Today, Zap, the Lightning wallet lead by developer Jack Mallers, has announced[1] that their Strike[2] product is now in public beta.
Previously, Strike had only been available through a closed, private beta program. In the private beta, Mallers claims that they have “already seen $100,000 in payments”.
Strike is an application that allows you to transact with Lightning payments with just a debit card or bank account. But, here’s the secret sauce: instead of having to buy bitcoin to load up your Lightning channels, users on Strike never touch BTC. According to Mallers, “This is important as Strike users are not exposed to any volatility, tax consequences, custody challenges, node management, channel management, etc. When a user makes a Lightning payment with Strike, their balance is debited. When a user receives a payment into Strike, their balance is credited.”
In other words, you pay in fiat, but use Lightning. If you want to convert fiat into bitcoin, then create a Lightning invoice and pay yourself through Strike.
Here’s my favorite part: to use Strike, all you’ll need is your name and a phone number. Don’t believe me? Check out this quick demo showing the on-boarding process on Youtube.
Bitcoin as a Settlement Rail
“Historically, Bitcoin has two main value propositions: censorship resistance and wealth creation. However, with the introduction of Lightning, we now see a third emerging: the use of Bitcoin as a settlement rail.” Mallers told us.
Originally, Zap had created a Lightning-enabled fiat on-ramp named “Olympus[3]”. Essentially, when you used Olympus, you were relying on Turbo channels[4] to settle transactions where you’re purchasing a Lightning channel connected to a wallet provider and then they’ll push the corresponding amount of sats over to you. Therefore, even if you had an
