Strike’s digital wallet has become the fifth most popular finance app in Argentina within a week of its launch.
The firm, led by hoodie-wearing CEO Jack Mallers, rolled out its crypto payment services for the Argentinian market on Jan 12. Strike is famed for enabling Bitcoin (BTC) payments via the Lightning network, particularly in El Salvador.
However, according to local media and user reports, the firm’s app in Argentina reportedly currently only supports the use of Tether’s stable coin USDT for transfers via Lightning. Users are able to purchase Bitcoin via the app though, and send it to a third party wallet.
Mallers tweeted on Jan. 18 that Strike’s app is currently ranked as the fifth-highest finance app and the top new app overall on the Argentinian Apple app store, as he emphasized the importance of the Bitcoin network:
“The best monetary network in human history is here, it’s open, and will disrupt the world quicker than anyone thinks. Open networks win.”
Mallers stated earlier this week that Strike is working to bring additional BTC support and features to the app soon, noting that the company is taking the “exact same” same approach to El Salvador.
Since launch we’ve already been approached by many new partners.
We have meetings next week to find sufficient partners and are working on bringing the #Bitcoin tab and other features in the US to Argentina, one step at a time.
The exact same approach we’ve taken in El Salvador
— Jack Mallers (@jackmallers) January 15, 2022
Neither Strike nor Mallers highlighted the use of Tether as part of the company’s initial announcement, however the CEO did note that the app would enable the Argentinian people to “hold a stable cash balance that can be spent both instantly and with no fees.”
According to a rough translation of a Jan. 11 report from local media outlet iProUP, the terms of service for Strike’s app states that it is partnered with the Bittrex exchange for asset custody and fund transfers, and specifies that the app will provide “a currency that users can use to protect themselves” from inflation.
“Although the solution is being promoted as being based on BTC technology, it is actually based on the Ethereum network, as it is the Tether USD (USDT) stablecoin, under the ERC-20 token technology standard,” the publication wrote.
Related: Uruguay reportedly installs its first Bitcoin ATM
A local Strike user named “Nico” on Twitter stated that he able to receive Bitcoin via the app but it was instantly converted into USDT, while Argentinian crypto Journalist Luis David Esparragoza responded the same thing happens on the reverse transaction, where users send USDT to Bittrex which is then converted in BTC.
One function that reportedly supports Bitcoin directly in Argentina, is the BTC tipping feature on Twitter, with Mallers alluding to such via a screen recorded via on Twitter last week.
Cointelegraph has reached out to Mallers for comment regarding the use of USDT, and will update the article if he responds.
There’s no denying that 2021 was the Lightning Network’s year. What does the future hold, though? If the objective is to onboard the next billion people, the network needs work and fine-tuning. To grab the bull by the horns, The Human Rights Foundation and Strike set upthree 1 BTC bounties.
The bounties will go to the first person or team to develop an anonymous Lightning tip jar, a tokenless way to peg BTC to dollars, or a privacy-focused wallet that supports some kind of Chaumian e-cash feature. In a Twitter Spaces conversation about the program, they named it The Lightning Development Initiative.
A catchy name that we’ll use from now on to refer to all of this. This fourth edition of Lightning Speed is all about the future. Let’s explore the three ideas and the new information that we have about each of them.
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The Lightning Development Initiative In Twitter Spaces
Among the speakers were Strike’s Jack Mallers, The Human Rights Foundation’s Alex Gladstein, Bitcoin Magazine’s Christian Keroles AKA CK Snarks, and Tales From The Crypt’s Matt Odell. It took place December 29th and Bitcoin Magazine hosted it. A Twitter user named Gigi summarized it for us.
🚨 A thread summarizing the Lightning Développement Initiative Space ⬇️
3 amazingly interesting topic related to the bounties were discussed.
I’m so bullish on Lightning⚡ it hurts. Very grateful to have these people on our side ❤️👑
let’s look at my notes 🧵 pic.twitter.com/PRs9cohPaN
— Gigi ⚡🇨🇵 (@GuerillaV2) December 29, 2021
Bounty #1: An Anonymous Tip Jar
In our sister site Bitcoinist’s report, they described the challenge as follows:
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“Can you create a Lightning tip jar that doesn’t reveal any information about the parties involved? That’s the first task. How to receive completely anonymous donations. According to Bitcoin Mag, the “goal is to enable anyone to use free and open-source software (FOSS) to print a QR code that can be used for receiving Lightning payments privately. Importantly, “The QR code should not reveal the public key or IP address of the user.”
