Is Strike's recently announced partnership with Shopify a sign that cryptocurrency is about to be adopted by the masses?
Finally, Bitcoin 2022 is live! If you didn't know about it, it's a 4-day event taking place in the Miami Beach Convention Center that's all about the mother of all crypto. That, for me, is reason enough to be bullish because I don't think there would be an event of that magnitude if people weren't serious about this stuff.
But anyway, the event has a long roster of speakers, some of the names are well known in the crypto world and others... well, let's just say I'm curious as to what the hell they are doing there (yes, I'm talking to you, Odell Beckam Jr.). Some of the most famous speakers are people such as Cathie Woods, Michael Saylor and Jack Mallers, who is actually one of the central actors of this post.
Mallers is the Founder and CEO of a company called Strike who, when on stage not long ago, announced a partnership with another company called Shopify. I must admit that I wasn't all too familiar with either of those companies (although I knew them by name), so I decided to do a quick research on them and also on the terms of said partnership.
Strike and Shopify
Strike is a digital payments company, and I must say it was a bit hard to find much else on them because it looks like their website is down. I don't know if the news of the partnership made everyone want to learn more about them and crash their site, but the fact is that I had to go to other sites to get information on them, so I hope they are right.
Mallers himself is still relatively young (he is 27), and therefore there is not much about him on the internet. He does seem to be a bright young man seeing that he is also the creator of Zap, a Bitcoin wallet on the Lightning Network.
Shopify, on the other hand, is more known than its newest partner. With almost 20 years on the market, Shopify provides e-commerce solutions for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems, and it's one of the biggest players in the industry.
With this partnership, Strike will enable Bitcoin payments to over 400,000 storefronts and all US Shopify sites. That takes the Mc Donald's crypto meme to a whole new level as now people will be able to use satoshis to pay for their Big Macs. I couldn't find information regarding when that will roll out, but hopefully, it should happen SOON.
What does it mean for crypto adoption?
I think this is good news, but maybe not in the way that some expect. What I mean is that I don't think many people will actually spend Bitcoin to buy things. I don't think I would.
Bitcoin is an important store of value, and many people will avoid spending it at all costs. Not to mention the high volatility it's subject to.
Still, I see it as good news. Great news, even. People may not use it yet, but it will be right there on their faces. Little by little, it will entice their curiosity, and maybe they will decide to learn more about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
There is also the brand association aspect. People tend to trust their associate brands, so by connecting those brands to Bitcoin, this partnership is helping to give cryptocurrency legitimacy.
We'll have to wait and see, of course, because even though I think these are bullish news for crypto, it's hard to tell how people will react. I just hope it happens smoothly without any major setbacks because people are already suspicious, and something like that could have the opposite effect on them.
Final thoughts
I believe the partnership between Strike and Shopify is yet another tiny step toward the mass adoption of cryptocurrency. It may not prompt people to buy and spend Bitcoin immediately, but hopefully, it will raise awareness of the benefits of crypto.