NCR

Lance_Farmstrong

Look into AMP it’s a true sleeper . Flexa is paving the way for future payment rails and it involves some heavy hitters in the retail space like inncomm and NCR both big companies in the Point of Sale space . They already have crypto payment enabled for many stores and soon more wallets will be able to be used .

No-Calligrapher255

He probably chatted with Andre Neves, he spearheaded a lot of projects. They’re Making Bitcoin easier for everyone to use and access. QR codes might be on its way out IMO. NCR might be going in another direction, since they bought libertyX 🤷🏻‍♂️

jackfirefish

Remember when he said NCR integration was coming at the end of 2022 then never said anything about it ever again? What a clown.

Ur-Majestic

Has NCR pos systems already done this?

Marley_ltc

Different projects with different roles. ACH is a communist influenced cryptocurrency project that will not make it very far in the USA with US regulations. AMP Token/Flexa Network was created by current PoS networks like NCR and Blackhawk to solve many problems plaguing transactions today (fraud, expensive, limited to one currency, etc). Flexa almost has a MTL in every single State in the USA. Flexa also handles the majority of all crypto and Bitcoin transactions in El Salvador. Europe is coming soon. Today, I can go to Chipotle or Petco, amongst other merchants, and spend just about whatever asset I want (frictionless, fraud proof, instant, less than 1% transaction fee) Once the USA has clear government regulations in place, the Flexa Network (collateralized by AMP) will take on all of NCR, Blackhawk, amongst many other PoS networks merchants (from Walmart to Amazon) The team behind ACH are not NASA rocket scientists like the team behind Flexa/AMP, nor is their legal/regulatory safety on par.

Marley_ltc

AMP is a utility token that collateralizes payment transactions over the Flexa Network. Network participants stake their AMP on Flexa Capacity to earn rewards by using their AMP to collateralize transactions. Payments are about to transform and Flexa/AMP will play a huge role (Flexa/AMP was created for NCR, Blackhawk, amongst many other PoS networks for the future of payments). Fraud proof, instant, cheap transactions. Ever since the Coinbase employees were caught insider trading AMP, Gary Gensler called AMP a security (which it is not a security). AMP was removed from all exchanges out of fear, except Coinbase and a few others. Those facts, and the fact that the USA is in a bear market - under a war hungry administration that hates crypto - only makes the price drop. But once we have clear government regulations and a pro-crypto administration, payments in the USA will be top-tier by its full adoption of the Flexa Network. You will be using your banking app to buy stuff through a frictionless QR code transaction (that is fraud proof, instant, and 90% cheaper than the legacy payment rails used today)

TwerkMasterFlex

Flexa has direct integrations with some of the world's largest Point of Sale software/hardware providers, including NCR, Incomm, Citcon, Innopay and more. https://flexa.network/integrations It has already been adopted. And as I have detailed in my post, fees for spending any currency on Flexa are 0. Merchants face a >1% fee

pichael__thompson

They currently have money transmitter licenses 31 US states, along with active partnerships with NCR and Incomm Payments and see less ky integrates into any POS system, but go on with the fud

croyspark

All these ppl giving you complicated answers because this is a problem that must be fixed. This is why i like AMPERA because it seems to be the closest to a solution that will hopefully, soon, let you spend btc at any NCR checkout and online. This would include Walmart, many supermarkets, and many other major national companies. Already with their app you can spend at Dunkin’ Donuts and chipotle but they still need to integrate with other apps in order to make it functional for people like you.

sweetsimplechode

Strike partnered with the payments processors Shopify, NCR and Blackhawk Network to make it easy for stores to be able to accept bitcoin payments. Nobody is forcing the stores that use Shopify, NCR and Blackhawk Network to accept bitcoin payments. The stores that use Shopify, NCR or Blackhawk Network have to enable it.

road22

I remember the strike news from last year. Jack said I would be able to use Lighting network at Amazon, Walmart , Home Depot, Kroger, NCR. It never happned.

Nubraskan

I tip sats on nostr and to projects on geyser. Have not purchased anything. If self checkouts like NCR got their partnership with strike moving, I'd love to use more to buy groceries.

ducasaurus

Strike [recently partnered](https://jimmymow.medium.com/strike-commerce-update-1554f37f9b4b) with Shopify, Blackhawk and NCR for payment processing. This roundabout way might be the most user-friendly since it's minimal setup for you (the merchant) and the consumer (they can pay with traditional card or Lightning method of their choice, doesn't even to be using Strike either). You as the merchant would just need to enable the feature as it's an opt-in option instead of on by default.

sweetsimplechode

Strike partnered with the payments processors Shopify, NCR and Blackhawk Network to make it easy for stores to be able to accept bitcoin payments. Nobody is forcing the stores that use Shopify, NCR and Blackhawk Network to accept bitcoin payments. The stores that use Shopify, NCR or Blackhawk Network have to enable it.

STP_VEGAS

On a side note, NCR, the largest cash register company in the world and in nearly every grocery store, has been on board with bitcoin (all crypto?) since 2021!

eetaylog

Strike is partnered with NCR, which means that anyone who uses their point of sale machines can pay over the bitcoin network.

Ateam043

Just like any bank debit/credit card, I can load up my Coinbase card to my Apple Wallet. A physical card is likely still printed because some mom-and-pop shops don't offer NCR.

slvbtc

Sats will be turned into fiat within the merchants local jurisdiction using enterprise grade exchange solutions, not retail customers and coinbase. And yes today a merchant can expect to take a week to recieve fiat into their bank by Visa from a sale they make so Visa can take a week to get fiat from sats to the merchants bank. The point is the merchant will see no difference in daily operations, they will make a lightning invoice sale and get dollars a week later just as they do when accepting cards. They also have their POS software connected to visa and mastercard so if visa and mastercard process lightning payments merchants will not even have to change any software of their own. Something to look at would be strikes partnership with NCR with strike facilitating NCR kiosks to accept lightning invoices while strike processes those payments for merchants and merchants get fiat. Visa and mastercard will figure out how to do something similar or they essentially risk going out of business over the nest decade. It will happen.

VollcommNCS

**Warning Incoming Shill** Flexa has some real world partnerships. Partnerships and support for many coins and tokens to be used as currency at real world merchants, right now. Their partnership with Chipotle is pretty cool. Offering deals only if you use crypto to pay. Partnership/integrations with NCR, and InComm point of sale systems. Acquired DropParty for merchant promotions and special events. They released a commercial that starred David Duchovny. Supposedly more commercials coming, although most followers of Flexa expected to see some of these other commercials already. The commercial was only released for a short time on the Flexa YouTube channel. Not sure what's going on there. **Shill Complete** Unfortunately Amp, Flexas collateral token, hasn't had a very good year. Same as almost every other project, it's been a steady decline since we all hit our ath around November 2021. This recent rally was a nice change, I'm sure everyone in all projects have enjoyed it as well. This project may be circling the drain in the eyes of some. I still think they have a future ahead of them and truly think that their utility is something useful.

coinfeeds-bot

tldr; Lightning Network (LNCR) and Shopify are working with Strike to integrate the Lightning Network with Shopify, Blackhawk and NCR, enabling merchants to accept payments over the network. Blackhawk is a privately held business that operates in the prepaid, gift card, and payments industries. Lightning Network wallets can now checkout at Blackhawk enabled merchants. *This summary is auto generated by a bot and not meant to replace reading the original article. As always, DYOR.*

coinfeeds-bot

tldr; Lightning Network (LNCR) and Shopify are working with Strike to integrate the Lightning Network with Shopify, Blackhawk and NCR, enabling merchants to accept payments over the network. Blackhawk is a privately held business that operates in the prepaid, gift card, and payments industries. Lightning Network wallets can now checkout at Blackhawk enabled merchants. *This summary is auto generated by a bot and not meant to replace reading the original article. As always, DYOR.*

