Strike CEO announces partnership with Shopify to allow payments via Bitcoin Lightning
Strike CEO Jack Mallers has announced new partnerships with , point-of-sale supplier NCR and payments firm Blackhawk, that will help merchants across America and the world accept Bitcoin payments using the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, Mallers announced these new partnerships as a way to bring Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies back to their original roots as a frictionless, free payments alternate to the traditional financial system.
“If we can help make the Bitcoin network more accessible and usable we believe we can change the world,” said Mallers.
The partnership with Shopify in particular will provide merchants who opt-in with the ability to receive payments from customers globally via the Bitcoin Lightning Network. However, it is unclear if this will be accessible by Indian merchants as the government of India has shown resistance towards accepting cryptocurrencies as legal tender.
“Strike’s integration enables Shopify merchants to diversify their existing payment options and reach untapped global markets and purchasing power. Strike’s integration also allows Shopify merchants to generate savings through low-cost payment processing. By instantly converting bitcoin (BTC) payments to dollars, Strike removes certain complexities merchants face in holding bitcoin,” a press release said.
The Bitcoin Lightning Network is a layer-2 technology created to make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper. Instead of requiring the main Bitcoin blockchain to verify payments, the Lightning Network allows you to make payments via a side chain.
This allows for quicker verification of payments, as well as cheaper verification as you don’t need the large amounts of energy to verify transactions on a layer-2 network compared to the main Bitcoin blockchain.
Strike CEO Jack Mallers came to global prominence last year when he played an instrumental part in the El Salvadorian announcement to accept Bitcoin as legal tender.
