Prototype for new payment systems in mechanical and plant engineering
Together with project partners, Festo is developing a solution for M2M offline payment with digital money tokens.
4 Feb 2025Share
The digital transformation of industry also requires a further development of bank money and existing payment methods, which is currently taking place under the heading Commercial Bank Money Token (CBMT). The German credit industry, for example, is working intensively on the topic of CBMT as an association of the credit industry's central associations. The aim is to tokenize bank deposits so that they can be used directly for payments. In this context, Festo has worked together with DG Nexolution, DZ BANK and Giesecke+Devrient to develop a solution in a project that allows machines to digitally pay each other (machine to machine – M2M) in a pay-per-use model and to do so offline.
The solution's offline capability is crucial.
In this case, “offline” means that the machines are not connected to the public internet or a company network. The machine itself can store digital tokens, just like a physical wallet. Data exchange for payment is either wired via Ethernet or wireless via Bluetooth, NFC or WLAN. This means that the technology can also be used in secure areas or in challenging environments such as mining. It can also be used for older machines that cannot be integrated into networks.
Closer integration with financial processes
Since the machines themselves hold the tokens, CBMT payments can be processed securely and, above all, finally, even in offline situations. This makes offline CBMT an interesting proposition for all companies that use machines and want to integrate their production processes more closely with their financial processes. By using the technology, payments no longer have to be processed in downstream processes.
Demonstrator for usage-based payment
Pay-per-use also allows companies to avoid having to purchase expensive machines and instead pay for them based on use. Another possible application of this technology is to offer software on a subscription basis, even when offline. This involves checking the software usage authorization while also ensuring secure billing. Until now, this was only possible in a SaaS (Software as a Service) model in the cloud or on-premises. The partners have developed a demonstrator for this solution, which can currently be seen at the Festo Experience Center in Munich.
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