LNCrizzo

Strike Commerce Update Yo. Today, I’m excited to share an update around the partnerships I announced at Bitcoin 2022. There’s been a lot of anticipation and excitement around our announcement, which has been amazing to see, and I wanted to give the community a transparent update. I’ve always believed in building in the open and in collaboration with the community. Part of that is being transparent about our progress, where we do well, and where we can do better. At Strike, our mission is to build a more financially connected world. We accomplish this by making Bitcoin and the Lightning Network easily accessible and usable. Around a year ago we launched the Strike API. A product built to enable marketplaces, merchants, businesses, developers, and more, to offer faster, cheaper, global payments to anyone, at any time​​ — improving financial access and enhancing financial experiences for everyone in the world. Earlier this year, at Bitcoin 2022, I announced a series of partnerships that have the potential to completely redefine retail payments. We announced upcoming integrations with Shopify, Blackhawk and NCR, enabling merchants to accept payments over the Lightning Network. Along with that we shared our vision for what partnering with these companies would allow us to do. That vision is real, but my timeline was off. Everyone who knows me knows my ambition has no boundaries when it comes to pushing Bitcoin and Lightning forward. However, a myriad of factors required me to reassess the timeline I communicated at Bitcoin 2022. In hindsight I was admittedly a bit naive, too excited, and lacked the knowledge that I have now. I admit and own that, 100%. These partnerships and developments are huge and they’re simply going to take a bit longer than I initially thought. First, integrating with third parties often comes with unforeseen technical challenges that are hard to predict. More specifically, integrating a new open payment rail into legacy financial infrastructure adds a whole layer of additional complexity. Second, integrating simultaneously with many different platforms is an immense technical challenge. Third, our ambition and excitement got the best of me and led to what was, in hindsight, a premature announcement. Ultimately, all of these reasons led to delays in our initial timeline. Just a few short years ago, using the Lighting Network with real money was merely a nascent concept and Strike didn’t even exist. If you would have told me then that the biggest payment companies in the world would be working with Strike and the Bitcoin community on using the Lightning Network I wouldn’t have believed you. So while we’re disappointed that we weren’t able to deliver in the timeline we originally set, we’re incredibly proud of the progress that we’ve made and we have some exciting updates. Shopify Our Shopify plugin has been tested and used by enough merchants to be listed on the Shopify marketplace! This is expected to be publicly available in Q1. However, both Shopify and Strike agree, a plugin alone does not maximize the potential of a fast, cheap, global payment rail. The user experience will be greatly improved in many ways. We’ve learned so much in working with Shopify and speaking with customers and we’re hopeful we can keep improving the ability to process cheaper, faster, global payments for merchants. Blackhawk Blackhawk is a privately held business that operates in the prepaid, gift card, and payments industries. Blackhawk offers retailers an alternative payments rail, as opposed to a card network like Visa, to accept Show-To-Pay digital payments from consumers (one of the most popular show-to-pay experiences is your Starbucks application). Blackhawk has partnerships with wallets such as PayPal, Venmo, Klarna, AliPay, WeChat, Moocho, and now Strike! Our integration with Blackhawk differs from all of their existing partnerships in one small yet powerful way: Blackhawk didn’t integrate the Strike network, Blackhawk integrated the Lightning Network. Like all of our integrations, this allows all Lightning Network wallets to checkout at Blackhawk enabled merchants. That means all Blackhawk enabled merchants can also accept payments from anyone on the Lightning Network! The power here lives in the choice it gives the consumer, the open network effect it gives to the merchants, and the cost, speed, and finality benefits it gives to all. If you are a consumer and want to conduct commerce in private you are free to do so, if you want to use custodial solutions, more power to you, the choice is yours. If you’re a merchant and you’re looking to accept cheaper, faster, cash-final payments from a growing set of platforms such as the Cash App, it only takes integrating one network. We’re currently in our final testing phase and are expected to launch with our first merchant early next year at 50 locations. When live, we’ll announce more details. More to come. NCR We’re incredibly excited about the potential of integrating Strike on NCR which will give us access to one of the largest networks of merchants for in-person payments. The latest is that we’re working diligently to make this a reality and we expect to have an update in the near future. I have more to share here, and I will when I can :) How Do These Integrations Work? I’ve seen lots of questions and confusion about the inner workings and functionality of these integrations. Is this just an overdressed PayPal 2.0? Can only Strike users use these new partnerships? Well, you can think of merchants using Lightning very similar to how merchants use a card network like Visa. I know that may be confusing to read for some, but give me a second. Ultimately, merchants use the Visa Network to accept money from customers. Does a merchant’s integration with Visa only work with a specific bank? Is PayPal the only app that can check out at a merchant? No, of course not. Any card that speaks the Visa Network is accepted. No matter what the customer uses, if it correctly follows the Visa protocol, it works, and the merchant receives their local currency. Same goes for our Lightning Network integrations. Our integrations are NOT only for Strike wallets. The QR codes, NFC readers, and whatever other mediums we use to process payments are all open, interoperable, Lightning Network payments. Anybody using any wallet can pay our partners with whatever wallet they choose. In fact, this is a far superior consumer experience because the consumer has the ultimate choice over their commerce experience. The Lightning Network is true free market competition, inclusive to all, offers privacy enhancements over legacy technology, naturally suppresses prices, and drives innovation! What if you’re the biggest bank in the world? Can you check out at our integrated partners? Sure, you just need to be able to make Lightning payments. What if you’re a high-school privacy advocate that built a Lightning wallet with TOR support? Sure, just build the ability to make Lightning payments. To put it clear and simple: If you can make a Lightning payment you are integrated with our partners. You can get a feel for the open network experience by going to strike.me/hrf/ and making a donation. Any Lightning wallet in the world can donate to HRF at strike.me/hrf/! Anyone can pay with any wallet they’d like, and HRF gets instant, cash-final US dollars for no fees, without needing to account for bitcoin or take on bitcoin’s volatility. Same goes for all of our partners. Thanks Thank you. I appreciate the support and the criticism, equally. I appreciate this community, always. To be overly candid with you guys, it’s even hard for me to watch my own presentations and interviews sometimes. I’m a young founder, more people pay attention to Bitcoin and Lightning than ever before, we’re still so early, and we’re building in the open. I can certainly be overzealous at times, have made many mistakes in my career, and I’m sure I’ll make some more before it’s all said and done. With that said, I’ve never been more excited about the work we’re all doing and more confident in the future of Bitcoin, Lightning, and Strike. I mean, Morgan Stanley wrote a report about how Lightning is better than Visa. That’s fucking nuts. Thanks for all the support and continued feedback. Bitcoin has no heroes. I hope to make the community proud of all the progress we’re collectively making. 2023 is poised to be a big year for the builders. But if I’ve learned anything, we’ll just have to wait and see! Much love, Bitcoin ❤️

