Distributed rules-based system payment systems and methods

A method comprising:

• receiving payment information associated with a payment transaction of a consumer at a merchant;
• receiving funds from a consumer financial account associated with the consumer,
• crediting virtual funds to a consumer virtual account on an event-triggered distributed rules-based system (“DRBS”),
• transferring the virtual funds from the consumer virtual account to a merchant virtual account associated with the merchant, and
• transferring the funds to a merchant financial account associated with the merchant.

A method comprising:

• receiving transaction information for a plurality of transactions associated with a merchant;
• receiving funds from a plurality of consumer financial accounts based on the transaction information;
• crediting virtual funds to an event-triggered distributed rules-based system (“DRBS”) virtual holding account and/or a plurality of consumer virtual accounts;
• transferring the virtual funds from the DRBS virtual holding account and/or the plurality of consumer virtual accounts to a merchant virtual account;
• and
• in response to the closing of a settlement period, transferring the funds to a merchant financial account associated with the merchant.