Offline payments are crucial for enabling financial resilience and inclusion in disconnected environments, such as rural areas, natural disaster zones, and low-connectivity markets. Crunchfish's innovation introduces the Offline Terminal Infrastructure (OTI), revolutionizing how offline payments are implemented at scale, both for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and commercial payment systems. Crunchfish's solution separates the roles of payment networks and payment service providers, allowing for flexibility, scalability, and healthy competition: 
 

- Payment Network Providers (e.g. NPCI, CBDCs) set the specifications and offer an interoperable offline terminal infrastructure, seamlessly embedded within payment rails to enable universal offline payment reception from third-party offline wallets. 
- Payment Service Providers (e.g. Banks and Third-Party Application Providers) innovate and manage interoperable user-centric offline wallets, empowering customers to make offline payments while fostering an open marketplace.

This modular approach provides scalable offline payment reception capabilities to millions of merchants while empowering issuers to offer differentiated offline wallet solutions to end users. 

 
Crunchfish's architecture is based on the proven Reserve, Pay and Settle model, ensuring offline payments are resilient and seamlessly reconciled with online systems. This approach also shares foundational similarities with conditional payments-programmable or smart contract payments where funds are reserved, execution is conditional, and settlement occurs securely. 

Crunchfish's OTI mirrors the successful card payment architecture developed under the EMVCo ecosystem, where card terminals ensure interoperability in payment reception while enabling issuer-level innovation. Similarly, OTI provides interoperable offline terminal infrastructure, allowing banks and TPAPs to compete by offering secure and customizable offline wallets.

Crunchfish's solution is immediately applicable to CBDCs, ensuring cash-like usability for digital currencies in disconnected environments. Additionally, commercial systems such as UPI in India benefit from this scalable offline layer. 

Crunchfish holds key patents in offline payment solutions, including secure protocols for offline payments with online settlement. With a patent granted in the US and a Notice of Allowance in the EU, Crunchfish is positioned as a global leader in secure and scalable offline payment technologies. 

Crunchfish CEO Joachim Samuelsson commented: "Offline payments are essential for building resilient and inclusive payment ecosystems. Our Offline Terminal Infrastructure redefines how offline payment systems are structured, focusing on enabling interoperability within payment rails while empowering wallet issuers with the freedom to innovate. This approach unlocks the full potential of offline payments worldwide, from CBDCs to commercial systems."

Crunchfish will present its modular offline payment approach at the Digital Cash Conference, May 28-29, Bangkok, hosted by Currency Research. CEO Joachim Samuelsson will deliver a presentation titled "Rethinking Offline Payments - A Groundbreaking Ecosystem Approach," focusing on the modular architecture, shared Reserve-Pay-Settle model, and scaling offline payments for CBDCs and commercial systems.

For more information, please contact:

Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB

+46 708 46 47 88

joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com 

The information was provided by the contact person above for publication on 21st May 2025 at 00:01 CET.

Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.

About Crunchfish - crunchfish.com

Crunchfish is a pioneering technology company specializing in Digital Cash solutions that enhance resilience, flexibility, and scalability in payment ecosystems. Crunchfish's patented offline payment architecture supports modern commercial payment systems and evolving CBDC initiatives, transforming how payments are conducted globally. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, Crunchfish drives innovation to shape the future of payments.