Mindless-Range-7764

I believe you can buy food (or anything else) with BTC by using Strike. I haven’t done this myself, so I welcome others to chime in, but I know that Strike has partnered with NCR (National Cash Registry) which enables Strike users to buy from all of NCR’s connections (e.g. Walmart, Chipotle, and thousands more). I am speaking with the US in mind bc let’s be real, things won’t change until change happens in the US. However, BTC is already integrated into many economies across the world, such as El Salvador (obviously), Nigeria, Sudan, and more. Here are some resources to support my claims and learn more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2022/04/07/strike-announces-shopify-integration-partnerships-with-ncr-and-blackhawk-bringing-bitcoin-lighting-payments-to-major-merchants/amp/ https://m.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/walmart-mcdonalds-and-thousands-of-other-stores-to-accept-bitcoin-via-strikes-lightning-network-2800728?ampMode=1

Mindless-Range-7764

I believe you can buy food (or anything else) with BTC by using Strike. I haven’t done this myself, so I welcome others to chime in, but I know that Strike has partnered with NCR (National Cash Registry) which enables Strike users to buy from all of NCR’s connections (e.g. Walmart, Chipotle, and thousands more). I am speaking with the US in mind bc let’s be real, things won’t change until change happens in the US. However, BTC is already integrated into many economies across the world, such as El Salvador (obviously), Nigeria, Sudan, and more. Here are some resources to support my claims and learn more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2022/04/07/strike-announces-shopify-integration-partnerships-with-ncr-and-blackhawk-bringing-bitcoin-lighting-payments-to-major-merchants/amp/ https://m.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/walmart-mcdonalds-and-thousands-of-other-stores-to-accept-bitcoin-via-strikes-lightning-network-2800728?ampMode=1

C_hase

This is a partnership with NCR and teres probably a stipulation that the Responsible Financial Innovation Act has to pass, and it has not yet.

C_hase

It is pretty fast considering the ancient POS hardware they are using, which I doubt even supports Apple Pay, so this comparison wouldn't be fair. Once Bitcoin stop being an afterthought for merchants, the UX is going to be much better than traditional payments. You can see this in Jack Mallers demonstration for his NCR partnership, where the Lightning QR is beautifully displayed on a screen, just add NFC and it will really make it magical.

CaptainMcdeath

Its bound to happen. I work for walmart, and have been observing how they are moving into the digital payments and payment network spaces, be watching for who is collaborating with NCR, thr corporation that provides all of walmarts point of sale tech, their registers and what not. Because thats likely to happen first, transactions will be processed with crypto and exchanged for fiat.

COVID19MurderHornet

Waiting on updates with the NCR and Strike partnership

HDmac

NCR terminals when

wolfparking

Here's an article from April discussing this very thing made possible through the partnership of Strike wallet with Shopify, NCR, and Blackhawk: https://dailycoin.com/walmart-mcdonalds-and-thousands-of-other-stores-to-accept-bitcoin-via-strikes-lightning-network/ It's also a working partnership with Chipotle, Macy’s, Whole Foods, and 400,000 other stores will now be able to accept Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network. When will it be

CryptoScotty

Jack Mallers is smashing it implementing BTC lightening payments and getting the worlds largest POS on board like Shopify, NCR and Blackhawk Network to enable bitcoin payments at stores. This is happening right now.

Pouch-PH

Businesses will get bitcoin as an option built-in to their current credit card processors. Strike already announced their NCR partnership. Square/Block terminals have “Cash App Pay” and Cash app supports lightning already; same company; Just be patient or go work for a payment processor company

eqleriq

The problem is that this has already been solved, the question is with current regulations in place how any given solution would scale or be rolled out, what 3rd parties will be inserted between customer and cost, etc. Many of the solutions now are just piggybacking on bank and debit/credit issuance, as that is the most frictionless entry into the retail market. It would be rather trivial for any given terminal to support any given network directly, but then how that shakes up the profit centers is still anyone's guess. NCR and Visa have created rails for bitcoin to be supported, for example, NCR being behind a lot of software for banks to offer crypto (and fake iou crypto). There will be a boom in this industry regarding specialized knowledge to implement it on top of already existing infrastructure, on both service provider as well as client ends. A major hurdle to this is how big the biggest retailers are, and how much resistance they'll have towards accepting this sort of autonomy from their customers when they all offer their own "in bed with creditors" products that they'd prefer the customers to use.

DiamondKook

That’s what strike is doing. They are partnering with NCR and Blackhawk. Lightning payments will soon be adopted everywhere

Melting_Harps

> Thanks. That's a second tally for Strike So, Strike has really low limits; you can get approved for over 10K pretty easily on CASH. But as mentioned, the fees are higher than other actual exchanges, but it's worth noting that in purchasing from CASH you are helping support the ecosystem and infrastructure: CASH has a wallet in development, and they just launched mining facility with Tesla and Blockstream. They also support core developers and were the first to support lightening labs etc... It's all a trade off, and I'm obviously biased as I think Jack has done more than most Billionaire class in this space more than any other including Saylor who for some reason thinks he needs to be BTC's spokesman in his head. CASH's customer support is abysmal, and the fraud detection is even worse. Maller's is also launching some product that while take a percentage to support core devs, but if I'm honest I'm wondering why we haven't seen any update about NCR.

SubjectiveCompass

Nope, finally run it's course. Lack of momentum or need for sound money, using too much non-renewable energy to secure a network that can't process many transactions... Also major world players like China would have to adopt. The impending flippening and top notch projects like TRON and SHIB will get more and more marketshare vs. BTC. This is it, if you haven't sold, now's the time. I mean, things would be different if we lived in a world in which the money was failing because it's not based on anything but the infinite political whims of one or two countries. Or if there were some kind of layer 2 development capable of processing millions of transactions a day. Or if the use cases of nearly every other alt-coin weren't really viable and they were soon to be classified as unregistered securities, revealing the real decentralized projects. Or maybe if some big players like NCR for point of sale, or Black Rock for legacy investment access, or big names from the tech sector got involved and started building better ways to access, store, hold, transact with BTC. An environment like that may make it go up again. But until then, BTC is dead.

Zawer

The commercial was created and posted by Flexa, a crypto payment processor integrated with point-of-sale hardware like NCR

bittabet

He’s saying Bitcoin is money not gold. Either way these arguments are ridiculous, most retailers don’t accept any particular fiat currency since there are hundreds of fiat currencies and retailers typically take the currency of the nation they’re in. So to expect a relatively new money to be accepted everywhere already makes no sense at all. Bitcoin is a gold like asset that will become a fully realized money as adoption continues and the technology to scale it improves. That’s why things something like the strike/NCR deal is such a big deal. Doing this too soon before there’s a genuine interest in it as a store of value would lead to too much volatility so I think the path it’s taking will work out for the long term.

cryptening

Bitcoin's approach to the fee problem is building transaction density. Things like lightning will be able to onboard thousands with just 1 onchain tx. When thousands share 1 tx the on chain fee can be really high. Now, with players like Strike, square, Shopify, NCR and Blackhawk rolling out lightning support this tx density strategy might prove itself sooner rather then later. There is plenty more miners can do to earn revenue. They can merge mine or, in the future, they could even get paid to capture methane.

Healthy-Teach7139

Businesses that accept credit cards do not receive their funds in real time. We tend to have to wait 24 hours to receive funds; then we get assessed a shit ton of fees. I know fees exist within lightning network, but as long as they are very low and money is received in almost real time, it’s the way we will be transacting. NCR one of the biggest Point of Sale providers is looking incorporate lightning as a payment solution. Also, a lot of merchants are getting wiser and adding surcharged for credit card fees to offset the fees being charged. It’s time for the middle man to go!

