Pick n Pay To Accept Bitcoin For Groceries
- Pick n Pay, a leading grocery retailer in South Korea, has successfully completed the first phase of a pilot program wherein it tested accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as payment for grocery purchases.
- In the “coming months,” Pick n Pay plans to start accepting bitcoin payments in all of its locations and 39 stores via an application that has also been tested.
- Payments are made using the Bitcoin Lightning system, which is built on top of the famously expensive and slow Bitcoin ecosystem as it is more scalable and faster.
South Africa’s leading grocery retailer, Pick n Pay, has decided to try its hands in the crypto industry. After successful completion of the first phase of a pilot program, the company has expanded it to include cryptocurrency as a payment method.
In the “coming months,” Pick n Pay plans to start accepting bitcoin payments in all of its locations. The retail company announced in a Tuesday update that it had expanded its testing to more locations, meaning that 39 of its outlets are already accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments.
The company stated:
“Increasingly cryptocurrency is being used by those under-served by traditional banking systems, or by those wanting to pay and exchange money in a cheaper and really convenient way. Many companies are responding to this by accepting Bitcoin.”
After a year-long pause since Pick n Pay first entered into the cryptocurrency world, an initial pilot had seen 10 Western Cape stores accept bitcoin over the past five months. In 2017, PnP tried out cryptocurrency payments at a canteen store at its headquarters but it wasn’t sustainable because the technology at the time was too expensive for consumers and took too long to complete the transaction. However, the company said that transactions now take seconds to complete because of the availability of many advanced software options on smartphones.
Payments are made using the Bitcoin Lightning system, which is built on top of the famously expensive and slow Bitcoin ecosystem. However, according to Pick n Pay, using Bitcoin Lightning takes less than 30 seconds and is nearly as simple as using a debit card. According to Pick n Pay, the average cost of a transaction is 70 cents.
Pick n Pay has also announced its partnership with Electrum and CryptoConvert for its latest pilot. The payment platform by Electrum connects CryptoConvert and Pick n Pay, allowing users to pay with Bitcoin Lightening technology at the till point. CryptoConvert’s founder Carel van Wyk commented:
“Crypto payments are still in their infancy in South Africa, but we are already seeing adoption in parts of our society that haven’t previously had access to traditional financial systems.”
Interestingly, the announcement comes weeks after the South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority officially declared crypto assets as a financial product, opening a regulated way for them to become a mainstream payment method in the region.
The presence of crypto and blockchain in Africa continues to increase with several crypto firms targeting the region as their preferred location for expansion.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
