Solana Labs has announced that its decentralized payment protocol, Solana Pay, has integrated with e-commerce platform Shopify. This integration will enable millions of businesses on Shopify’s platform to use Solana Pay for payments. Solana Pay, built on the Solana blockchain, launched in February 2022. Initially, it will offer the USDC stablecoin as the payment option for this integration. However, the protocol plans to consider adding other cryptocurrencies like BONK in the future.
Shopify is a major player in e-commerce, accounting for 10% of total U.S. e-commerce and facilitating $444 billion worth of global economic activity. The Solana ecosystem has over 11.5 million active accounts, and Solana Pay has already been adopted by prominent crypto names such as Circle and Phantom, as well as payment processors like Checkout.com and Citcon.
By using Solana Pay, businesses can avoid credit card processing fees, which typically range from 1.5% to 3.5% per transaction. Transactions on the Solana blockchain have an average cost of $0.00025, significantly lower than traditional payment methods. While Solana has experienced some downtime issues in the past, the blockchain reported 100% uptime in Q2, indicating improvements in its stability.
The integration with Solana Pay also allows merchants to set up loyalty programs with minimal development effort. For example, merchants can launch NFT loyalty tokens that customers can earn and redeem for discounts when using Solana Pay for repeat purchases. Several crypto-focused teams and brands such as Helius, Mad Lads, and MonkeDAO have already agreed to integrate Solana Pay on their Shopify storefronts.
Shopify has already embraced cryptocurrency payment options and launched blockchain-enabled commerce tools and features earlier this year. It integrates with other payment applications like Coinbase Commerce, Strike, Crypto.com, and BitPay.
Solana Labs believes that its blockchain is well-suited for payments, offering advantages such no intermediaries, no bank fees, no chargebacks, and no holding times. The integration with Shopify further reinforces Solana’s vision for crypto payments, and Solana Labs encourages others to recognize the potential and importance of crypto payments as the “killer app” for the industry.
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