Healthy-Teach7139

Businesses that accept credit cards do not receive their funds in real time. We tend to have to wait 24 hours to receive funds; then we get assessed a shit ton of fees. I know fees exist within lightning network, but as long as they are very low and money is received in almost real time, it’s the way we will be transacting. NCR one of the biggest Point of Sale providers is looking incorporate lightning as a payment solution. Also, a lot of merchants are getting wiser and adding surcharged for credit card fees to offset the fees being charged. It’s time for the middle man to go!

Yoyomah12

If I could integrate it into my POS I would. And, honestly, that is what it will take for mass adoption. Busy stores like me don't have time to fool around with having a separate tablet around with my LN wallet address displayed, and then having to have the employee watch the wallet manually to make sure the funds hit the wallet. It literally has to be as simple as taking credit cards. Hopefully if NCR is serious about it, then other POS developers/manufacturers will move forward with it as well. Right now, no POS that I'd call trustworthy is doing it.

infopocalypse

All you would have to do is integrate LN as a payment option. NCR the world's largest point of sale company is doing that. Yeah not everyone will use it but those that do will save you money. And it also will draw interest to your site from bitcoiners. The bitcoin can be instantly converted back to dollars so you wouldn't even have to hold btc if you didn't want to.

bogus83

I'm aware of the Shopify part, but if you re-read my comment, I was asking specifically about the integration with Point of Sale terminals in physical retail stores. I believe that was a partnership with NCR.

Llonga

What happened to all the announcements at Bitcoin 2022? Madeira legal tender? McDonalds etc accepting BTC via NCR partnership? I’m sure there was more ‘big’ news too.

road22

Want to be successful in buying/holding or trading? Don't get played. Don't believe everything you see in the news. There are lots of youtubers who all have their ear to the ground listening to the news of crypto. They are just following each other in a circle of guessing. If they were saying things that you did not want to hear, then you are not going to follow them. When you hear news that Mt. Gox is going to pay out 200,000 BTC, and that will crash the price....it is time to buy more. I remember hearing about Mt Gox trustee getting ready to pay out in 2019, 2020, 2021. Even if they do start to pay out, it will take years. When you hear analyst say the price will drop to 10K because the economy will crash more, don't believe it. It could mean the bottom of 17K is in. When Jack Mahler makes a huge announcement at "Bitcoin Miami Conference" last March, how Strike Lighting Wallet will integrate with NCR, don't believe it. It never happened and probably will not. Nobody even talks about it now. Back then BTC was 40K. Back when BTC was 70K, everyone said it was going to 100K because of plan B prediction. No nobody talks of plan B. That was the time to sell. All those FOMO/FUD stories just get lost and forgotten.

Kazebeat

Great points - thanks for taking the time to respond by the way. I think what people do with blockchain technology can become a speculative, negative-sum game, but that's an issue of human greed and not so much an issue with the Bitcoin network itself. From day one the network was intended to be a p2p transfer system, all the narratives of "inflation hedge" or "store of value" are a farce...but there's marketing for ya I suppose. By no means am I a bitcoin cryptobro because it does have its design flaws, like the competition between miners that perpetually increases energy consumption long term. If it comes down to energy waste per person, then that means Bitcoin is 'less useful' and not 'use-less'. The user base is small and I agree in that the energy consumption is insane but there are quite a lot of innovations in the works that will shift that imbalance of use-case & usefulness to society. I don't follow Bitcoin development as much lately but it's my job to research all of the different blockchains and the directions they move in. 2023-2024 you'll see a lot of merchants utilize Bitcoin's lightning network to pay for goods & services. The network itself can't cater to society en masse the but infrastructure (lightning network) built on top of Bitcoin's network can. Strike's partnership with payment systems Blackhawk & NCR is pretty big if you ever want to read into it.

KAX1107

One of the largest payment processors in the world, NCR integrated BTC lightning payments in April. The bill by Senator Lummis proposing tax exemption for transactions upto $600 will open up a lot of retail action in the US. No business wants to be paying a cut off each transaction to the card company.

StrivingPlusThriving

For all of the reasons that they already have, too many to list in a Reddit post. Bitcoins are being exchanged for all kinds of things, including all other currencies, houses, cars, food, energy costs, and a lot of things that I'm not interested in buying but I might want it later. Once the deal between Lightning and NCR goes through, you'll be able to use Bitcoin to exchange for anything. But you already knew that, yeah?

cpt_charisma

Might be worth talking to NCR (the cash register company) about it. They are working with Strike to Bitcoin/Lightning enable their machines and it should be coming out soon. Even if it's not available, it's good for them to know there's demand.

i_admit_everything

It was. This video is interesting https://youtu.be/Q_36zuizKc0 highlights the fine print under Jack Mallers' NCR slide where it reads "Forward looking statements", meaning they can legally claim a partnership IN HOPES that they will partner up in the future

AloneDay8829

What the hell happened to all the stuff Jack Mallers promised at the 2022 Bitcoin conference? Lightning payments at McDonald's, Walmart, Best Buy, etc based on this new partnership with NCR and other point of sale companies. Nobody has talked about it since like it never happened.

infopocalypse

That is changing rapidly. The largest Point of sale retailer NCR is incorporating the LN. Meaning anyone can spend btc at walmart,home depot and nearly every chain that exists. People are waking up to btc being the first engineered money in history. People will use it the same way people ditched the horse and buggy for the automobile.

jjgabor

Ah so you have edited this after the event, yes NCR are a POS vendor. Even if they do end up integrating bitcoin it will depend on the receiver accepting it in exchange for real world items, and we all know the problem with that...

Keith_Kong

Well, first off I was being sarcastic. Second, fuck using banking rails to spend Bitcoin. I want that Strike integration into NCR and Blackhawk machines. Give me a mun wallet or any other lightning wallet I choose and let me pay without a bank ever seeing a penny.

Sea-Yam7349

I've wondered this as well. After Jack Mallers' announcement that Strike would be enabled in NCR checkout machines, I've asked several times at several places and received blank stares usually reserved for folks asking for the restroom for aliens ;-) I cheerfully share that someday all merchants will allow such payments and save the percentage they have to pay the credit card companies. I'd love to see an effort to share locations that have lightning enabled payments!

enafu

I dont think anything was supposed to take effect immediately w re to NCR, Blackhawk. I think end of 2022 was assured. Jack has been on a few different shows recently where he says something like "looking at my calendar and it should be any day now...". One of them is below. https://pca.st/episode/bf8a9d18-5475-43b4-b13d-0a259c5c24c6 Capital Gains Tax (CGT) for merchant doesn't matter bc it just uses lightning network to send BTC but then immediately transfers back to USD before going to merchant. It may matter for sender though if they send BTC that has appreciated. There's also a way for it to start w sender as USD, send over lightning, and then transfer back to USD before going to merchant (in which case there is no CGT). This is huge for merchants bc they don't have to pay 3% fee associated w all payments sent through currently used credit card system. And they don't need to rely on banks as much to settle. They have an incentive to encourage customers to use lightning. And Cash App now uses lightning so many people in US are least will have the ability to do so wo downloading a new app.