In the Lightning Development Initiative’s report, we learned that this has to do with the two competing protocols, Bolt12 and lnurl. Jack Mallers “pointed out the absolute need for interoperability on LN and that even though lnurl might not be “optimal” right now, the market will eventually decide what open standard they prefer to use. He thinks that currently UX is a major focus for the LN community and we should make peace with the fact that there will be competition between solutions.”
Rockstar pointed out that this debate around lnurl vs bolt12 will have huge implications for the future but that he’s glad that there’s now an active discussion on the matter.
Jack added that contrary to the Bitcoin main chain, we can somewhat afford to fuck up on LN..
— Gigi ⚡🇨🇵 (@GuerillaV2) December 29, 2021
Mallers put forth another interesting idea, “contrary to the Bitcoin main chain, we can somewhat afford to f**k up on the Lightning Network. As long as the Bitcoin monetary policy is not threatened then we can freely fiddle on top of the protocol via Lightning.”
BTC price chart for 01/14/2022 on Bitfinex | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Bounty #2: Stablecoin On Lightning Without A Token
Bitcoinist described this one as:
“The second challenge seems to be even more difficult, at least on a conceptual level. The HRF and Strike want a wallet that enables “anyone to “peg” an amount of bitcoin to U.S. dollars without needing an exchange or another token.” That’s right, without a centralized entity. And relying only on sats and bitcoin.”
Gigi summarizes why the world needs this:
“The goal is to allow people to access dollars without a single point of failure. Further down the line, as Bitcoin becomes less volatile, these people can use btc, but until then there’s massive demand for holding value in dollars. The tether market cap is proof of this.”
It serve an important humanitarian use case. We need to create the foundation for this new financial system.@Chris_Stewart_5 >> maybe it can be done with DLC’s? Not using a token but rather something representing price exposure (think Eurodollar system). (oracles?)
The END.
— Gigi ⚡🇨🇵 (@GuerillaV2) December 29, 2021
Bounty #3: A Chaumian E-Cash Feature
First of all,Investopediadefines Chaumian e-cash as:
“eCash was a digital-based system that facilitated the transfer of funds anonymously. A pioneer in cryptocurrency, its goal was to secure the privacy of individuals that use the Internet for micropayments. eCash was created by Dr. David Chaum under his company, DigiCash, in 1990.“
So, once again, anonymity is the priority. AsAlex Gladstein put itwhen announcing the bounties, they’re “for the first open-source, non-custodial, non-KYC Lightning wallets to ship features requested by dissidents worldwide.” Also, take into consideration the words of security expertBrian Trollz’s words, “Bitcoin without privacy is nothing but a surveillance system.”
Bitcoin without privacy is nothing but a surveillance system.
— Shino (@brian_trollz) January 13, 2022
What does Gigi have for us on this topic? “We need a sort of Chaumian e-cash, extremely easy to use for the Plebs and accessible. Maybe the solution is a federated one, making it harder to regulate.” He then quotes Jack Mallers again, “There’s going to be a singular standard for the internet of money (Bitcoin). Many will compete on top of BTC so we need “interoperability to the standard.”
Matt: We need to make it very easy to use because experience shows us that if it’s somewhat challenging (coinjoins etcc) people won’t bother to protect their privacy (goddam idiot normies 🤡)
— Gigi ⚡🇨🇵 (@GuerillaV2) December 29, 2021
Conclusion: The Future Is Bright
Developers, teams, companies, anyone can earn the Lighting Development Initiative’s bounties. The non-profit OpenSats will serve as the judge. They are all open for the whole year. If by the end of 2022 no one has claimed them, the money will go to the Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund on January 1st. Which is fair. Especially considering they gave 425 million Sats tothese worthy organizations and individuals.
For more information and detailsread Bitcoinist’s original report.
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Strike users can now enable direct deposit to their account and configure any amount of the incoming money to be instantly converted into bitcoin with no fees.
“Pay Me In Bitcoin” allows users to seamlessly convert a portion of their income into BTC using their account and routing numbers.
The feature enables easy access to sound money for all those eligible for a Strike account, regardless of their employers.
Lightning Network payments platform Strike has announced its newest feature, Pay Me In Bitcoin, which will allow users to programmatically convert a portion of or all of their income into bitcoin in the app by using their bank account and routing numbers.
