South African grocery giant ‘Pick n Pay’ intends to accept Bitcoin in all stores nationwide

November 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Africa

The company said it will allow customers to pay with any bitcoin lightning-enabled app and QR codes for speedy payments.

Pick n Pay, one of South Africa’s largest supermarket chains, is set to allow its customers to pay for items in all its stores using Bitcoin.

According to South African-based tech news outlet Tech Central, Pick N Pay is planning to roll out its cryptocurrency payments service to its stores nationwide in the coming months, after years of experimentation in select stores. The supermarket chain allegedly started experimenting with Bitcoin payments five years ago in Cape Town, but was stymied by expensive costs and long transaction wait times.

The nationwide rollout will allow the store's customers to pay for items using cryptocurrency through “trusted apps” on their smartphones, or by simply scanning a QR code and accepting the rand conversion rate at the time of payment.

As per the report, Chris Shortt, the group executive for IT at Pick n Pay, shared that the advancement and evolution of cryptocurrency technology over the years has made it possible to now “provide an affordable service for high volume, low-value transactions that will promote financial inclusion in South Africa."

Pick n Pay reportedly partnered with Electrum and CryptoConvert during its pilot program to make it possible for customers to pay for items via the bitcoin lightning network.

South Africa appears to be making headway when it comes to the adoption of cryptocurrency in the African region. In October, South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) amended its financial advisory to define crypto assets in the country as financial products, making it possible for cryptocurrencies to be offered by both domestic and international South-African licensed financial service providers.

Chainalysis’ 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index, published in September, also ranked South Africa 30th worldwide for cryptocurrency adoption. Various estimates support the notion that about 10-13% of the South African population are crypto holders.

Bitcoin, not blockchain: Synonym launches mobile BTC wallet

October 31, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Payments

The new mobile wallet, called Bitkit, was unveiled at the PlanB Forum conference in Lugano, Switzerland on Oct. 29.

Bitcoin and Lightning Network service provider Synonym has launched a new BTC-focused mobile wallet it says could enhance the user experience for holders of the flagship digital currency — and broaden Web3 adoption without relying on convoluted blockchain applications.

Synonym unveiled its mobile Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, dubbed Bitkit, at the PlanB Forum in Lugano, Switzerland on Oct. 29. The wallet supports BTC and Lightning Network payments with a self-custodial node and encrypted backup service, which users can utilize free of charge. Bitkit is being launched as a limited public beta app for both Apple and Android devices.

The Bitkit app is being powered by Slashtags, a Bitcoin cryptographic seed that generates keys and gives users simultaneous control over their data and money. Through Slashtags, Synonym claims that Bitkit will power Web3 “without using a blockchain at all.”

Paolo Ardoino, who serves as Synonym’s chief strategy officer, said the new app would help promote “hyperbitcoinization,” a term that describes a future state where Bitcoin is more widely used as a default value and payment system.

Super excited to have announced Pear Credit at #lugano Plan B.
Pear Credit is a P2P transport layer for credit, leveraging lighting-style channels born from the collaboration between @Tether_to holepunch ( @keet_io ) and @Synonym_to ⚡️
— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) October 30, 2022

The launch of Bitkit also coincided with the release of Blocktank Instant, a Synonym-led service that enables cryptocurrency exchanges to onboard users to Lightning Network without having to run Lightning infrastructure or hire additional engineers.

Speaking to Cointelegraph on the sidelines of the PlanB conference, Synonym CEO John Carvalho said his firm is advancing real-world use cases for Bitcoin without the “magic fairy dust” of blockchain technology:

“What we do at Synonym [...] is try to show how we position Bitcoin in the world without having to use blockchain as some magic fairy dust. [...] You can do all the things of Web3, and in the future, we’ll also show how you can do things with tokens without the blockchain at all.”

He went on to explain how Bitkit can benefit Bitcoin holders:

“With the latest release of our app Bitkit, we’re basically showing a Bitcoin wallet user experience where the user holds the key for everything — you hold the keys for your Bitcoin, for your Lightning wallet, for your public profile, for your contacts.”

Crypto Biz: Is Zuckerberg’s $100B metaverse experiment doomed to fail?

October 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Crypto Biz: Is Zuckerberg’s 0B metaverse experiment doomed to fail?

Coin Telegraph

Meta's Reality Labs division lost $3.672 billion in the third quarter. Some shareholders aren't happy with the company's oversized investment in metaverse technology.