JonathanBeuys

That is not how I understand the announcement. If they do not enable it until Bitcoin payments are exempt from CGT, then it would be a complete no-announcement. Because nobody expects that to happen anytime soon. Why would one specific asset be exempt from CGT? And not gold, stocks etc. This will be a very long discussion. The way I understand it is that the announcement, the possibility to pay via Lightning is mostly theoretical. And it is expected that almost all customers will only see dollar values. And if it is a cross-service-provider payment (Cash App to NCR terminal powered by Strike) the under the hood LN might be used to transfer funds from Square to Strike. But the user will not notice that and not be confronted with tax implications.

Kazebeat

I've had the same question about how crypto would affect the average consumer and over time I've realized that blockchain applications are really meant to be an alternative. There's no way the majority of blockchain applications are more efficient than a database, therefore it's not meant to be shoved into every application (yet, people are still trying 🙄). The question shouldn't be about "how is blockchain better for the consumer?". Instead, "how does blockchain align incentives differently?" I'll give you an example to expand on this: Strike is a bitcoin payment app that has partnered with Shopify, NCR, and Blackhawk payment networks to integrate Bitcoin's lightning network. They're on track to have this in over 400 American storefronts. The idea isn't to use Bitcoin to buy things, but to leverage the Bitcoin Lightning network (LN). The flow works like this: Me with $USD ---LN---> convert to BTC ---LN---> convert to $USD ----> Merchant In case this is confusing: I walk into Belk, find a pair of shoes, and go to the cashier to pay with Strike. I scan a QR code on my phone that sends $100 to the lightning network, which gets converted into BTC. Right before that BTC goes to the merchant, it's converted back into USD. On the surface, this seems like such a stupid idea. What's the point of converting dollars into Bitcoin to only convert it back into dollars? Just pay with a credit card. The answer lies in incentives. The only reason Strike leverages the LN is because there's no 1-3% fee taken from every transaction, like there is with VISA. There's only a small "gas" fee paid out to those validating the network, which is vastly cheaper than fees incurred from utilizing card networks. 1-3% saved on every sale is a huge incentive for stores to adopt this. The payments are also finalized within the time you're in the store. I believe it takes a couple days for banks to communicate with each other to legitimize a payment and update accounts. On the consumer side, not much would change. You may be out of luck if you don't have a phone on you, though, and in that case, you can always use cash or card. This is one example of how blockchain can integrate in daily life without us knowing that we're actually using the technology. Bottom line: Blockchain is all about aligning people with economic incentives and bolstering the relationship between consumers & service providers without a middleman.

Maticus

The lightning network is just the rails, the point of sale provider handles the conversion and it's all instant. NCR rolled this out recently in a partnership with strike. There's also a few companies that let you use a card on the lightning network, such as bolt card. It appears that block is going to incorporate lightning onto smart phones payment chip (a la apple pay). There's also a company going to put stable coins and other wrapped assets on lightning.

SubjectiveCompass

Outside of NCR payment offerings, Lightning network growing, general btc adoption rising globally, more and more institutions either adding to balance sheet or offering custodial services, maybe a btc ETF, the fact that central banks will have to print more or at least stop holding 2.2T in overnight reverse lending (USA)? Remittance payments being revolutionized, hell sending money anywhere, anytime being revolutionized. Those are a few of the "catalysts" I think could match more ways to buy or get exposure to it.

Any_Chipmunk_859

Flexa is making the most progress in the POS sector, with NCR onboard and money transmitter licenses in most U.S. states. Big things are about to happen for Flexa and AMP over the next 24 months.

Keith_Kong

What machine? Is it actually the NCR/Blackhawk rollout or does this company just have its own thing with Strike?

Agotoguy

Anyplace that uses the Flexa payment rail powered by $AMP/Lightning Transformers. These rails include the point of sale terminals of NCR, Incomm, and more. 40k retail locations and 850 banks on NCR alone.

Plane_Baby

What about what Jack Mallers is doing with Strike? Strike uses the Lightning Network to transact near instantly with business and retail transactions. As businesses discover there is another option for final settlement at cheaper rates, it may blow a hole in your argument. They would be able to instantly transfer funds from dollars to BTC back to dollars instant regardless of the USD price. When NCR gets onboard we will see.

puppiesr4pussies

The scan as a gift card thing is because they don't have a dedicated button on NCR POS yet. If you don't believe me, check out the whitepaper. There is no mention of using gift cards. If it were a lie, why would any respectable company partner with them? I believe the way it works is through an integration with gemini. So if I want to spend my bitcoin and Chipotle wants ethereum for example, once the barcode is scanned its sent through gemini where the bitcoin is sold and ethereum instantly bought and sent to the merchant. If the transaction is later flagged as fraudulent, amp token is liquidated from stakers and sent to the merchant to cover losses.

crypto_bub

Crypto payments and adoption are not as simple as you think. What would be the cost and infrastructure needed to be able to accept crypto payments natively at a merchant that has thousands of storefronts? Flexa wants to make payments as simple as possible, as intuitive as possible, without limitations to consumers and merchants. For consumers, Flexa wants to enable these payments literally on any application and make it as simple as presenting a Flexcode (a QR code of sorts) to the merchant or scanning a QR code from the merchant POS. For merchants, Flexa want the product to require the least amount of friction as possible, meaning no new hardware or training required, just the simplest integration as possible. Flexa is integrating directly with payment service providers like NCR, Blackhawk, Clover, Incomm, GK, Citcon, Rooam and Aurus. For partners (merchants and wallets), Flexa does all the heavy lifting on the compliance side, ensuring complete regulatory compliance and AML protections. Flexa also ensures that all payments are fraud proof and with instant finality, with the smallest fee possible to the merchants (always charge less than interchange). Flexa is taking the right steps to help bring crypto payments and all of digital payments to the masses.

suninabox

>Eventually on NCR POS systems they will have a Flexa button so you won’t have to scan as a gift card Okay so you're admitting it doesn't work that way now then. >Then they’ll stop selling your crypto for “gift cards” so please research this stuff before implying anything from a person saying “scan as a gift card” Why do i need to "research this stuff" in order to stop people spreading lies about how the system works? It's the people spreading these lies that need to do their research. You can't send crypto via a giftcard barcode.

Jedi_frogger

https://youtu.be/TwV_SKLR-Uk They are literally partnered with NCR and other GIANT Payment solution companies. It takes one quick google or YouTube search to confirm this. Just please stop spreading FUD

Jedi_frogger

Eventually on NCR POS systems they will have a Flexa button so you won’t have to scan as a gift card. Then they’ll stop selling your crypto for “gift cards” so please research this stuff before implying anything from a person saying “scan as a gift card”

