Key Takeaways
- Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced a partnership today with Shopify, NCR, and Blackhawk.
- These announcements would allow many more people to use Bitcoin in place of the credit cards that have dominated for decades.
- Mallers also noted that he had been working with Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming on pro-crypto legislation.
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Strike CEO Jack Mallers made waves today in announcing that his company had partnered with Shopify, NCR, and Blackhawk.
Strike Announcements
In the last speech of its first day, Jack Mallers made some big announcements at Bitcoin 2022 in Miami.
In his talk, the Strike CEO announced the integration of Strike with Shopify, which is live now, as well as partnerships with NCR and Blackhawk.
Contrary to rumors that began circulating last month that Strike would partner with Apple, Mallers did not announce a partnership with Apple today. The rumors stemmed from Mallers’ oblique references to Apple on Twitter, such as archive clips of Steve Jobs and an early Apple commercial, and he also revealed that the public should expect an important announcement at Bitcoin 2022, which it teased leading up to today’s announcement.
Instead, Mallers began his speech with a brief history of credit cards, starting with the Diner’s Club Card in 1949. He argued that these companies—including Visa, Mastercard, and Discover—have settled payments in essentially the same way since then, relying on a series of intermediaries to settle the funds. Furthermore, Mallers emphasized the fact that merchants do not receive full payment from their customers, but instead have to sacrifice earnings to processing fees.
“In reality, payment networks have not innovated in over 50 years,” he said. “That’s insane!”
He continued:
“There’s not been, since 1949, a superior payments network that allows us to innovate, build on financial inclusion, offer cheaper services, [and] move the world forward.”
Strike is one of the leading Bitcoin payments companies. It focuses on facilitating fast, low-cost Bitcoin payments by leveraging Lightning Network, a protocol that supports high-speed transactions by running payment channels on top of the Bitcoin protocol. Lightning Network is frequently touted as the top solution that could unlock Bitcoin scalability and help the top crypto hit mass adoption.
Shopify is a prominent e-commerce platform that helps businesses manage online storefronts. In 2021, Shopify reported over 1.7 million businesses were using its platform. NCR Corporation, formerly National Cash Register, is a software company providing services for point-of-sale systems, ATMs, and check processing systems. Blackhawk Networks Holdings deals primarily in gift cards and prepaid debit cards.
Mallers has long been a vocal proponent of Bitcoin and an advocate for the cryptocurrency industry. His influence may also soon be felt in Washington, D.C., as well, as he also announced that he had been working with Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) on crypto-friendly legislation.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the authors of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.
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