The new Solana Pay integration on Shopify allows for cryptocurrency-centric e-commerce using USDC payments.
By announcing its integration with Shopify on August 23 through TechCrunch, Solana Labs’ decentralized payment mechanism, Solana Pay, has made a major step forward in the e-commerce industry. Because of this advancement, many companies may now accept payments in USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.
Solana Pay, which was launched in 2022, is built on top of the Solana blockchain at layer 1. The partnership’s principal currency is USDC, which has a market worth of $25.9 bn. The coin’s legal clarity and USD peg make it a competitive alternative for retailers of all stripes.
Consumers are used to making purchases with digital dollars, and USDC is more regulated than, say, several cryptocurrencies. However, the protocol may eventually include other digital currencies like SOL and BONK.
Shopify, which powers 10% of all online sales in the United States, is no stranger to bold financial bets. Its entry into the Solana ecosystem, which includes over 11.5 million active accounts and claims 100% outage-free Q2 2023, is set to capitalize on the network’s $444 billion in annual economic activity value.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Josh Fried, Solana Foundation’s director of business development and partnerships, praised the blockchain technology’s speedy transactions and low fees. His thoughts on the integration were as follows.
For merchant payments, quickness at the register is essential. Nobody likes waiting around on a webpage for a wallet transaction to complete.
Credit card processing costs, which may vary from 1.5 percent to 3 percent, are a headache for firms operating in the conventional banking system.
Many crypto-centric groups have taken notice of this relationship. Many companies, including Helius, Mad Lads, and MonkeDAO, have expressed their desire to join the growing Shopify-Solana Pay ecosystem. Throughout its development, Shopify has shown an interest in and use of blockchain-based solutions.
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