Plane_Baby

You are correct owning 51% the currency will get you nowhere (unlike the current system (or proof of stake)). The power of Bitcoin comes from two places, the miners and the nodes. If you owned 51% of the mining, you could try to do something but Satoshi thought of this. Please read the Bitcoin white paper. It is only 9 pages long. Don't get me wrong, it is dense. Here is one section to explain a little bit more: "Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote. The majority decision is represented by the longest chain, which has the greatest proof-of-work effort invested in it. If a majority of CPU power is controlled by honest nodes, the honest chain will grow the fastest and outpace any competing chains. **To modify a past block, an attacker would have to redo the proof-of-work of the block and all blocks after it and then catch up with and surpass the work of the honest nodes.** We will show later that the probability of a slower attacker catching up diminishes exponentially as subsequent blocks are added. To compensate for increasing hardware speed and varying interest in running nodes over time, the proof-of-work difficulty is determined by a moving average targeting an average number of blocks per hour. If they're generated too fast, the difficulty increases." (Satoshi, 2008) Bitcoin has a few properties that others have not figured out yet: **Decentralization. Limited supply. Immutability. Fast global transactions. Permissionless. Trustless.** Additionally, it has an **immaculate conception.** Bitcoin begun when the technology had zero value. People helped to make it better because of the technology, a property that could be transferred with a third party. During the time it had no value, people made it better. Most importantly, the founder, Satoshi, left the project and never spent his Bitcoin from the genesis block. If the US puts their might to attacking bitcoin, it maybe too late. The US would need to have to have the political will to do it. If you noticed earlier this year (Mar 9, 2022) Biden released an Executive Order to lead in the space. 🙄 One thing that politicians are learning is that they need to select a side. As more people make money in the crypto space, they are gaining influence. For example, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried donated more that $5 mil to Biden. Now he and other PACs are planning to donate to crypto friendly politicians. More importantly, Jack Mallers, Strike+NCR project, to add lighting network to many stores, reducing transaction fees and removing credit card companies. Soon incentives of hurting voters will make it so politicians would not want to attack their donors. *Note:* I am still learning about bitcoin. I have not been in it as long as many many others. However, I dedicated many hours to learning as much as I can about this technology because it will (is) change the world. The one thing I have learned is I will never understand it all.or know what the future holds but I believe bitcoin will have a major role (if on the backend or upfront). TL;DR: Owning 51% of Bitcoin doesn't get you anywhere. Bitcoin properties are: 1) Decentralized. 2) Limited supply. 3) Immutable. 4) Permissionless. 5) Trustless. and 6) had an immaculate conception. No other project matches this. Read the white paper.

reggie_crypto

Strike has already implemented lightning network payments on Shopify and NCR POSs in brick and mortar stores. It's up to the merchant to convert or keep BTC, but the demand as a payment rail will only grow organically. Those two adoption surveys were published in the past week. Feel free to inform yourself. And again I'm not claiming that it is some universal protocol, it is indeed very specific to transacting value, but that doesn't reduce its utility for the purpose it was created for. Anyway, you seemed to jump on my generalization of protocol vs. application and pointed out a technical difference in the level it operates on, which I agreed with. Not sure there is much else to discuss here...

Keith_Kong

>Are you sure about that ? Yup, Strikes announcement was a lightning integration with Shopify, NCR, and Blackhawk. I highly recommend [watching the entire announcement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD2-T7TX2rk) because the implications are cheaper transaction fees for merchants, merchant control to receive either Bitcoin or USD (via stablecoins), and the ability for consumers to use either custodial or non-custodial (and totally private) payment solutions on the other end (given lightning is an open network). So this means we can now start a currency war under the hood of our retail purchases by choosing to support retail stores that declare Bitcoin reserves, choose to keep Bitcoin payments in Bitcoin, or even better declare that USD payments also convert into Bitcoin. But this also means payment systems are being integrated in ways that will support legal taxation policies. >Thats going to be a glorious day Fucking hard agree :) >Its what they are good at Yup, I think it makes sense that the further away from reserve status you are the faster your currency collapses. I think we will see a lot more countries get dollarized and accepting Bitcoin as a second legal tender to act as savings. Unfortunately, due to Bitcoins need to grow (and thus be volatile) I think this will initially give the dollar a lot of strength. That's why I don't see it collapsing until many others go down and Bitcoin grows much larger and stabler. >Except that the internet deletes place, ID, nationality, address, and all the static factors that rely upon it. Even today, you could be a tech nomad, with no fixed address, roaming internationally, working for bitcoin where ever the internet is good. I know people who do it. I cant say exactly how they deal with their taxes, but I know for sure its damn near impossible to audit them. Who do they work for? What is their income. What is their address. Noone knows. They just float around. If you are participating in self-managed gig economy work, yes. That's what I was alluding to. But you'll have to find clients on your own, rather than using the websites that help cater creators with clients. Also, while you may avoid taxation the stores you are shopping at cannot. Retail is largely consolidated into chains, small businesses using Square type products, Amazon, or smaller online retailers using services like Shopify. The majority of business is not coming from digital nomads. That said, as an individual who wants that lifestyle you will personally feel a great deal of freedom.

BuyRackTurk

> Square, NCR, and Blackhawk can already accept lightning payments directly Are you sure about that ? > The largest impact would be the government being forced to switch to measuring taxes in Bitcoin Thats going to be a glorious day > This I can see becoming a reality but literally every other fiat currency is going to have to collapse first. Its what they are good at > it becomes super easy to figure out which business locations are not doing it. Except that the internet deletes place, ID, nationality, address, and all the static factors that rely upon it. Even today, you could be a tech nomad, with no fixed address, roaming internationally, working for bitcoin where ever the internet is good. I know people who do it. I cant say exactly how they deal with their taxes, but I know for sure its damn near impossible to audit them. Who do they work for? What is their income. What is their address. Noone knows. They just float around.

Keith_Kong

>New retailers could and will eventually use simpler apps for direct payments, and not centralized banking apps. its already viable for online retailers to setup a friction-less bitcoin/Ln payment system that is completely permissionless. The point is that a government can require these softwares be used. Large retailers will standardize and comply, many smaller stores will not want to risk being caught and automatically use them. >People do it naturally when it is the path of least resistance. Which it could become. Its not so much a tax protest as tax laziness. Imagine if people had to save money all year and send a big pile of cash to the IRS in april. Compliance would be near zero; so they prefer to suck it out of your check before you even touch it. Again, large employers will not be able to avoid using integrated tax payroll and most smaller employers will not risk being caught. Bitcoin just doesn't change these factors. You cannot trust all your employees/customers and they can't all trust you. Integrating with a public space adds enough risk for most entities to conform. >Once the hyperbitcoinization starts, there will be a wave of change. Legacy payment platforms and legacy methods of moving value will break, and people will be forced to find alternatives. And the best ones will be permissionless and frictionless, and inherently private and unstoppable by nature... which leads down to the following steps. I think you see the transition as being this sudden "BAM!" but it's going to be much more gradual. Not only that, but these payment systems are not going to break. Square, NCR, and Blackhawk can already accept lightning payments directly but the merchant side auto-handles tax, optional conversion into fiat, and everything else a merchant might need (tips, payroll, etc.). Small business don't have the resources to do all of that stuff themselves. There's a reason they have adopted companies like Square en masse and switching to receiving lightning payments more frequently won't change that. The largest impact would be the government being forced to switch to measuring taxes in Bitcoin (because otherwise they would be getting screwed by highly deflated dollars by the time the tax is paid). This I can see becoming a reality but literally every other fiat currency is going to have to collapse first. If these softwares start streaming taxes directly to the government (which could happen given how lightning works and how these merchant softwares are being integrated by large companies) it becomes super easy to figure out which business locations are not doing it. Lots of other tools will be available as well given the digital nature of Bitcoin.