Not everyone is convinced that Mark Zuckerberg’s massive metaverse experiment is a good idea. Since Facebook rebranded to Meta in 2021, the social media giant’s focus has increasingly shifted to connecting the digital and physical worlds through augmented reality. However, a shareholder of the company recently issued a letter to the CEO calling the metaverse investment “super-sized and terrifying.”

It didn’t take long for those concerns to be justified. Meta published its third-quarter financial results after the bell on Oct. 26 and, perhaps unsurprisingly, its metaverse division underperformed. Meta’s Reality Labs lost a whopping $3.672 billion during the quarter, mirroring a similar decline in Q1. That’s the risk you run when you venture into unchartered territory. For all the hype surrounding the metaverse, these new social worlds remain largely empty. Will Meta fill the void? Only time will tell.

This week’s Crypto Biz chronicles Meta’s metaverse experiment, Tesla’s Bitcoin (BTC) holdings and the sudden surge in Reddit’s nonfungible token (NFT) collection.

Tesla’s Bitcoin losses rise to $170M in the first 9 months of 2022

While Tesla’s foray into Bitcoin was initially praised by the crypto community, the whole ordeal has been a far bigger distraction for the electric vehicle maker. In the second quarter, Elon Musk’s company sold 75% of its remaining Bitcoin holdings, which added roughly $936 million to its balance sheet. By the end of Q3, Tesla’s remaining BTC was sitting at an unrealized loss of $170 million, according to a new disclosure filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The company’s net loss from BTC isn’t as bad, though, given that Tesla had realized $64 million in profits during its previous sale. Musk proved to have paper hands, after all.

CashApp adds support for Bitcoin Lightning Network

Cash App users will soon be able to send BTC to each other through the Lightning Network, the highly touted layer-2 payment protocol that’s supposed to make Bitcoin transactions faster and more scalable. To be clear, Cash App already supports Bitcoin transactions on Lightning in a limited capacity through QR codes. Now, the popular mobile app will give users the ability to send $999 worth of BTC every seven days. The catch is that the service is only available to residents of the United States, excluding New York. While estimates vary, Cash App is said to have roughly 80 million users. Imagine this demographic transacting regularly on Lightning one day.

You can now receive #bitcoin instantly via the Lightning Network in @CashApp! ⚡

- Open Cash App
- Money tab -> Bitcoin
- Share QR code or link

What do you think?

Try it by sharing your link below pic.twitter.com/rg1BbzyLMB
— Michael Rihani⚡️ (@MichaelRihani) October 25, 2022

Reddit NFT trading volume hits all-time high as wallet holders near 3 million

Crypto winter has been especially hard on NFTs — a once booming market whose trade volumes have plummeted over the past year. But, for social media platform Reddit, NFT interest appears to be surging. Data from Polygon and Dune Analytics revealed this week that the trading volume of Reddit’s NFT avatars eclipsed $1.5 million over a 24-hour period, bringing the collection’s cumulative volumes to $4.1 million. Since Reddit launched its collection in July, more than 2.9 million collectible avatars have been minted. You’re going to love the data breakdown in this story.

Zuckerberg’s $100B metaverse gamble is ‘super-sized and terrifying’ — Shareholder

Some of Meta’s own shareholders are growing weary of its metaverse gambit — and the colossal price tag behind it. Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner penned a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, urging that the company slash its annual metaverse investment budget from $10-$15 billion to $5 billion. He called the hyper-fixation on metaverse technology “super-sized and terrifying.” Altimeter Capital owns a 0.11% stake in Meta, so it’s unlikely that Zuckerberg will heed the warning. But, a $10 billion annual investment by Meta translates into $100 billion in 10 years on a concept that Gerstner says is far from proven.

Before you go: Why are Bitcoin whales accumulating?

Has Bitcoin reached its definitive bottom for this cycle or is there room for one final capitulation? This question has divided the Bitcoin community, which continues to anticipate a major breakout in the coming weeks. For dedicated hodlers, though, timing the bottom won’t matter in the long run. While retail was busy selling sub-$20,000 BTC, the whales have been quietly accumulating. In the latest episode of Market Report, Cointelegraph’s analysts discuss why Bitcoin whales have been stacking sats and what it could mean for the market in the short term. You can watch the full replay below.

Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse of the business behind blockchain and crypto delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.

Crypto Payments Firm Bitpay Adds MATIC Support, Panini America to Accept Polygon Payments

October 26, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Shopify users get their hands on Tezos NFTs with new partnership

October 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Tezos NFT ecosystem gained a lot of traction over the past year due to its low cost of minting and energy efficiency.

