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Last month, Bitcoin startup Lightning Strike announced it would partner with global payment giant Visa. Now, another startup on the same line, LastBit, which has just launched its app in beta, will follow the same Visa Fast Track program.
This partnership will eventually allow users to pay for items priced in US dollars, but using bitcoin (BTC). LastBit founder Prashanth Balasubramanian told CoinDesk that the company will also release an app that works with euros in “a few weeks”.
Read more: Lightning Startup Zap raised $ 3.5 million for the Bitcoin app ahead of the Visa deal
Use of bitcoin for “daily” payments
LastBit’s ultimate goal is to allow users to make Lightning payments to pay for just about anything. The user opens the LastBit app, loads bitcoin into it, then has immediate access to a digital debit card to send bitcoin payments. When the user sends a bitcoin payment, the seller receives euros or dollars from the other party.
Bitcoin’s Lightning Network helps make bitcoin payments faster and cheaper. Some stores here and there accept Lightning payments, but they are still not as widely accepted as regular bitcoin transactions.
Read more: What is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network?
Ultimately, LastBit wants to allow bitcoin users to walk into any store and make a purchase with bitcoin, whether the merchant accepts it or not.
“We simply want to see the masses use bitcoin on a day-to-day basis. To do this, we have designed probably the most perfect interoperability between bitcoin and fiat, as well as the Lightning network, which meets the needs of both new and experienced users,” said Balasubramanian at CoinDesk.
European and US expansion
To this end, they are working in both Europe and the United States to open up the possibility of sending bitcoin payments to suppliers.
Funded by Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, cryptocurrency exchange Binance, and database creator MongoDB, among others, the startup cut its teeth at the University of California, Berkeley’s acceleration program.
Now, as a “small company with no millions in the bank,” LastBit felt Visa’s Fast Track program was a good solution, Balasubramanian said.
Read more: This Visa card offers Bitcoin rewards on spent dollars
“The Visa FastTrack program seemed to solve these problems to allow us to get to market faster and this is why we applied to their program despite it being below their ‘minimum funding requirement’ of $ 1 million,” he said. Balasubramanian.
While LastBit is working with Visa for payments in the United States, it already has approval to enter the European Union from MasterCard. This is the goal for now, with the hope of proving that the product works.
“With a solid product, partnerships and important investors […] behind us, we will implement our level of interoperable Bitcoin, Lightning and EUR payments in the EU to prove that it really works and that a small business without millions can build a complex payment product to push for Bitcoin adoption, “Balasubramanian said. .
