Munich-based blockchain startup BlockPay, announced that the pre-ICO to crowdfund the BlockPay project will commence on August 23, 2016, in cooperation with the decentralized exchange platform OpenLedger.

“The working proof of concept of our Smartcoins Wallet, BlockPay “S” and BlockPay Integrated was the first step for the BlockPay team, but to scale up to a peer-to-peer payment network – we need you to get involved. We need your support in this crowdfunding so that we can use the funds for continued development of the BlockPay network infrastructure, integrate into other leading Point Of Sale systems and kick off the development for Echo plus, add more security through enhanced Stealth transactions on the blockchain,” the website stated.

The non-dilutable BlockPay tokens are issued in the Bitshares blockchain where there is a total of 100 million BlockPay tokens ever created. During the pre-ICO, only 6.5 million will be used in Phase 1-3. The rest of the tokens will be locked into a reserve fund through multisig and used for a follow-up ICO. These reserve funds cannot be directly accessed by BlockPay.

The website further stated that the funds raised during pre-ICO will be withdrawn by BlockPay after the development team has reached important self-imposed milestones. Until then, the funds will be governed by Bitshares and selected Escrow Partners who control the multi-signature account provided by CCEDK.

“BlockPay tokens obtained during the crowdsale will be issued directly to your Bitshares wallet once the sale has ended. After the distribution, owners are free to use the BlockPay tokens at their own discretion (sell, gift, pledge, etc.) tradable on the Bitshares DEX,” it added.

The pre-ICO funds will be used for the advancement of the company and its integration into multiple networks. It will be used to kick off the development of Echo project and finish the research on the Stealth transactions project while keeping necessary compliance and operational structures as small as possible.

“With our combined experience of over 30 years in payment networks, Point of Sale, software development, and business development, we are more than well prepared to continue to reach our milestones and to deliver the ultimate platform for digital payments,” the website further explained.

In order to purchase BlockPay tokens for Phase 1, users have to send their OPENPOS TOKENS to the account - ico.blockpay on the OpenLedger exchange platform and wait for the distribution. The amount of BlockPay tokens a user will receive, will be decided by proof of transfer on the blockchain. There is a special offer running from August 20th to start of Phase 2.

BlockPay, developed by BitShares Munich, accepts all new digital currencies including bitcoin, Steem, Ethereum, Dash and Smartcoins among others. It also supports Loyalty Points and e-Receipts.