You can now use bitcoin to pay on Amazon. Payment-processing browser extension Moon will accept payments from Lightning-enabled bitcoin wallets, the company announced yesterday. Amazon itself never sees the bitcoin and does not have to agree to the process.
Your bitcoin is converted into fiat currency by a financial institution behind the scenes, which takes responsibility for passing the same value in regular dollars to Amazon or the seller. In other words, “merchant integration” is not required.
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“[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 favorite lightning wallet,” Moon CEO Ken Kruger told Coindesk.
Cryptocurrency would become usable for everyday purchases without suppliers having to get on board with any crypto-related risk.
Kruger hopes that it will be possible to pay on any e-commerce site by next year, now that the precedent has been set with Amazon. The promise is that only Moon and the financial institutions behind it would have to accept the use of bitcoin: cryptocurrency would become usable for everyday purchases without suppliers having to get on board with any crypto-related risk.
Moon has currently received only one investment of $100,000—it plans to undertake Series A fundraising this year.