Digital Garage Partners with JCB and Lawson for Stablecoin Payment Pilot

Key Points of the Article

• The pilot experiment will be conducted on the 20th at one Lawson store.
• Testing USDC payments through the base app.

Basic Agreement Among Three Companies

Digital Garage, an IT-related business, announced on the 19th that it has signed a basic agreement with JCB, a major credit card company, and Lawson, a leading convenience store chain, to conduct a pilot experiment for in-store payments using stablecoins. The focus will be on verifying use cases where foreign visitors to Japan use the US dollar-pegged stablecoin "USDC" for in-store payments.

During the pilot, users will employ a user-prompted payment method (CPM method) where the barcode of the stablecoin wallet address displayed on their smartphones will be scanned by Lawson's store terminals. The compatible wallet will be the "Base App" developed by the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, utilizing USDC that circulates on the company's blockchain infrastructure, "Base."

The roles of each company have also been clarified. JCB will provide the payment web interface and barcode generation functionality, establishing a system to settle sales in legal currency on behalf of the merchants.

Digital Garage will supply the payment API and backend system, providing technical support during the pilot. Lawson will offer the store environment and manage the integration between the store's POS system and JCB's payment services.

The technology connecting Lawson's store POS and JCB's payment services will utilize the technology from Canal Payment Services, which handles code payment processing.

Overview of the Pilot Experiment

The pilot experiment will take place for one day on the 20th at the Lawson Gate City Osaki Atrium store. The target users will be limited to stakeholders from JCB, Lawson, and Digital Garage participating in the pilot.

Verification items include the feasibility of the payment flow, integration requirements with the store's POS system, impact on cash register operations, time required to complete payments, and usability of the web system for users.

Background

In January of this year, Digital Garage began collaborating with JCB and major financial institution Resona Holdings, Inc. (Resona HD) to implement stablecoin payments in society. This basic agreement is positioned as part of that collaboration.

Additionally, JCB agreed to collaborate with a related company of Circle, which issues USDC, as reported by Nikkei on July 13. At that time, it was said that they planned to start testing USDC payments at one store in Tokyo, which sees a high number of foreign visitors, within the year and consider expanding to other merchants.

Through this pilot experiment with Lawson, Digital Garage is advancing the establishment of a payment ecosystem in Japan.