industry to forge a new path forward.”

Impact on the Restaurant Industry

Blackbird has already managed to secure a great number of well-known restaurants on its platform: Anton’s, Barbuto, Momofuku, and many others in New York, Charleston, and San Francisco. Blackbird Breakfast Club and Bar Blackbird help support restaurants by driving traffic during slower periods.

Blackbird Pay could make a large impact in the restaurant industry by smartly engaging customers and allowing fast and easy payments and helping the broader public see the benefits of Web3.

Editor’s note: Written with the assistance of AI – Edited and fact-checked by Jason Newey.