The CEO of Lightning Network wallet Strike says the payments platform is teaming up with point of sale giants Shopify, NCR and Blackhawk Network to revolutionize the payments industry.
In a speech at the Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami, Jack Mallers announced that any Shopify-supporting website can now process Bitcoin (BTC) payments on the Lightning Network.
“This year… have you guys ever shopped at any of [the list of retailers below]?
This is not in another country. This is not a test pilot somewhere – no. This is in the United States of America. You’re going to be able to walk into a grocery store, to Whole Foods, to Chipotle… You want to use a Lightning node over Tor? You do that. You want to use the Cash App? You do that… If Chipotle wants Bitcoin, I’ll give them Bitcoin, I’ll settle in Bitcoin.”
Mallers goes on to criticize the “boomer payment networks from 1949” calling Bitcoin payments “better” and “instant dollars.”
“[Bitcoin is] a new, superior payments rail that is finally embedded and distributed into our lives.”
The announcement brings huge promise for adoption as many of the announced retailers are major mainstream players in the US economy.
Widely-followed crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe reacted to the news on Twitter.
“BREAKING: Strike partnering with POS, so you can pay at McDonald’s, Walmart and more with Bitcoin this year.
Adoption is going wild.”
In September 2021, the Strike CEO seemingly foreshadowed yesterday’s announcement, predicting that Bitcoin had the power to disrupt the payments industry.
“We’re using Bitcoin to make tweeting at someone as easy as sending money to someone, anywhere in the world, any time, any place, any currency, it doesn’t matter… You have absolute payment disruption that’s been a long time coming.”
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