• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 18, 2022

Sushil Prabhu, CEO and founder of Dropp, who has more than 30 years in financial services technology, is developing a pay-per-use-payment model to support smaller ecommerce transitions.

He says consumers should be able to purchase a piece of content or rent an electric scooter or other service without signing up for a subscription.

“We believe the next payment system will open the market for smaller transactions,” Prabhu says. “We are focused on the creator economy, from artists in the metaverse to musicians posting music on a digital website.”’

Prabhu estimates that 50% of consumer-related payments are less than $25. In the past few years, many of the small payments were made by credit cards.

Most ecommerce digital services like Netflix are free with online ads or require a paid subscription -- but both models are reaching saturation, and another system must be created.

Prabhu can be viewed as a trendsetter, similar to the way he describes Wyoming in its approach to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Creators wait too long to get paid after someone purchase their content -- about 90 days, Prabhu says.

He wants to change that again, similar to the way Wyoming wants to change the way payments are accepted. After living in the Wyoming for several years, on the surface one would never suspect this is happening behind the scenes of the U.S. state’s rural communities.

Looking more closely at the laws being passed in this state, which is home to less than 600,000 people, there is legislation laying the foundation for the blockchain and the crypto industries to grow.

A local power-utility company, Black Hills Energy, for example, told a media outlet in June 2022 that it entered into a five-year service agreement with the crypto mining company MineOne. The deal involved up to 45 megawatts, with an option to expand to as much as 75 MW.

The facility, which aims to use a large amount of computing power to virtually create new currency, will represent one of the largest bitcoin mining operations in the region by the end of the year.

Consumers will download an app or use a browser to sign up and access Dropp’s services. The person can fund the wallet with cash or cryptocurrency to pay the merchant.

A piece of code goes gets embedded on the company’s website. The code produces an image of a water droplet on the site in front of the content.

Clicking on it triggers a transaction. Text will pop up and verify the transaction. The consumer is not required to add their email address or any personal information. All that information remains with Dropp.

“When you enter your credit card, you share all your credentials,” he says. “This way you need not share any of your personal information, which has become very important these days. It’s not an anonymous transaction, but rather private.”

Dropp developers began working on the system in April 2020 and it officially launched in February 2022. It is geared toward a pay-per-action model — for example, paying for parking at the time needed or buying a soft drink through an electronic vending machine.  

The company has been working with a bank to expand the service, but Prabhu declined to name the company, although he did say the bank will help to fund the electronic payment in real-time.