Blackbird Labs Rolls Out Web3-Based Payment System for Restaurants

Built on Blackbird’s new blockchain network, Blackbird Flynet, the platform offers restaurants a solution to the ongoing issue of shrinking margins and eroding cash reserves by providing an end-to-end payments and check settlement network. This new system is designed to significantly reduce settlement times and transaction costs to an average of about 2% per transaction, compared to the current rates that can go as high as 4%. Additionally, Blackbird Pay allows diners to pay using FLY, Blackbird’s native token, which is issued as a reward on the platform.

In the past decade, restaurant technology has seen minimal advancements in payment processing, which remains expensive, cumbersome, and technologically opaque for many restaurants, according to Leventhal.

Blackbird Pay enables diners at participating restaurants to pay directly from the Blackbird app using credit or debit cards, FLY tokens, or USD Coin (USDC). The app also features a unique Guest Value Score for each user, which restaurants can use to create custom points, benefits, and perks programs.

Web3 startups are making strides in the dining industry, with potential applications ranging from cost reduction to rewards program management and gamification. Notable players include DevourGO, a Web3 food delivery service. According to the National Restaurant Association, U.S. restaurant sales are expected to surpass $1 trillion in 2024 for the first time in history.

Roni Mazumdar, co-owner of Unapologetic Foods, noted that services like Blackbird could help restaurants save thousands of dollars monthly in processing fees.

Blackbird is also working on developing messaging and discovery applications for restaurants, such as Blackbird Breakfast Club and Bar Blackbird, which aim to boost traffic during slow periods.

The company secured $24 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Restaurants currently using Blackbird include Barbuto, Crown Shy, Momofuku, Nom Wah, and Saga in New York; Leon’s in Charleston; and Birdsong in San Francisco.