The Tezos blockchain partnered with Web3 automation platform Taco to allow Shopify users to access Tezos nonfungible tokens (NFTs) via Taco’s NFT loyalty program. The e-commerce giant has established itself as a growing destination for brands looking for Web3 engagements.

TheTaco app allows brands to integrate Web3 solutions such as NFTs to increase engagement with customers and e-commerce platforms such as Shopify use Taco app plugins to offer these services to their merchants.

The NFT loyalty programs aid brands in strengthening their bonds with consumers, boosting customer engagement and retention. The latest integration of Tezos NFTs would help the blockchain utilize its NFTs to reward devoted customers with special offers, discounts and experiences.

With the latest integration of Tezos into the Taco app, Shopify merchants everywhere now have a new method to interact with customers and connect to the expanding Tezos NFT community.

Earlier in June, Shopify announced a new reward system called Tokengate under its connect-to-consumer initiative. Token gate allowed select merchant partners to roll out exclusive goods for NFT stakeholders. The e-commerce giant was among the first to integrate Bitcoin and Lightning payments on its platform.

Tezos' energy-efficient architecture, added to its affordable NFT minting and low transaction fees, has drawn a diverse NFT community of artists, collectors and builders from all around the world. The high energy efficiency of Tezos has made it the go-to platform for NFT integration, for example, gaming giant Ubisoft integrated Tezos NFTs for its gaming rewards toward the end of 2021.

Tezos, a proof-of-stake blockchain registered a significant bump in on-chain activity and smart contract transactions thanks to a rising NFT market. The platform registered 50,000 transactions per day in the first quarter of 2022 from less than 10,000 per day in January 2021.

Tap-to-pay Bitcoin Lightning Bolt cards strike El Salvador

October 12, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Payments

CoinCorner, a Bitcoin Lightning-based card payment service provider, is looking to install NFC card readers across El Salvador to offer a seamless retail BTC experience.

El Salvador-based Bitcoin (BTC) holders could soon spend their BTC using the “tap-to-pay” feature wherever the near-field communication services (NFC) card readers are available. The cardless pay service would be utilizing Lightning Network (LN) to facilitate retail BTC transactions.

Contactless card payments are quite popular in the current fast-paced world, and with the help of LN, these services can now be utilized by BTC holders as well. The Bitcoin Lightning services are being introduced in El Salvador by CoinCorner, which has, in turn, partnered with IBEX, a lightning infrastructure services company, to add NFC support across businesses in the country.

The Lighting payment card called the Bolt Card was launched on Wednesday. CoinCorner said that the idea of expansion in the Central American nation, apart from its BTC legal tender, was a barge of reports about the poor user experience that the firm hopes to resolve.

Bitcoin LN is a layer-2 scalability infrastructure that allows for retail usage and expenditure of BTC in day-to-day life at a low cost and insistent transaction rate. The introduction of tap-to-pay card payment would make way for a seamless BTC user experience in the country, which the firm hopes would also enhance the country’s BTC usage.

El Salvador became the first country to make BTC a legal tender in September 2021. At the time, President Nayib Bukele led government hoped that the adoption would help the country’s majority unbanked population to gain monetary independence. Within four months of adopting BTC, the country onboarded 4 million users on its government-backed Bitcoin wallet.

The BTC wallets saw $52 million in remittances in the first two quarters of 2022. With the introduction of Lightning-based payments in the country, the retail payment sector could see a bump in BTC use.

Michael Saylor snubs claims he doesn’t use Bitcoin Lightning Network

October 5, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Saylor wanted to demonstrate just how well he can use Bitcoin’s layer-2 Lightning Network by hosting a meme competition.

The executive chairman of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, does not like to be called out. He responded to a poll shared by Eric Wall, a crypto researcher, that suggested he had not used Bitcoin’s (BTC) layer-2 Lightning Network more than three times with a Twitter poll of his own.

The correct answer is Yes, and I will make three more transactions of 1,000,000 sats each to the 3 posters of the most liked #Lightning⚡️ memes in the comments below. https://t.co/qXZ90q4Ly9
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) October 4, 2022

Saylor replied to the poll with a resounding yes, and kickstarted a meme competition with a 1,000,000 Satoshis giveaway, or 0.01 BTC, worth around $200, to the most liked meme. In giving away Satoshi’s to prizewinners, Saylor will literally use the Lightning Network three times.