BuyRackTurk

> Walmart is a great example of this, initially shrinking their margins to destroy small businesses around a new store. Walmart is a great example of regulator capture. Minimum wage, tax compliance, and other regulatory advantages let them out compete smaller retailers. They use loan leverage to afford to operate at a loss to push small businesses out of a locality, then once they are the only local store they can raise prices. > They exist and sound money does not get rid of them automatically. True, but it does help get rid of them in stages. > Bulk orders similarly ensure that some bare minimum quantity is worth shipping to a certain location. If it required a bunch of small business orders, they would group their orders into some kind of management corp (which then ends up acting like a sort of franchise). all the logistics and levels of such infrastructure work fine as businesses of their own right. Massive vertical and horizontal integration is artificial. > Companies will continue using Square, NCR, Blackhawk, or some other provider of payment terminals with built in New retailers could and will eventually use simpler apps for direct payments, and not centralized banking apps. its already viable for online retailers to setup a friction-less bitcoin/Ln payment system that is completely permissionless. > Ultimately, you greatly over-estimate Bitcoins ability to destroy the enforcement capability of governments. the first and biggest wave of change would have to come from a collapse of fiat, and thus a collapse of the distortion effect of debt bubbles. And this can be triggered by nothing more than people moving their trust to btc over fiat assets. the secret to value is that you cant force people to value things. Not by fiat, not by taxation, not even by violence. If people truly switch mentally to valuing sats over cents, there isnt anything government or the fed cartel can really do to stop it. Once the hyperbitcoinization starts, there will be a wave of change. Legacy payment platforms and legacy methods of moving value will break, and people will be forced to find alternatives. And the best ones will be permissionless and frictionless, and inherently private and unstoppable by nature... which leads down to the following steps. > The only way this could happen is if people broadly REFUSE taxation en masse protest. People do it naturally when it is the path of least resistance. Which it could become. Its not so much a tax protest as tax laziness. Imagine if people had to save money all year and send a big pile of cash to the IRS in april. Compliance would be near zero; so they prefer to suck it out of your check before you even touch it. This only works because most people are w2 wage slaves and dont control their own funds flow. As bigger companies collapse into smaller ones, that will change.

Keith_Kong

>*\[On big business having advantages\]* only in gaining government favor. It doesn't help in a free market. Not true, I gave several examples the main one being superior negotiating power with suppliers and consumers, buying in bulk to get cheaper per unit and selling to consumers cheaper than competitors to push them out. Walmart is a great example of this, initially shrinking their margins to destroy small businesses around a new store. >*\[On global trade\]* Again, legal compliance, trade regulations, and other red tape make it so. First, you can't just ignore all of these factors. They exist and sound money does not get rid of them automatically. Second, it's not just about regulations. Shipping across oceans is just inherently big business. Even if the end retail stores were to stop being chains, some kind of large business would end up facilitating the core supply chain for different products given it cannot function well if different parts of the chain are not working in tandem. Bulk orders similarly ensure that some bare minimum quantity is worth shipping to a certain location. If it required a bunch of small business orders, they would group their orders into some kind of management corp (which then ends up acting like a sort of franchise). >Tax friction mostly. Most of the governments ability to tax is not the authority to tax, but the power to monitor, the efficiency of collection, and the power to freeze or confiscate. Take for example wait staff; until the credit card largely displaced cash for dining, they traditionally didnt fully comply with tax, and the cost of auditing them would far exceed the revenue. So the primary tax they paid was inflation on cash held. Without the power to freeze or force transfer money, without monitoring over bank accounts, and most importantly without the power to inflate, government scope reduces to about what it was in the 1800s. Still a bother, but a scarce percentage or less of what it is now. Companies will continue using Square, NCR, Blackhawk, or some other provider of payment terminals with built in tax, tipping, and other services. We are already starting to see a trend where Lightning is being integrated into these physical merchant devices. Employers will use similar software (the equivalent of todays Gusto, TriNet, SurePayroll, Square Payroll, etc). These companies are easy to enforce taxation upon, forcing them to make using their hardware/software in ways which avoids taxation impossible. Merchant device providers who attempt to service this desire can be shut down. Stores using unregulated/custom machines can easily be exposed and cracked down on using local state enforcement. Individuals can use lightning directly to "pay under the table" but this is no different than cash (though you could probably do global gig-economy type stuff under the table if you aren't a huge entity and know how to hide it well). Ultimately, you greatly over-estimate Bitcoins ability to destroy the enforcement capability of governments. The only way this could happen is if people broadly REFUSE taxation en masse protest. This might happen in a single country but is highly unlikely to happen globally. Eventually, the existence of other global countries (and militaries) will cause the people to bring a new government back into existence.

The_Estranger_0001

All the negative issues (inflation, rate hike, decreased earnings due to logistics etc.) are NOT Bitcoin related, BTC was just collateral damage; while all good Bitcoin specific news weee never reflected (Strike with NCR, 43 Central banks trying lighting network, whales gulping over 80k Bitcoins in a day etc). It’s more likely the consolidation is for going up.

Keith_Kong

Yeah I get it, I liking “playing” unbanked but I personally don’t have the network to really do that for real. My job pays dollars, the local stores don’t have NCR and Blackhawk machines (some use square terminals but not sure that works with Bitcoin yet). I can see that we are technologically there, but I wouldn’t call the infrastructure “complete” in the same way I wouldn’t call a few paved roads in the early 1900’s “infrastructure complete”. It’s possible, now we just need the widespread adoption of both the currency and the payment rails. Pretty bullish on this btw, just think there’s more to come in the next 2-5 years.

Keith_Kong

**Infrastructure does not exist:** 1. On-chain insufficient for merchant transactions. 2. Lightning not integrated into many wallets. 3. Very difficult/technical to manage a small lightning wallet connected with larger "account" wallet on-chain. 4. Visa cards are not "infrastructure" they are banking rails selling your Bitcoin on centralized spot exchanges. 5. Lightning is only recently integrated into NCR, Blackhawk, and Shopify. This is a great expansion into direct in-store and online payments but its not fully encompassing (and lightning wallets are not ready for the average person). People tend to think "technically working" means that infrastructure is done. That's like saying "Well this one town has a road down the center of it, why aren't cars taking off now that the infrastructure is here?" Bitcoin will stabilize along with infrastructure improvements and more easily accessible circular economies. Similar to cars, it's usefulness (and therefore adoption) increases along with that infrastructure. In Bitcoins case, this means the value will remain upwards volatile while this process continues.

Keith_Kong

Well, I would come back at you with the fact that your "Crypto Visa Card" is total BS "infrastructure" compared to what is actually needed. It uses banking rails and simply spot sells your Bitcoin on some exchange. That isn't a circular Bitcoin economy and isn't using Lightning or other solution which transacts in a decentralized way. It's just giving crypto to banks. Lightning integration in NCR, Shopify, etc. is REAL infrastructure and that is only a year in. Most longtime Bitcoiners still haven't even tried it out because lightning still isn't easily accessible.

rph_throwaway

Strike/NCR would absolutely still count as a third party in this scenario though.

bittabet

Yeah this mass adoption argument is ridiculous, it's actually pretty damned widely adopted considering how long it's been around. We're not there to where you can just pay with crypto anywhere you go but it's getting pretty close to that point given some of the recent announcements (i.e. Strike and NCR and Block and their Square terminals). That support hasn't been finished being built yet but it's clearly coming.

Svoboda1

Isn't that what Strike is setting out to change with their NCR and retail partnerships? You send your native currency over the BTC Lightning rails without the need for any third-party bank or exchanges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTqCs6RY9O4

Keith_Kong

Jack Maller isn’t trying to monopolize the lightning network nodes. He’s trying to monopolize the nodes integrating into payment machines. If he does, then raises prices, these companies like NCR will simply invest in their own Lightning integrations. The payment network itself makes the cost of doing this near zero because you don’t need your customers to switch out what they’re using. In Jack’s perfect world, he manages all the merchant nodes with Strike, takes a very small fee to make it seem pointless to move away, and continues having a Bitcoin profit generating business with near zero maintenance costs.

