Strike, a digital payment company owned by Jack Mallers, is launching its own app in Europe, opening the doors to free and instant Bitcoin purchases via SEPA transfer.
According to Bitcoin Magazine, European users can now buy and sell Bitcoin directly from their bank accounts, relying on one of the most reliable and well-known payment apps worldwide,
The purchased BTC can then be sent (as well as sold for FIAT) to any Bitcoin or lightning cryptographic wallet without any kind of limit.
Summary
The Strike payment app lands in Europe: free and instant Bitcoin purchases with SEPA transfer
Today is a great day for the development of the cryptographic industry: the famous Bitcoin payment app Strike has decided to launch its services in Europe, allowing companies and individuals to make free and fast Bitcoin purchases through SEPA transfers, including recurring plans DCA.
This is what was reported on April 24 by Bitcoin Magazine, the longest-running online journal based on Bitcoin, which received a press release directly from the company of Jack Mallers.
European users in recent months had been loudly asking for the inclusion of the financial app in the old continent, spreading on X the typical phrase of crypto degens “Wen Europe“.
The response of the young entrepreneur did not take long to arrive, and after finalizing some technical details, he landed his application on all European digital app stores. However, some users reported the presence of the service on app stores even before the official announcement.
Integration brings simplification to Bitcoin purchases, introducing free and instant SEPA transfers (if the applicant’s bank allows it) directly from their bank account.
Users can also use the app to transfer digital currency to a Bitcoin or lightning network address.
Strike also offers “free” on-chain withdrawals, to make up for moments of strong network congestion when fees become unsustainable for daily transactions: however, this function requires a target confirmation time of 24 hours, with variable fees.
Right after the halving, for example, fees on Bitcoin skyrocketed, driven by the launch of the Runes technology, even reaching more than 100 dollars for a simple transfer.
With the recent integration in Europe, Strike officially becomes available in over 70 countries worldwide, even though its greatest success is attributed to the expansion in the United States, Latin America, and Africa.
Mallers commented on the news with these words, expressing his optimism for what the future holds:
“Being the third largest economy globally and with over 440 million inhabitants, Europe presents great opportunities for the adoption of Bitcoin. As the leading app for Bitcoin only, we believe that Strike is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of millions of people seeking access to Bitcoin in Europe.”
Mallers is a Bitcoin maximalist and believes that the asset will reshape the global financial landscape thanks to its inclusive, interoperable, and resilient technology to international monetary policies.
The development of the lightning network on Bitcoin and other layer-2 solutions
As mentioned, the Strike payment app allows you to exchange Bitcoin from one wallet to another using a channel called “lightning network”, which essentially allows you to send the cryptocurrency in fractions of a second by spending fractions of a cent as a fee.
Technically, it is a layer-2 of the Bitcoin blockchain, which adds a layer to the main database and leverages “off-chain” operations to offer maximum scalability in the exchange of sat (the smallest unit of BTC).
Strike to simplify the experience of its users, identifies lightning addresses through a format similar to that of email ([email protected]) rather than going through long strings of alphanumeric codes easily subject to typing errors.
Flexibility is the key feature of the app: its users can choose whether to receive Lightning Address payments in bitcoin or in euros, automatically converted for the latter.
Similarly, senders can choose whether to send from their bitcoin balances or in euros. Alternatively, users can issue Lightning invoices with zero value to receive any amount of bitcoin on their bitcoin or euro balances from other wallets using the app.
Remember that Strike, thanks to lightning, is able to offer fast and quick payment of remittances and local currencies to supported regions such as Africa (Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Togo), Brazil, Philippines, Mexico, and Vietnam.
Although Lightning offers exclusive advantages compared to the main Bitcoin network, remember that it represents a niche payment channel, potentially not usable by the entire Bitcoin community simultaneously.
That in fact has a maximum capacity of 4,738.69 BTC (304 million dollars) with only 51,046 available channels. Its use is recommended exclusively for micro-transactions of low value, and it is not recommended for security reasons to transfer large amounts of coins.
As this technology advances and seeks to grow in terms of network capacity and mainstream expansion, other layer-2 solutions are simultaneously emerging that aim to scale Bitcoin by introducing more features of interoperability with the external crypto world.
Without going into too much detail, we report this infographic from user X “layer2_inside” showing the 4 largest layer-2 of Bitcoin and their respective characteristics.
Lightning appears to be the least innovative, while at the same time being the most used.