Saylor first tweeted about the Lightning Network in May 2021 and has since become a proponent for the layer-2 payments solution built on Bitcoin, as well as LiFi, or Lightning Finance. Wall, a former chief investment officer at Arcane Research, has called out Saylor several times, and his initial optimism about the Lightning Network in 2018 has dissolved into critiques.

Other prominent Bifluencers, including Udi Wertheimer and Lilli, head of business development at Foundation Devices, regularly knock the LN. Lilli recently called the network a “failure,” and Udi said, “Nobody uses it.”

The poll as well as recent commentary from Wall bring into focus a bigger issue. Is the Lightning Network a fringe solution to Bitcoin’s scalability problem that even the biggest names in the Bitcoin space struggle to use? Or, is the Lightning Network — following eight years of development — a failure?

Wall shared a series of videos highlighting difficulties in transferring funds over the LN from old Bitcoin wallets to a new phone. He also predicted that Bitcoin capacity on the LN will not exceed 6,000 BTC before 2023. Bitcoin network capacity surged through 4,000 BTC in June and 5,000 BTC in October. With two months to go until year-end, Wall tweeted it’s “gonna be a nail-biter.”

Perhaps major companies entering the space will bolster LN usage and improve sentiment. Saylor is doubling down again on his Bitcoin strategy, as MicroStrategy is hiring Lightning developers. Furthermore, NYDIG, a leading Bitcoin company, announced in their Q3 report that “Now it’s time for Lightning,” stating their intention to contribute to the LN.

For smaller Bitcoin-first companies, deals are struck and announcements are made on a weekly basis. Strike recently led a successful $80 million funding round, while Galoy, the team behind El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach wallet, has implemented dollars onto the LN — a boon for emerging markets. In Gibraltar, a highly sophisticated financial market, Lightning Network adoption is thriving.

Finally, in a recent panel discussion moderated by Cointelegraph in France, prominent Lightning Developers including “Dr. Bitcoin” himself, Christian Decker, as well as data scientist, Rene Pickhard mulled over whether transaction failure on the LN is acceptable in 2022.

To all the talk about 'failure' of Bitcoin's lightning network right now, watch this clip ⬇️

LN experts discuss transaction success & failure and progress to date ⚡️

@SurfinBitcoin by @StackinSat_FR ‍♂️
August 22
@renepickhardt , @Snyke , @therealkingonly pic.twitter.com/ehHuYGg78Y
— Joe Hall ⚡️ defendingbtc.com (@JoeNakamoto) October 5, 2022

The overwhelming sentiment from the panel that day is that the LN is still a work in progress. It’s neither a resounding success as it’s still early. For Nicolas Burtey, CEO at Galoy, the group behind the Adopting Bitcoin, a Lightning Summit in El Salvador, “The adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador was the tipping point for Lightning.” The El Salvador Bitcoin Law hit its year anniversary one month ago.

In the meantime, there are now hundreds of memes in reply to Saylor’s tweet.

Cointelegraph reached out to Eric Wall, who declined to comment. Cointelegraph will update the article if Saylor, Wertheimer or Lilli share commentary.

Bitcoin Lightning Network capacity strikes 5,000 BTC

October 3, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The growth in Bitcoin added to the layer-2 Lightning Network has electrified over the past year, hitting 4,000 Bitcoin less than four months ago.

Bear markets are for building out capacity on the layer-2 Lightning Network. Despite macroeconomic headwinds and sluggish price action, the Lightning Network, the layer-2 payments solution fo Bitcoin (BTC), continues to flourish.

The Bitcoin Lightning Network reached a milestone capacity of 5,000 BTC ($96 million). In effect, more and more Bitcoin is being introduced to Lightning Network payment channels worldwide, as Bitcoiners continue to support the growth of the network.

*Bitcoin Lightning Network capacity. Source: Look into Bitcoin*

The Lightning Network allows users to send Bitcoin (or satoshis, the smallest amount of a Bitcoin) to send or receive money faster and with lower fees. The more capacity on the network, the more liquidity is on hand. As a result, users can experience faster payment speeds and potentially larger transaction volumes.

