South African Supermarket Giant Pick n Pay Accepts Bitcoin via the Lightning Network

One of South Africa’s largest retail companies has recently joined Bitcoin’s global adoption race. Supermarket chain Pick n Pay is now taking Bitcoin (BTC) via the Lightning Network application.

After it was extensively tested in 10 of the country’s largest grocery shops over a five-month period, the cryptocurrency may now be used in 39 Pick n Pay stores in South Africa using bitcoin Lightning-enabled applications such as BlueWallet.

Pick n Pay is one of the country’s largest retailers, and these 39 locations are just the beginning. Furthermore, in the following months, the South African grocery chain intends to expand its Bitcoin payment mechanism to its more than 1,600 locations.

A Pick n Pay representative said:

“The transaction is as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card. Customers scan a QR code from the app and accept the rand conversion rate on their smartphone at the time of the transaction.”

“The service fee for each transaction is minimal, costing the customer on average 70c, and takes less than 30 seconds.”