“I am unbelievably excited to announce and publicly release Pay Me in Bitcoin with Strike,” the company founder Jack Mallers wrote in an announcement post shared with Bitcoin Magazine. “Today, anyone with a Strike account, no matter their employer, can get paid in bitcoin.”
Pay Me In Bitcoin seeks to enable financial freedom for those who can’t get paid directly in bitcoin. Nearly anyone in the U.S. or El Salvador can sign up for Strike and start saving part of their income in BTC automatically, enabling them to shield themselves from high inflation rates and be more sovereign over their money.
“If you are not getting a 25% raise every year and you are saving in dollars, you are not out-earning or out-saving the rate of inflation or the increase in cost of living, and your quality of life will degrade as time goes on,” Mallers wrote.
Bitcoin fixes this with a sound monetary policy and antifragile money that cannot be debased. By saving in BTC, anyone can retake control of their purchasing power and reclaim their financial freedom.
“Bitcoin is the scarcest asset of all time, infinitely divisible, trivial to verify, can transport at the speed of light, and can be safely secured with as little as one’s memory,” per the announcement, making it the perfect money for storing and transacting value.
Strike is a custodial solution, meaning users don’t own the private keys that control their funds in the app. However, the application allows BTC funds to be withdrawn to third-party Bitcoin wallets to which the user holds the private keys, enabling them financial sovereignty.
“You don’t have to work for a special company, you don’t have to convince your boss to like bitcoin, you don’t need to nag your CFO to put bitcoin on the balance sheet,” Mallers wrote. “All you need to do is share your Strike account details and configure your Pay Me In Bitcoin split.”
Today is the day, Litecoin’s 10th anniversary. Congratulations to Charlie Lee and everyone involved in the project over the years. We are exploring Litecoin’s history through the eyes of its creator. We covered itsfair launch, thelong-hard road to exchangesadopting LTC, and we introduced the SegWit story. It’s time to finish it.
The last time, we introduced Bitmain’s co-founder Jihan Wu. Reportedly, he was singlehandedly stopping SegWit adoption in the Bitcoin blockchain.Lee’s planwas to use Litecoin as a Testnet of sorts for SegWit. “I realized that here’s a chance for Litecoin to do something to help Bitcoin. If we can get SegWit on Litecoin, it can clear out all the FUD and prove that SegWit is safe and a good upgrade for Bitcoin.” To accomplish that, he had to convince miners to side with him and not with the manufacturer of the most efficient ASICs.
Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course
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According toCoindesk, there was another important incentive for Litecoin to adopt SegWit:
“Since SegWit could potentially pave the way for technologies that expand the value proposition of cryptocurrencies, the move toward accepting the upgrade has reignited excitement around the normally less-popular cryptocurrency. Litecoin’s price has nearly tripled since the end of March as a result.”
And this is where today’s story starts.
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LTC price chart for 10/13/2021 on FX | Source: LTC/USD on TradingView.com
Charlie Lee Talks To Litecoin‘s Miners
During the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2012, Lee talked to everyone. One of his first victories wasto get “Innosilicon, another LTC ASIC maker,” to his side. In this part of the story, we can see how hard Jihan Wu was playing. A “huge LTC Miner” was ready to signal for SegWit in principle, but, since his machines were in a farm controlled by Jihan Wu, he was afraid that he might lose access to cheap electricity.
Innosilicon was immediately on board with SegWit. They agreed with me that it’s the best path forward. And they were able to convince some of their customers to support SegWit.
One of their customers was a huge LTC miner. He owned about 5% of the hashrate. Having him was huge.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021
The objective was to get “75% of blocks signal for SegWit within a 2-week timeframe.” Easier said than done. LitecoinPool was the first great pool to side with SegWit. Another big mining pool, F2pool, also promised to do it, but they didn’t right away. This turned out to be great for the cause because they provided a clear signal that the market supported the SegWit transition. Leenarrates, “over the next month, F2pool actually flipped flopped. They would signal and then stop signaling. The market reacted accordingly. When F2pool started signaling, the price will go up, and vice versa.”
To complicate things, “Jihan wanted me to personally visit him and the miners in China to convince them about SegWit.” Lee didn’t like the power-play, but that was nothing. As more and more miners signaled for SegWit, Jihan turned to the ace up his sleeve. There was a rumor that “Bitmain was building a ton of LTC miners and was going to turn them all on themselves to block the upgrade.”