First created in 2018, the Lighting Network has come under fire recently. Bitcoin influencers such as Udi Wertheimer have discussed the network’s “failure,” claiming that no one uses the network. Nonetheless, the network hit 4,000 BTC capacity in June and over the past four years, it has become a reliable payment network and is popular in El Salvador, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar:

Nourou, of Bitcoin Senegal, explains why the LN is so important. He told Cointelegraph, "In Senegal, we have an economy of 50 FCFA. That is to say that the Senegalese of the working and proletarian class, who represent the majority of the population, buy, for their breakfast, 50 FCFA (0.07€) of milk, sugar, coffee, water, and many other basic products."

"Microtransactions are our economic reality. For Bitcoin to become the standard in the years to come, and in our economies, the lightning network would have to have enough capacity to support these microtransactions."

Nicolas Burtey, CEO at Galoy, was one of the first to celebrate the 5,000 Bitcoin achievement. Burtey told Cointelegraph that the adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador was the tipping point for the Lightning Network. This is where all metrics really started to take off." He joked, "The bill should have actually been called the Lightning Law!"

pic.twitter.com/Bo18xkMe8A
— Nicolas Burtey ⚡️⚡️ (@nicolasburtey) October 3, 2022

Burtey continued, explaining that while the 5,000 BTC metric is important, “Payment velocity per channel is growing at an even faster rate. It's a more meaningful metric, but only node operators can see it, so it's not so prominent in the media.”

The Lightning Network, once a space for hobbyist Bitcoin enthusiasts, now appeals to large corporations. MicroStrategy is now hiring for a Bitcoin Lightning Software engineer. MicroStrategy is the largest holder of Bitcoin among publicly traded companies, with 130,000 BTC on its balance sheet.

Elsewhere, Strike, a Bitcoin Lightning company headed by Jack Mallers, raised $80 million to “revolutionize payments” for merchants. Mallers and Strike spearheaded El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption plans in 2021.

For Nourou, who's hosting Dakar Bitcoin Days in December, the first major Bitcoin conference in Senegal, the 5,000 BTC milestone is monumental: "An increase in BTCs blocked in the network and the number of channels opened in parallel is a further step towards the democratization of Bitcoin transactions in the world."

Microstrategy Is Seeking a Full-Time Lightning Network Engineer to Build a SaaS Platform

September 30, 2022 Bitcoin.com

MicroStrategy takes its BTC maximalism to the next level with new engineer hire

September 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The world’s largest holder of Bitcoin is looking for a software engineer to create cybersecurity solutions and enable e-commerce use cases on the Lightning Network.

MicroStrategy, the business intelligence and tech company that holds the world’s largest Bitcoin reserve, is hiring a Bitcoin Lightning software engineer to create a Lightning Network-based software-as-a-service platform.

The new engineer will be responsible for building a Lightning Network-based platform to address enterprises’ cybersecurity challenges and enable new e-commerce use-cases, according to a job posting linked to the MicroStrategy website. Besides “an adversarial mindset,” the successful applicant will have certificates, knowledge of tools and programming languages, and experience with decentralized finance (DeFi) technologies.

MicroStrategy is looking to hire a Bitcoin Lightning Software Engineer to build a Lightning Network-based SaaS platform. #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/XFYrkIaFA9
— Neil Jacobs (@NeilJacobs) September 30, 2022

MicroStrategy, founded in 1989, began a Bitcoin (BTC) buying spree in August 2020 that has culminated in a reserve of 130,000 BTC, worth $2.57 billion at the time of writing. The purchase of the final 301 BTC of its holdings was announced Sept. 20. It paid around $3.98 billion for the entire reserve. Bitcoin profitability for long-term holders recently hit a four-year low. MicroStrategy now holds 0.62% of all the BTC that will ever exist.

MicroStrategy cofounder and former CEO Michael Saylor is well known as a Bitcoin maximalist and defender of the cryptocurrency. Saylor resigned as CEO on Aug. 2, but remains the executive chair of the company. Saylor said the change would:

“Enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding Bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business.”

Saylor and MicroStrategy were sued at the end of the same month for tax evasion by the Washington, DC attorney general’s office.

The Lightning Network is the Bitcoin layer 2 protocol designed to raise payment throughput and lower transaction fees. It has been making slow progress facilitating peer-to-peer transactions since it debuted in 2018.

Lightning Network

Tesla’s Bitcoin losses rise to $170M in the first 9 months of 2022

CashApp adds support for Bitcoin Lightning Network

Reddit NFT trading volume hits all-time high as wallet holders near 3 million

Zuckerberg’s $100B metaverse gamble is ‘super-sized and terrifying’ — Shareholder

Before you go: Why are Bitcoin whales accumulating?

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