E-commerce giant Shopify has integrated decentralised payment protocol Solana Pay, developed by Solana Labs. As a result, millions of merchants on Shopify can start accepting cryptocurrency payments through the platform. When it comes to accepting cryptocurrency, Shopify is no stranger, and the Solana Pay integration shows the growing appeal of the digital payments ecosystem. Shopify has already integrated popular payment systems, including BitPay, Strike, Crypto.com, and Coinbase Commerce.
A sweet deal for Solana Pay and Solana users
Solana Pay, which went live in February 2022, is a decentralised payment network that allows businesses to accept and process payments made in various digital asset formats. Based on Solana, Solana Pay currently accepts USDC as its payment method. Strategically, Solana Pay prefers USDC because of its close linkages to the US dollar and its regulatory monitoring.
Solana Pay allows for instant, direct payment settlement of USD stablecoins that are compatible with Solana, bypassing intermediaries and thereby eliminating bank fees, chargebacks, and holding times. Each transaction on the Solana blockchain typically costs a quarter of a penny. On the other hand, consumers often pay anywhere from 1.5% to 3.5% of each transaction with credit card processing costs, making the Solana Pay option almost free. There are currently over 11 million Solana users who could get access to Shopify as a result of the integration.
With Solana Pay on Shopify, millions of businesses now have access to a more flexible and time-saving method of accepting payments. Customers also benefit from Shopify’s extensive merchant network, which accepts digital dollar currencies, adding to the ease and practicality of purchasing goods and services.
Using Solana Pay, merchants and customers may take advantage of token-gated incentives, easy cross-border payments, and NFT-based loyalty programmes, all of which are possible by payments becoming a gateway for web3-enabled commerce.