Over the next week, more and more miners started signaling for SegWit and it started to look inevitable. And then this happened. Bitmain was building a ton of LTC miners and was going to turn them all on themselves to block the upgrade. 😡https://t.co/Zvs9srExJJ
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021
It was time for Charlie Lee to call in the big guns.
The User Activated Soft Fork
Since both the miners and the market were clearly signaling in support of SegWit, Charlie Lee felt he had the right “to pull the UASF trump card out.” One of the wonders of decentralized organizations is that the users can also activate a soft fork. “If the majority of users and exchanges run the UASF code, SegWit will activate.” If that happened, miners had to comply and adopt SegWit as well.
UASF stands for User Activated Soft Fork. What it means is that instead of having the soft fork (SegWit) being miner activated, the user decides to activate the soft fork in a future date. If the majority of users and exchanges run the UASF code, SegWit will activate.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021
The threat of a UASF was too much to bear, so the miners agreed to meet with Charlie Lee online and work things out.
Yes we will do roundtable online with @SatoshiLite ASAP, not need to wait for June. https://t.co/rVWQjLu5kJ
— Jiang Zhuoer BTC.TOP (@JiangZhuoer) April 20, 2017
And the restis history, “On April 21, I met with Jihan, Innosilicon, and miners for over 8 hours IIRC. It was exhausting.“ They reached an agreement,this is the blog postannouncing it. Among other things, it says:
“We agree that protocol upgrade should be made under community consensus, and should not be unilateral action of developers nor miners. We advocate that Litecoin protocol upgrade decision should be made based on the needs of the users, through the roundtable meeting voting process, and activated by miner voting.”
CharlieLee reflects, “Although this seems so bad for a decentralized cryptocurrency to have a closed door meeting to make decisions that affect the future of Litecoin, I felt like it was a compromise I’m willing to take. It’s better than an all out war between the miners and I.”
On May 10th, 2017, SegWit was activated on Litecoin.
SegWit has activated on Litecoin! 💥😁 pic.twitter.com/lpeklpQpZe
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) May 10, 2017
After that, a few historic transactions took place
“A lot of people have been saying that segwit is unsafe because segwit coins are “anyone-can-spend” and can be stolen. So lets put this to the test. I put up $1MM of LTC into a segwit address. You can see it’s a segwit address because I sent and spent 1 LTC first to reveal the redeemscript.”
A few months later,Bitcoin activated SegWitthrough a UASF. “It’s hard to know exactly how much Litecoin helped with this. I feel like it definitely has helped.”
Days later, Charlie Lee and Strike’s Jack Mallers starred in the first Lightning Network request/ paymenttransaction on Litecoin. That man Jack Mallers has a way to get involved in historic transactions, likethis one, andthis one.
That same month, Lee didhis first Atomic Swaptransaction. “This shows how one can move coins between different chains in a decentralized way. It was a great proof of concept and paved the way for decentralized exchanges.”
And later, he didanother Atomic Swapbut this time with Bitcoin.
And the next month,Lee did“the first ever cross-chain swap between BTC and LTC via Lightning.” This time it was with the now world-famous Lightning Labs.
Related Reading | Binance Burns Record $600 Million BNB In Its 15th Quarter
Wasn’t that an amazing, amazing story? We learned so much. And, even though we said this was the last chapter in the Litecoin 10-year history, Charlie Lee has another story to tell. Join us tomorrow for the infamous story of Charlie selling all of his Litecoin. Another legendary moment in crypto land.
Featured Image: Charlie Lee's picture from this tweet | Charts by TradingView
The mystery of the Chivo wallet persists. And Bitso comes into the picture as part of a more credible report confirmed through official channels. It seems like NewsBTC was right to doubt Forbes’s article aboutBitGo being behind the Chivowallet. ThisReuters report, on the other hand, comes with specific information and quotes confirming the news. For example:
“We are looking forward to working with El Salvador in an initiative that will transform payment structures and increase financial inclusion in the country,” said Santiago Alvarado, vice-president of Bitso for Business.
Related Reading | Bitcoin Price Bloodbath: Is El Salvador A “Sell The News” Event?
Even that could be considered evasive, it doesn’t refer to the Chivo wallet specifically. This chunky bit of information, on the other hand, leaves little to the imagination.
