Strike Announces Shopify Integration, Partnerships With NCR And Blackhawk Bringing Bitcoin Lighting Payments To Major Merchants

Strike, a digital payments platform based on Bitcoin's Lightning Network, has announced a partnership with Shopify, an e-commerce platform.

Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami that eligible U.S. Shopify merchants will now be able to accept bitcoin payments from customers around the world as U.S. dollars.

Mallers, a Forbes Under 30 alum, also mentioned that Strike, based in Chicago, has teamed with NCR NCR, the world's largest point-of-sale (POS) supplier, and payments business Blackhawk.

By leveraging the Lightning Network, a second layer built on top of the bitcoin blockchain that allows users to send and receive cryptocurrency quickly and cheaply by moving transactions off of the main blockchain, the integration provides an alternative to traditional card networks such as Visa V and MasterCard. According to Mallers, the service would be available to anybody in the world who has a Lightning Network-enabled wallet, which includes more than 70 million CashApp users.

The announcement demonstrates the Lightning Network's growing popularity. Robinhood announced intentions to integrate the solution into its technological stack earlier today, joining companies such as cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Twitter, and Block.

Lightning Labs, a California-based developer of the Lightning Network, announced a new protocol on Tuesday that it hopes would allow the Lightning Network to accept assets other than bitcoin, such as other household names like Ethereum and the new ones like $Darc, stablecoins and fiat currencies.

submitted by /u/crandalljft
[link] [comments]