• Customers may pay with Bitcoin (BTC) using a Bitcoin Lightning Wallet.
• To make a purchase, customers first need to use the CryptoQR app.

Pick n Pay, a supermarket chain in South Africa, has accepted Bitcoin at 39 locations before rolling out the service company-wide. The rollout of Bitcoin acceptance took place over the course of the last three months of pilot testing.

Customers at any of the retail locations in South Africa will soon be able to pay with cryptocurrencies using their smartphones and the prevailing exchange rate between cryptocurrency and the South African rand.

Regulators Eased Crypto Adoption

Customers may pay with Bitcoin (BTC) using a Bitcoin Lightning Wallet and the CryptoQR scanner software from CryptoConvert, which communicates with the Bitcoin Lightning Wallet. To make a purchase, customers first need to use the CryptoQR app to scan the item’s QR code, and then they can go over to the Lightning Wallet to confirm the rate and finish the transaction.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa’s financial regulator, updated its financial advisory legislation in October to categorize crypto assets as financial products, helping to bring cryptocurrencies under regulation for the first time in South Africa and paving the way for financial service providers to offer crypto-assets on a global scale.

After years of testing cryptocurrency payments in a limited number of locations, the retailer announced intentions to provide the feature across the board starting in November. In 2017, the business tried out taking Bitcoin as payment in Cape Town, but the high transaction fees and lengthy confirmation delays put a damper on the trial.

Through its pilot programme, Pick n Pay integrated the Bitcoin Lightning Network, a second layer added to the Bitcoin blockchain that enables off-chain transactions, into its payment system in conjunction with Electrum and CryptoConvert.