One can buy groceries, airtime, bus tickets, and pay municipal bills with bitcoin. From Moneyweb.
Crypto exchanges VALR and Luno have partnered with CryptoConvert to allow clients to spend their crypto at more than 1 500 Pick n Pay stores across the country.
Pick n Pay started accepting crypto payments at a limited number of stores in 2022, but has since extended it to more than 1 500.
The advantage for Luno and VALR clients is that they do not have to withdraw crypto and convert it to rands before making purchases. That is taken care of by CryptoConvert, which allows merchants to receive crypto payments using the Bitcoin Lightning Network without having to navigate the technical complexities and exchange rate volatility associated with crypto payments.
Read: Pick n Pay to start accepting cryptocurrency payments
VALR clients can now purchase groceries using the VALR Pay app at all Pick n Pay stores throughout South Africa. The feature is initially available to Android users directly from the VALR app, with iOS being rolled out soon, says VALR CEO Farzam Ehsani.
iOS users can still use VALR Pay at Pick n Pay by downloading the CryptoQR app and setting their default wallet to VALR Pay.
“When we developed VALR Pay, our vision was to first create free, fast and easy peer-to-peer payments and then to facilitate payment acceptance at merchants. The acceptance of VALR Pay at over 1 500 Pick n Pay stores across South Africa brings this vision to fruition,” says Ehsani. “We’ve built a powerful API (application programming interface) to enable other businesses, like CryptoConvert, to leverage our technology to create beautiful products and services with us.”
No fee
Luno has also partnered with CryptoConvert to enable its clients to purchase at Pick n Pay using bitcoin. SA country manager Christo de Wit says customers will be able to buy groceries and other services such as airtime, lights and bus tickets, as well as pay municipal bills with bitcoin at the till. Luno does not charge its customers a fee to use the service.
“To make it quick and easy, Luno customers will simply open their Luno app and scan a QR code at the till to pay in bitcoin,” says De Wit. “Luno employees were first to test the in-app QR scanner, which will be available at the tills in a week.”
Listen: Pick n Pay takes the plunge with bitcoin payments
Carel van Wyk, founder of CryptoConvert, told Moneyweb that additional merchants will be brought on board in the future, but for now, the focus is on making the partnerships with Luno and VALR successful and assisting them in serving their customers. “Though we enable Lightning payments, these integrations with Luno and VALR do not use Lightning,” says Van Wyk. “In this case, we use Luno and VALR Pay APIs.”
Lightning is a software protocol designed to speed up transaction times in the bitcoin network and decrease congestion.
“The declaration of cryptocurrency as a financial product by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority paves the way for greater adoption in South Africa. Pick n Pay is to be applauded for being an early adopter merchant and getting to grips with cryptocurrencies,” says De Wit.
Read:
Crypto assets to be treated as financial products in South Africa
SA to require crypto exchanges licensing by year-end
Getting clients to spend
One of the challenges facing crypto exchanges is encouraging clients to spend rather than sit on (HODL) their crypto. “We have a wide variety of clients, and many will definitely use this service, while others will prefer to HODL. The beauty of this is that the choice sits with the customer,” says Ehsani.
Says Luno’s De Wit: “I think crypto payments will still take some time to go fully mainstream. However, by making this more easily accessible, we are enabling people to have the option to make use of their crypto for payments.
At this stage, adoption levels globally are still low, mostly due to a lack of supporting use cases and infrastructure. I think this paves the way for greater adoption in the long run.”
VALR was established in 2018 and has processed over $10 billion (R191 billion) in trading volume and has raised $55 million (R1 billion) since its launch. It has half a million retail customers and over 800 corporate and institutional clients across the globe.
Luno, born in Cape Town and later acquired by Digital Currency Group in the US, has more than 12 million customers and 40 offices worldwide. It has about five million customers in SA, of which 250 000 are active on the crypto platform each week.
