Restaurant patrons can now pay for their meals in a new, cutting-edge way.

In July, Blackbird Labs, a hospitality technology company, announced the addition of a new payments platform to its Blackbird app. The team launched the original app in 2022 to allow loyal diners to earn perks at their favorite restaurants. Now, people can pay their bills directly in the app via the blockchain, ensuring both a secure payment for the customer and a cheaper transaction for the restaurant. Here’s what you need to know about the app, payments, and a potentially controversial new feature, the “Guest Value Score.”

What is the Blackbird app?

The idea behind the app comes from Ben Leventhal, who is also co-founder of Resy and Eater. So far, Blackbird has raised $35 million.

Blackbird offers diners a mix of Resys’ reservation platform and priority notification systems and Eater’s editorial features, with articles highlighting restaurants in its network. The app also incentivizes users to become regulars at their neighborhood restaurants, with perks like welcome drinks, access to off-menu dishes, and free birthday desserts.

Blackbird also helps restaurants (which, according to TIMEpay about $89 to get access to the app) are getting serious seed money through partnerships with places like Gjelina New York, which began offering house accounts several months before it opened. Anyone who wanted (and still wants) premium access to Gjelina’s New York location can purchase the “Friends and Family” house account for $5,000, $10,000, or $25,000, which gives them access to their own reservation hotline, house account, thank-you gift, and $FLY bonuses (more on that later). According to Blackbird’s press release, the program helped Gjelina raise nearly $500,000 to open its new location. A similar partnership just launched to help reopen Sra. Martinez, a restaurant owned by Michelle Bernstein in Miami.

The Blackbird app is free to download from the Apple Store and Google Store. Users can check in to restaurants when they’re there, access loyalty rewards, and DM restaurants directly for reservations.

More than 150 restaurants in New York, Charleston, San Francisco and Los Angeles are available through the app, although the platform aims to attract thousands of independent restaurateurs. Hotspots in New York City include Bangkok Supper Club, Nami Nori, Laser Wolf, Raf’s, Temple Bar and Nom Wah, as well as Sato Omakase, Osito, SPQR and Birdsong in San Francisco, as well as Kwei Fei and Rancho Lewis in Charleston and Sweet Rose Creamery in Los Angeles.

Blackbird’s new payment system

On July 30, Blackbird launched its Blackbird Pay payment system to benefit guests and restaurants.

Guests benefit because they can pay with Blackbird’s $FLY, a fungible token stored in the app that guests can earn every time they dine at participating restaurants. They can also earn more $FLY by doing things like sharing their personal information with the app, similar to OpenTable rewards points or CashApp stars at a local coffee shop. “(It’s) like airline miles if airline miles were always 100% liquid,” Leventhal said. Fast CompanyGuests who do not have enough $FLY to pay their bill can add a credit or debit card to the app to pay via “Tap and Pay” or pay with USDC (a stable cryptocurrency).

However, payment with $FLY is a fairly theoretical premise at this point. Several restaurant owners shared TIME that they are not sure if they accept the payment method and one user stated that he could not find a restaurant that accepts this payment either.

Blackbird Pay is particularly attractive for group guests because tables can easily split the bill on their smartphones and everyone can set their own tip. Tables can also pay when they are ready to leave without having to wait for a waiter to issue the bill.

The new payment system is also designed for restaurants. Because Blackbird Pay uses Blackbird’s own blockchain, businesses are charged 2% per transaction, which can help restaurants save on credit card processing fees, also known as “swipe fees.” For comparison, the Merchant Payments Coalition reports that the average swipe fee for Visa and Mastercard credit cards will be 2.24% in 2024. Restaurants can even profit from the $FLYs collected from customers and sell them back to the app at the current exchange rate for the currency. (How Fast Company (1 $FLY is currently reported to be equal to 1 cent.) These savings could make a critical difference for individual restaurants and the industry, especially considering that 4,500 more independent restaurants will close than open in 2023.

“Blackbird Pay has the potential to revolutionize the entire restaurant business,” Roni Mazumdar, co-owner of Unapologetic Foods, said in a press release about Blackbird Pay. “The ability to save thousands of dollars per month in processing fees alone is incredible, but having a place to now strengthen ongoing relationships with our customers is a complete game changer in this challenging environment.”

Blackbirds Guest Value Score

Also new to Blackbird is the Guest Value Score. The score is calculated using proprietary metrics that Blackbird has not disclosed (we do know, however, that guests who live in the same neighborhood as the restaurant receive higher scores at their shared establishments). “The score is not absolute and actually varies based on various factors, such as whether or not you live near a restaurant,” Leventhal says.

The goal of the Guest Value Score is to help restaurants better understand and value repeat guests. The only downside for guests is that they can’t see their Value Score; only the establishments can. It allows restaurants to attract and reward repeat guests and build business by courting locals. It’s a unique premise, especially since restaurant reservations can be harder to get.

“The Guest Value Score is a data point we use to help restaurants put their guests in context and provide hospitality,” Leventhal shared gastronomy. “It’s one of several tools we’re developing to ensure no Blackbird guest ever walks into a restaurant as a stranger… Currently, only restaurants can see the Guest Value Score, but we’re considering how to communicate it to guests in the future.”

Now, diners must decide for themselves whether they are okay with restaurants collecting so much personal data about them just to be recognized as regulars. However, Leventhal believes this technological leap is beneficial, at least for the restaurant industry.

“Over the last decade, we’ve seen huge advances in restaurant technology, but we’ve seen virtually no progress in payments, which are expensive, cumbersome and technologically opaque for most restaurants,” Leventhal added in the press release. “Blackbird Pay changes all that, and we’re excited to partner with the restaurant industry to forge a new path forward.”