Strike partners with Bitnob to facilitate cross-border payments into Africa

The Lightning Network has struck Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. During a league successful Ghana, Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced that the Bitcoin (BTC) payments company has partnered with the mobile app Bitnob to facilitate payments into Africa. 

Mallers made the announcement connected signifier astatine AfroBitcoin, a Bitcoin league successful Ghana's superior metropolis of Accra. He stood alongside Bernard Farah, the Nigerian CEO of Bitnob, pursuing a abbreviated presumption connected however it works.  

Money transfers into Africa instrumentality vantage of the Lightning Network, the layer-2 payments web built atop Bitcoin. The diagnostic is called “Send Globally,” and it enables instant, low-cost payments to Africa.

Diagram of the wealth transportation from Alice successful Nigeria to Bob successful the USA. Source: Facebook

The diagnostic does not necessitate radical to usage Bitcoin themselves, Bitnob CEO Bernard Parah explained connected stage. The no-transaction-fee diagnostic is presently available to Africans successful Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. By comparison, remittance services specified arsenic Wise instrumentality a tiny commission, portion Western Union tin complaint upwards of 10% for wealth transfers. 

Dollar payments are instantly converted into naira, cedi oregon shillings (currencies successful Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, respectively) and are deposited straight to recipients' banks, mobile money, oregon Bitnob accounts.

Related: Subway accepts Bitcoin, truthful users tin get a sandwich connected the Lightning Network

Mallers compared the wide acquisition to PayPal's Venmo app due to the fact that it’s an instant peer-to-peer payment. Venmo is simply a mobile app that allows instant and frictionless payments betwixt United States customers. Mallers said the Lightning Network has “just achieved dollars to Naira, Naira to dollars."

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