By Alicia Maher
A crypto exchange platform and virtual wallet service provider, CoinCorner, has just released its latest product, the Bolt Card.
The card is designed for hassle-free transactions without time-demanding processes.
According to the developers, the Bolt card aims to provide seamless and super-fast transactions to users unrivaled by traditional card payment providers, Visa and Mastercard. An open and decentralized payment solution is set to complete virtual payment processing within seconds.
The Workings of the Bolt Card
The Bolt Card is designed to enable users to leverage the features of the Lightning Network, which is a Layer-2 payment system hosted on the Bitcoin network, to facilitate cheaper and faster transactions and make a direct payment by simply tapping the card on a compatible sale device integrated with the Lightning invoice.
According to Danny Scott, CEO of CoinCorner, the payment process is easy to navigate and use as it is designed in such a way that users will tap their cards on the Lightning-enabled point-of-sale (POS) device, and a payment request will be immediately sent to the users’ CoinCorner account.
Additionally, the British Pound Sterling (GBP) is the platform’s dominant currency. It will be changed to BTC and sent over the LN to the merchant upon initiating a transaction. This is done to fast-track the processing time of transactions, which is expected to be faster than other transactions carried out on crypto exchanges.
However, the CEO reiterated that the project is still at its early stage, and the team is continuously working on making Lightning function in the daily use cases. In this case, the platform is looking to explore another working concept to make the Bolt Card more user-friendly.
Meanwhile, as disclosed by Scott, the card is compatible with the Bitcoin payment system, BTCPay, and CoinCorner is working on including more support for LNBits, FastBitcoins, and others.
Moreover, users can pay at any location with the CoinCorner and Lightning-powered POS terminal. There are about 20 stores in the Aisle of Man, a British colony, and efforts are in place to further roll out additional stores around the U.K. and other countries.
Android Users Are Also Considered
The platform has disclosed that Android users are not left out of the new product as they can use the checkout option on websites that accept payments in Bitcoin and Lightning payments.
It is worthy to note that Bolt Card was launched days after the CEO of FTX crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, stated that Bitcoin cannot serve as an efficient digital payment method. He will only focus on the integration of the LN protocol. As expected, the statement attracted massive backlash from the crypto community.
Despite the FTX’s CEO’s reservation about Bitcoin’s payment viability, some commenters expressed optimism that the flagship cryptocurrency would do well and potentially lead to massive Bitcoin adoption.
The coming of the BTC card is a welcome development as the race for more virtual payment options continues to expand.