South African Retail Giant Pick N Pay Now Accepts Bitcoin

By Kevin • February 8, 2023 3:16 pm • Comments

Grocery retailer giant Pick N Pay has just announced that they will now be accepting Bitcoin payments in over 1000 of its stores across South Africa.

This is a huge milestone for digital assets as it indicates that the acceptance of crypto for payment is now widespread in the country.

Pick N Pay will allow customers to pay with crypto using their smartphones  and this was made possible due to the success of its pilot program.

Trending: Ripple Spells Out Penalty Terms To SEC

The pilot program has shown promising signs of success and the success of this new payment option may eventually cause other retail giants to do the same.

After all, the use of crypto in South Africa is much higher than many other regions in the world so this would appeal to a large customer base for South African companies.

CoinTelegraph reports:

To pay with BTC, customers will need a Bitcoin Lightning Wallet and the CryptoQR scanner app from CryptoConvert, which is linked to the Bitcoin Lightning Wallet. The payment process requires users to scan an item’s QR code through the CryptoQR app and then proceed to the Lightning Wallet to confirm the rate and complete the transaction.

The move came after the country’s financial regulator, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), amended its financial advisory legislation in October to classify crypto assets as financial products, bringing cryptocurrencies under regulation for the first time in South Africa and allowing financial service providers to offer crypto-assets both domestically and internationally.

The retail chain disclosed plans to roll out crypto payments nationwide in November, after years of piloting the service in selected stores.

A first experiment with cryptocurrencies took place in 2017, when the company began accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment in Cape Town, but transaction costs and wait times hindered the process.

The retail giant had started of with Bitcoin specifically during its pilot program as well as its recent rollout to over 1000 stores.

However, in the future, many expect that retail giants will also start to accept a variety of other digital currencies in order to appeal to customers.

After all, South Africa ranks 30th globally when it comes to crypto adoption and it may be only a matter of time before the rest of the continent of Africa catches up to crypto adoption.

Once retailers understand that they may be losing out on a lot of business if they do not accept crypto as a payment option, this will be when the overall crypto industry achieves mainstream adoption.

With that being said, Pick N Pay is still very early in the game and many will be observing to see the results of this new experiment.

BitDegree reports:

Customers will be able to pay for their electricity or other municipal bills, as well as purchase bus or airplane tickets.

Pick n Pay customers will have to use smartphone apps to scan the QR code and accept the South African rand’s conversion rate. It is estimated that one transaction will cost a customer approximately R0.06 ($0,0035). The price includes network fees and slippage in the Bitcoin exchange rate.

In particular, the transactions will be completed through the Bitcoin Lightning Wallet and CryptoConvert QR scanner. At the checkout, customers will scan a QR code using the CryptoCovenrt app. Then, they will be directed to Bitcoin Lightning Wallet to accept the transaction rate and complete their purchase.

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

 

Search ProCoinNews