Zap Inc., a Lightning payment startup, has announced its new payment application Strike Global that uses the Bitcoin lightning network and Bitcoin itself to offer instant and free payments globally.
CEO of ZAP Jack Mallers published some significant developments in a blog post on Wednesday, January 6th. Zap Inc. launched the public beta of Strike Global in July of 2020. According to the announcement, during the public beta, Strike registered more than 10,000 users and currently processes millions of dollars in volume per month.
Jack announced that they had partnered with Bittrex Global to expand Strike’s reach to over 200 countries. This partnership also includes the onboarding of all 1M+ Bittrex users onto Strike and Lightning.
Strike has now added support for USDT, USDC, EUR, GBP, CHF, and more. A Visa-powered Strike card will also be available in the US in Q1 of 2021, and the EU and UK by Q2 2021.
Strike uses Bitcoin Lightning Network to offer instant and free payments globally. Users can use Strike to pay each other, buy goods and services online, make micropayments, tip content creators, as well as buy and sell Bitcoin.
How Does It work?
Strike is actually a real-time, global settlement, and self-clearing system that converts the currency to be sent into Bitcoin and then sends these Bitcoin to the destination where they are converted back to the required currency.
If a user wants to send $1000 to the UK, the app debits the required amount from the user’s linked account or available balance and converts it into Bitcoin. Strike then moves the Bitcoins on the Lightning network to its many infrastructure pieces in less than a second and for no cost. The app then automatically converts them back into Euros using its real-time automated risk management and trading infrastructure, which are then credited to the user’s account.
Strike is non-custodial which means users never custody Bitcoin through Strike. Strike is the custodian of the fiat deposited onto the app. All fiat is FDIC-insured and users are free to withdraw these funds to their linked account at any time.
According to Jack Mallers:
“The combination of the Bitcoin network, Lightning network, and Strike allows anyone to send any amount of money, at any time, for zero cost. We now have an open monetary network that can physically settle any amount of value, at any time, to any place, at virtually no cost. Combine that with an application that allows you to utilize this open monetary network with your bank account and you get monumental innovation and pure disruption.”
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