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“Bitso said it will work with Silvergate Bank, a U.S. federally-regulated and California state-chartered bank, to facilitate transactions in U.S. dollars.”
The language suggests they’re talking business.
El Salvador made history by becoming the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, and today, we’re proud to announce that Bitso is committed to building and developing El Salvador’s vision of Bitcoin by being the core crypto-service provider for Chivo.
Let’s #MakeCryptoUseful https://t.co/2rrTNDdXab
— Bitso (@Bitso) September 7, 2021
If Bitso Is Behind The Wallet, What’s The Deal With BitGo?
On the other hand, in the BitGo report, the language suggested otherwise. The quote from BitGo’s CEO was non-comital and it all sounded like a paid press release. NewsBTC questioned:
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“The most worrying sentence, however, is “Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped…” They’re not committing to anything here. It “appears” this way, but nothing is certain.”
However, could both companies be involved? Reuters says Bitso will be “the core service provider for Chivo.” Forbes said that BitGo would “provide Chivo’s wallet infrastructure and security platform.” Are both of these statements contradictory? Or are both of these giant companies behind the controversial Chivo wallet?
A funny detail is that Bitso’s name was present in theleak of the Chivo wallet’s architecturethat our sister site Bitcoinist reported on. BitGo’s name wasn’t. And Athena was at the center of the whole operation. Still, it’s a funny detail.
One thing’s for sure, Strike seems to be completely out of the picture. In a recent Twitter thread, Strike’s CEO Jack Mallers clearly said “Strike has no business relationship with Chivo wallet or any of their ATMs.”
All that was needed was interoperability with the #Bitcoin network.
Strike has no business relationship with @chivowallet or any of their ATMs.
We simply both integrated and operate on top of the same, singular, payment standard that is #Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.
— Jack Mallers (@jackmallers) September 7, 2021
Mallers seems to be perfectly fine with the situation. “With the Bitcoin network, there is one singular, open standard for the world,” he says later on in the thread.
BTC price chart for 09/10/2021 on Bittrex | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Remittances Are The Key
In the days prior to the Bitcoin Law coming into effect, Bitcoinist quoted the executive president of theCentral American Bank for Economic Integration, Dante Mossi. He said their eyes were on remittances and that:
“Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are the countries that would have the most to gain if the adoption of bitcoin lowered the cost of sending remittances.” All countries in his organization’s area of influence.
Instead of focusing on how much Salvadorans are going to get back, a recent report abouthow much Western Union is going to lose with El Salvador’sBitcoin move recently made the news. About it, Bitcoinist said:
“With bitcoin though, the middleman, in this case, Western Union and the likes, are completely removed from the process. The funds sent go directly to the recipient without the need for a processing fee to a third party. It is estimated that these remittance companies are set to lose about $400 million a year when remittances are routed through bitcoin instead.”
Related Reading | Bitso Raises Over US$1.85m to Boost Mexican Bitcoin Remittance
As it turns out, remittances are Bitso ’s specialty. The company processed “more than $1.2 billion in remittances between the United States and Mexico in 2020.” In the article, Reuters quotes Santiago Alvarado again:
“As the leading crypto exchange in the region, we are thrilled to bring our experience in remittances and in secure and low-friction financial services to Salvadorans.”
So, this all makes sense. Still, the mystery of the Chivo wallet persists.
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Where did BitGo come from? In all of this time covering El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law, the name wasn’t in the picture. Now, all of a sudden,Forbes claimsthat BitGo’s technology is behind the controversial Chivo wallet. How and when did this happen? Or, more importantly, is this real news or a paid piece to take advantage of the “historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption.”
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Not to be conspiratorial, but Forbes’ tone through this whole piece has a press-release-feel to it.
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“For months, El Salvador has kept many of Chivo’s details under wraps with the nation’s 40-year-old president, Nayib Bukele, teasing the wallet’s launch onTwitterjust last week. However, Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped cryptocurrency unicorn BitGo to provide Chivo’s wallet infrastructure and security platform, making the Palo Alto, Calif-based startup the nation’s exclusive hot-wallet provider in a historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption.”
What’s all this about “cryptocurrency unicorn BitGo” and “the nation’s exclusive hot-wallet provider in a historic moment”? Is this the appropriate vocabulary for a legacy media publication like this one? The most worrying sentence, however, is “Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped…”They’re not committing to anything here. It “appears” this way, but nothing is certain.