Blimpleton

By the end of the year any place with NCR or blackhawk POS systems will have a bitcoin lightning integration. So anyone with a lightning wallet can spend their bitcoin easily. Some places are already live. Shopify also accepts lightning payments

codingwithcoffee

Check out Strike (strike.me) - Jack Mallers payment platform for bitcoin. You can take credit cards deonimated in fiat and receive bitcoin. Or customer can pay with bitcoin and you receive fiat. Integrates with popular POS terminals (like NCR) as well as Shopify. He presented at the recent bitcoin conference. Pretty cool tech. All runs on lightning network. Zero merchant fees. Well worth a look. Hope this helps.

Keith_Kong

Maybe small businesses are using NCR and/or blackhawk machines? Strikes integration definitely makes the 2,300 US businesses stat wrong. Pretty much every single big retailer (wallmart, mcdonalds, etc.) can be paid over lightning now. Might be that 33% of small businesses have the same machines?

codingwithcoffee

Check out Strike payments. https://strike.me/ Integrates with Shopify, NCR and some other big e-commerce gateway. Can accept fiat from customer and pay to you in bitcoin. Uses lightning network so fees are practically 0. No merchant fees! I just watched his presentation from Bitcoin 2022 conference - including live demos of it working - I was impressed by what they have achieved in a relatively short time. Agree with you - it’s a game-changer!

Keith_Kong

Strike is primarily a merchant integration company where the entire purpose of the lightning integrated wallet (the user facing app you interact with) is to make sure there's at least one front end for users to get into the lightning network. Their lightning rails are ultimately facilitating the NCR, Blackhawk, and Shopify integrations such that anyone using any other lightning wallet will still go through Strikes lightning nodes (and optional stablecoin conversion process) on the merchant side. Cash App, Moon wallet, and others will compete for compelling front end applications and will balance convenience/security/privacy for the various types of users. Strike isn't really going after that just yet since they aim to control as much of the merchant side as they can. That said, I'm sure they will expand on the Strike app going into the future.

Keith_Kong

Gold has a monetary premium that makes up 95%+ of its demand. Any use case it has is dwarfed by the price given how much of it sits doing nothing in the hands of investors. It’s not the most demanded commodity, it’s the most scarce commodity. Thus, you must conclude that it’s scarceness is the source of most of its value (btw, more money is spent mining gold today than is spent making jewelry and electronics, so investors are the only thing keeping its value where it is at). Bitcoin CAN be used as money. Much easier than gold can. The limitation is adoption, not utility. As the lightning network continues to integrate into all of the Bitcoin wallets you will more easily be able to directly use it in stores (because of what Strike has done with NCR machines and the like). The real question is, “when do people actually want to spend their Bitcoin?” Adoption gives Bitcoin an upside that far extends inflation such that true philosophical Bitcoiners simply don’t want to spend it unless they run out of fiat. By the time Bitcoin checks all your boxes it won’t be an investment anymore because the adoption simply has to come first.

poisenloaf

Should be easier once NCR + Strike integration is live.

Shovelheaddad

Check out Flexa network. You can head over to the AMP subreddit and they can point you in the direction you need to go. AMP is used to collateralize the purchase instantly, so you don’t have to worry about fraud or the transaction being denied after being delayed. Fees are a fraction of what legacy payment companies charge and the best part is if you have any NCR PoS sulystens, it’s just a simple software update. You don’t need to buy anything to use it. I highly encourage you to head over there and find out. Best of all it lets them pay with any crypto or fiat they want and you can receive payment in any crypto or fiat you want

osrsflopper

How about some click bait type links so I can conveniently read about those NCR and Strike integrations.

Keith_Kong

The problem is that in order to receive it stores need a machine that actually understands crypto. It’s not just a software problem but a hardware problem. That’s why Strike lightning integration into NCR machines is such a big deal. It’s not just “pay with a credit card that sells your crypto”. It’s “pay from anything hooked into lightning and let the merchant decide whether to keep it in Bitcoin or convert it to a stablecoin with Strikes integration with NCR.” This means near zero fees for the merchant making it a superior payment rail even for dollar transactions. More than what rails are being used (important too but…), my interest is in building a circular economy. I don’t want to spend Bitcoin unless the merchant has signaled they receive and keep Bitcoin. Otherwise, I’m just complicating my tax life and adding downward pressure on Bitcoins price. I’m excited to use the new lightning integration to buy things at retail stores, but I’m going to use stablecoins not Bitcoin. I’m trying to offload fiat not Bitcoin after all. It’s a great way to support the payment rail infrastructure without causing the negative pressure on Bitcoin.

thefullmcnulty

Yep. Also, the strike partnership with NCR. This is happening. Right now it’s just a trickle, but when the dam breaks, it’s going to be unreal. I feel like when capital from the bond market floods into bitcoin allocations we see yet another step-function increase in bitcoin’s purchasing power.

hob_goblin8

has anyone used (or seen the option to use) Strike online with shopify yet? Or how about the self checkout NCR machines, when do those go live?

Keith_Kong

Get an NCR machine which has the Strike integration to accept lightning payments. This does not require KYC on the customer side and broadly supports all tradfi rails too. It also means 0% bank/card fees when someone uses either Bitcoin or Stablecoins over lightning. You could even give customers half the saved fees as a discount to sweeten the deal and incentivize using lightning rails.

coinfeeds-bot

tldr; Payment network Strike has announced integrations with Shopify, Blackhawk Network and NCR, making it easier for global merchants to accept Bitcoin payments. Strike CEO Jack Mallers said that over 400,000 storefronts will now accept Bitcoin through the Lightning Network. Strike’s integration could boost Bitcoin adoption to unprecedented heights and reduce volatility in the number-one digital currency’ *This summary is auto generated by a bot and not meant to replace reading the original article. As always, DYOR.*

Melting_Harps

>I believe Strike was first deployed in the US. I'm not in the US so I can't test it really. Then you're not really as adept as you claim or think you are, in which case this won't affect you as you would have noticed already if you were; either way, the point is that I don't want to detract from the NCR news, which is a big deal. But, what I fail to realize is that from El Salvador until now we saw Strike being the reason for LN adoption, where in reality it's been CASH app that has onboarded way more on to LN then Strike has by a significant margin. What Mallers has done is be the poster child for why LN works and will disrupt the legacy payment system, while the heavy lifting (Strike has really low purchase limits under even the best case scenario) is done elsewhere. Again, I think we should be glad Mallers is in the community over all, but he is mainly a hype-man, his stage presence at 2022 was an improvement to 21, but he gets and does media (that mainly only boomers watch) whereas Dorsey will simply just sponsor an event and focus on his other ventures knowing full well CASH has onboarded more onto LN than anything else to date including Strike, he has backed Lightening labs, and continues to get into other markets outside of the US with CASH. I'm more excited about Blockstream, Block, and Tesla mining operation: in truth, you can just use Muun and withdraw your funds from CASH that were acquired from renewables from them onto your own wallet bypass all the BS regulations that come from either/all services. I wonder if there will be a secondary market for eco-friendly coins, it will be interesting if coins derived from CASH's command a higher mark-up because they prove all the anti-BTC people that Bitcoin is inherently wasteful when in reality it's only spurring on more renewable and recapturing services with a financial incentive.