Over the past decade, Buy Now Pay Later has been widely adopted in the global e-commerce payment sector, particularly favored by younger consumers. By 2025, BNPL services are expected to account for 12% of the market share in global e-commerce spending on physical goods. With the wave of cryptocurrency, PayFi, which can provide a payment experience close to Buy Now Pay Never through innovative applications combining smart contracts and blockchain technology with decentralized finance (DeFi), is emerging for consumers.

In the evolution from 'Buy Now Pay Later' to 'Buy Now Pay Never', PolyFlow, as the infrastructure for PayFi, supports the compliant implementation and application expansion of Buy Now Pay Never by providing its core products: (1) PID (Payment ID) as the entry point for compliance access, and (2) PLP (PolyFlow Liquidity Pool) as the entry point for fund custody.

1. What is Buy Now Pay Later

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is an emerging online payment method that allows consumers to purchase products or services without paying the full amount immediately, enabling them to spread today's consumption over a certain future period. For example, a $100 purchase can be split into four installments of $25 each, usually interest-free.

This alternative payment method often appears alongside credit cards and other payment methods, becoming one of the most popular payment methods, especially favored by younger customers.

(What is buy now, pay later? BNPL platforms for businesses | Stripe)

According to data provided by Global Payments, it is estimated that in 2022, 44% of Generation Z or 37% of millennials are expected to use BNPL services for consumption. More than half of American consumers have used this service, and in Australia, nearly 10% of e-commerce transactions used BNPL services. In 2020, BNPL became the fastest-growing payment method in India and the UK. Analysts expect that by 2025, this service will account for 12% of global e-commerce spending on physical goods.

For consumers, the biggest attraction of BNPL lies in its ability to help them spread relatively small purchase costs without having to pay interest. BNPL is widely used in the e-commerce retail sector, and this more flexible payment option reduces payment barriers for consumers, meeting their needs for installment payments and deferred payments. For merchants, BNPL can also help improve sales conversion rates and increase order values. According to Stripe, merchants using BNPL services can see their revenue increase by up to 14%.

2. What is Buy Now Pay Never in PayFi?

With the explosive growth of stablecoins and the rise of the PayFi narrative, Buy Now Pay Later has clearly become a thing of the past, and a new PayFi scenario called Buy Now Pay Never is emerging.

PayFi, or Payment Finance, refers to an innovative application model that combines payment functions with financial services based on blockchain and smart contract technology. The core of PayFi is to use blockchain as a settlement layer, combining the advantages of Web3 payment and decentralized finance (DeFi) to facilitate the efficient and free flow of value.

PayFi was first proposed as a new narrative by Lily Liu, the chair of the Solana Foundation, at the 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival. In her view, PayFi is a brand new financial market built around the time value of money (TVM). These are difficult or impossible to achieve in traditional finance.

The goal of PayFi is to realize the vision of the Bitcoin white paper, building a peer-to-peer electronic cash payment network that does not require a trusted third party while fully leveraging the advantages of DeFi to create a brand new financial market, including providing new financial experiences, building more complex financial products and application scenarios, ultimately integrating into a new value chain.

(PayFi, How Solana Enables the Original Vision of Blockchain Lily Liu, Solana Foundation)

So how is Buy Now Pay Never realized in PayFi? Lily mentioned the concept of Buy Now Pay Never in her presentation, which locks in users' future earnings generated in decentralized finance (DeFi) through blockchain and smart contract technology to pay for today's consumption.

For example, if Sarah stakes $50 in assets within the PolyFlow protocol (expected to generate $5.5 in revenue after one month), she can use that $5.5 in revenue, a month later, to pay for her coffee purchase today at a payment gateway supported by PolyFlow.

This case that combines real payment scenarios with DeFi is the core expression of PayFi.

3. From Buy Now Pay Later to Buy Now Pay Never

The integration of blockchain-based payments and DeFi has given rise to PayFi. Lily eloquently explained: 'PayFi is a new financial market created around the time value of money. This on-chain financial market can realize new financial paradigms and product experiences that traditional finance cannot achieve.'

It is based on this that we can achieve a more extreme Buy Now Pay Never experience through blockchain technology than existing BNPL services.

As consumers, the Buy Now Pay Never service can provide a convenient and affordable way to purchase, promoting real-world consumption without affecting the investment returns of consumers' assets.

As merchants, the Buy Now Pay Never service can attract a broader user base (including the Crypto community), while also improving sales conversion rates and increasing order values. Merchants do not need to manage installment payments themselves; they can focus on business growth.

As a DeFi protocol, the Buy Now Pay Never service can attract more users to stake while fully releasing the liquidity of interest-bearing assets, bridging real consumption payment scenarios.

In this new PayFi financial market, it is possible to achieve efficiency improvements in Web3 payments compared to traditional finance: instant settlement, reduced costs, transparency, and global reach, while also realizing decentralization, permissionless access, asset ownership, and personal sovereignty through decentralized finance (DeFi).

Beyond these lofty terms that may seem abstract to consumers, Buy Now Pay Never is a PayFi scenario that truly brings convenience to consumers, creating a genuine Consumer Application.

4. How PolyFlow Achieves Buy Now Pay Never

PolyFlow is an innovative PayFi protocol aimed at connecting real-world assets (RWA) with decentralized finance (DeFi). As the infrastructure layer of the PayFi network, PolyFlow integrates traditional payments, crypto payments, and decentralized finance (DeFi), processing real payment scenarios in the real world in a decentralized manner. PolyFlow provides the necessary infrastructure for constructing PayFi scenarios, ensuring compliance, security, and seamless integration of real-world assets to promote the establishment of a new financial paradigm and industry standards.

It is precisely based on PolyFlow's decentralized infrastructure that interoperability with many DeFi protocols can be achieved. At the same time, PolyFlow's two powerful tools—PID (Payment ID) and PLP (PolyFlow Liquidity Pool)—serve as entry points for compliance access and fund custody, ensuring the compliant implementation and application expansion of Buy Now Pay Never services.

Recently, PolyFlow launched the Buy with Interests Program, actively collaborating with payment gateways, Crypto Payment Cards, Web3 project parties, etc., to build a new PayFi scenario experience of Buy Now Pay Never for consumers. Stay tuned!

PolyFlow is redefining how decentralized payment systems operate in the Web3 space, expanding innovative application scenarios for PayFi.