BTC price chart for 09/07/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
What Does BitGo Say About The Announcement?
Not El Salvador’s government, nor Strike commented on the Forbes piece. They did get a quote from Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, who said:
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“Digital assets look so different from what we’ve seen with other types of money, and so people wonder about how [they] fit in, but this is an opportunity to build financial freedom for the people of El Salvador” says BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, speaking from his home in Silicon Valley on Saturday. “The ability to send money in a hurry on a Saturday night, when banks are closed, across the planet and at almost no fees, it’s hard to put into words how empowering that is, and what we’ll see in El Salvador is, people will start figuring it out.”
Did Belshe confirm the news? Is BitGo behind the Chivo App? He talks about “an opportunity to build financial freedom for the people of El Salvador.” So yeah, assuming Belshe was talking about this specific rumor, he seems to confirm the news. Indirectly. In a non-comital way.
To make things worse, the article ends presenting BitGo as their own marketing material would:
“Founded in 2013, BitGo has grown into one of the biggest cryptocurrency wallet companies in the world, raising more than $70 million in funding from investors including…”
Let’s Remember, What Did Strike Say About The Subject?
Strike’s Jack Mallers has met with the Bukeles, announced El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption, and the company has an office at Bitcoin Beach. Everyone was assuming that the technology behind the Chivo wallet was going to be Strike’s. However, if we go back tothe interview in which Mallers told the whole story, our sister site Bitcoinist quotes him saying:
“There’s no commercial agreement between Strike and the government of El Salvador.
“In fact, I advised and gave my opinion of the opposite. The economies of scale and network effects associated with open networks are so powerful. Just by plugging in to them you’re going to get the freemarket competition that every country would die for.”
Related Reading | Tomorrow, The Community Will Buy $30 In BTC To Support El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law
Did President Bukele take his advice and went with another company? Can we trust Forbes even if it sounds like a copy-and-pasted press release? Is BitGo’s technology behind the Chivo Wallet? We will know for sure very soon.
Featured Image by Chräcker Heller from Pixabay - Charts by TradingView
Where did BitGo come from? In all of this time covering El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law, the name wasn’t in the picture. Now, all of a sudden,Forbes claimsthat BitGo’s technology is behind the controversial Chivo wallet. How and when did this happen? Or, more importantly, is this real news or a paid piece to take advantage of the “historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption.”
Related Reading | NewsBTC Crypto Trading Course. For FREE.99
Not to be conspiratorial, but Forbes’ tone in this whole piece has a press-release-feel to it.
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“For months, El Salvador has kept many of Chivo’s details under wraps with the nation’s 40-year-old president, Nayib Bukele, teasing the wallet’s launch onTwitterjust last week. However, Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped cryptocurrency unicorn BitGo to provide Chivo’s wallet infrastructure and security platform, making the Palo Alto, Calif-based startup the nation’s exclusive hot-wallet provider in a historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption.”
What’s all this about “cryptocurrency unicorn BitGo” and “the nation’s exclusive hot-wallet provider in a historic moment”? Is this the appropriate vocabulary for a legacy media publication like this one? The most worrying sentence, however, is “Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped…”They’re not committing to anything here. It “appears” this way, but nothing is certain.
BTC price chart for 09/07/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
What Does BitGo Say About The Announcement?
Not El Salvador’s government, nor Strike commented on the Forbes piece. They did get a quote from Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, who said:
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“Digital assets look so different from what we’ve seen with other types of money, and so people wonder about how [they] fit in, but this is an opportunity to build financial freedom for the people of El Salvador” says BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, speaking from his home in Silicon Valley on Saturday. “The ability to send money in a hurry on a Saturday night, when banks are closed, across the planet and at almost no fees, it’s hard to put into words how empowering that is, and what we’ll see in El Salvador is, people will start figuring it out.”
Did Belshe confirm the news? Is BitGo behind the Chivo App? He talks about “an opportunity to build financial freedom for the people of El Salvador.” So yeah, assuming Belshe was talking about this specific rumor, he seems to confirm the news. Indirectly. In a non-comital way.
To make things worse, the article ends presenting BitGo as their own marketing material would:
“Founded in 2013, BitGo has grown into one of the biggest cryptocurrency wallet companies in the world, raising more than $70 million in funding from investors including…”
Let’s Remember, What Did Strike Say About The Subject?
