Thanks to Lightning Network and the Moon startup, anyone can now buy on Amazon with bitcoin (BTC).
And there’s more, several other e-commerce websites will be available soon.
Crypto payments startup Moon announced today that any Lightning Network compatible wallet can be used with the Moon browser plugin.
Prior to the official announcement, 250 users already had the opportunity to test a beta version in order to try making payments on different platforms, by connecting the browser plugin to several exchanges, such as Coinbase.
Moon allows buying on Amazon with bitcoin (BTC)
Moon’s CEO, Ken Kruger, said:
“The extension will pop up a QR code and it will have the lightning invoice, which you could also copy and paste if you can’t use the QR code for some reason, and you’ll be able to pay with your favourite lightning wallet.”
Amazon is not directly involved and will never know how many bitcoins (BTCs) the users own or which private keys are used. This is a service provided by Moon.
Kruger has refused to specify which financial institutions will handle the fiat currency conversion (which takes place in the back-end) in order to allow Amazon merchants to directly receive dollars or euros.
However, he added that by 2020 this functionality should be operational on almost all e-commerce websites, regardless of whether that platform accepts bitcoin (BTC) as a payment method or not.
“There’s no direct merchant integration. We’re integrating with the Visa and Mastercard networks and we get a cut of the interchange fees that merchants pay every time they receive a credit card transaction.”
Moon: a great potential
Moon was founded in New York last year and its staff currently consists of 3 people, with only $100,000 of investment from the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA).
ERA CEO Murat Aktihanoglu said he sees Moon as one of the few crypto companies that still has profitable potential in the coming years:
“We invested in Moon as a long-term portfolio company”.
Kruger, on the other hand, explained:
“There’s a lot of opportunities to help solve some of those usability problems and getting people onto the lightning network, increasing adoption in that way”.
The functionality of this browser plugin is still under review by the Chrome Web Store and Moon expects the actual launch to take place on Wednesday.
Users will finally be able to make purchases on Amazon using bitcoin (BTC).