Strike’s Jack Mallers has met with the Bukeles, announced El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption, and the company has an office at Bitcoin Beach. Everyone was assuming that the technology behind the Chivo wallet was going to be Strike’s. However, if we go back tothe interview in which Mallers told the whole story, our sister site Bitcoinist quotes him saying:
“There’s no commercial agreement between Strike and the government of El Salvador.
“In fact, I advised and gave my opinion of the opposite. The economies of scale and network effects associated with open networks are so powerful. Just by plugging in to them you’re going to get the freemarket competition that every country would die for.”
Related Reading | Tomorrow, The Community Will Buy $30 In BTC To Support El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law
Did President Bukele take his advice and went with another company? Can we trust Forbes even if it sounds like a copy-and-pasted press release? Is BitGo’s technology behind the Chivo Wallet? We will know for sure very soon.
Featured Image by Chräcker Heller from Pixabay - Charts by TradingView
NFL running back Saquon Barkley will convert all of his marketing income into bitcoin using Lightning Network platform Strike.
NFL running back Saquon Barkley has announced that he intends to receive all of his marketing income through bitcoin, using Lightning Network payments platform Strike.
Barkley made the announcement live on an episode of “The Best Business Show With Anthony Pompliano” while joined by Strike CEO Jack Mallers.
“I’m taking my marketing money in bitcoin,” Barkley said.
Pompliano clarified that this meant that he would be taking 100% of his marketing earnings, which are in excess of tens of millions of dollars per year, in BTC and Barkley confirmed, explaining that he was seeking a sound, long-term savings alternative to cash holdings or other investments.
“Now that I see [issues] with inflation and learning so much about Bitcoin … I think it would be the smart thing to do, the right thing to do, to start taking my investment money through bitcoin and through Strike,” Barkley said.
Mallers explained that Barkley would be using Strike to convert direct deposits to Barkley’s bank account into bitcoin, through a product that the platform will be rolling out to all users in the U.S. in the next 30 to 60 days.
“The problem that Saquon’s facing is a problem everyone faces, is that non-working capital, capital that you want to save … you can’t save it in cash anymore,” Mallers added. “And the inflation problem that Saquon is hinting at is extraordinarily real.”
When asked about whether others in the NFL are likely to take his lead, Barkley noted that he feels more Bitcoin education is needed, not just among his colleagues, but around the world.
Late last year, NFL tackle Russel Okung announced a partnership with Strike to receive a significant portion of his $13 million salary in bitcoin.
Payments platform Strike has announced that it will allow U.S. customers to buy and sell Bitcoin with almost no trading fees from today.
In an announcement on July 1, Strike founder and CEO Jack Mallers launched a salvo at leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, stating that his platform will set out to be the “cheapest and easiest place on the planet to acquire BTC.”
The move also puts Strike in direct competition with Jack Dorsey’s Square and with PayPal, which started offering crypto assets within the platform to U.S. customers in November 2020.
The announcement stated that the firm has launched the “Bitcoin Tab” enabling the ability to buy Bitcoin on Strike with “no fee outside of the market spread.”
The Chicago-based payments firm stated that it would charge a maximum “execution cost” of around 0.3% for brokering BTC trades, looking to drop that to below 0.1% over the coming months as volume grows.
Popular trading app Robinhood also offers commission-free crypto trading in select states. More than 6 million new customers bought crypto on the platform within the first two months of 2021.
Mallers is taking aim directly at Coinbase with the move, labeling its excessive trading fees as “asinine”. He pointed out that Coinbase made $1.8 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2021, with $771 million in profit, 94% of which coming from fees as high as 3%.
He was highly critical of the exchange’s free giveaways which award users with a couple of dollars worth of altcoins for watching videos.
“Make no mistake, when you buy Bitcoin on Coinbase, you are supporting shitcoins.”
Related:Coinbase could see fee compression in long term, CEO expects
There was also a dig at PayPal which he stated has also recently hiked fees across the board, and now charge sellers 3.49% + $0.49 to process crypto transactions.
Mallers added that the aim is to drive prices in the market as close to nothing as possible, which would be in keeping with Bitcoin’s ethos.
“Our mission is to secure financial freedom for all, and we won’t stop until we do so for all 8 billion people on the planet.”
As reported by Cointelegraph, Strike has entered into a partnership with the El Salvador government to assist with its Bitcoin adoption rollout.
