Strike, a Bitcoin finance company has launched its Lightning Network money transfer service Send Globally in the Philippines, which has a $35 billion remittance industry.
On January 31, 2023, Send Globally will launch in the Southeast Asian country, allowing companies and visitors to accept international money transfers in the Philippine peso. Globally, the government receives $35 billion in remittances.
“Remittances are a broken system, and Strike provides a compelling experience for consumers to move money around the world in almost a second,” said Strike CEO Jack Mallers.
According to a news release, Strike’s remittance service transforms a sender’s cash into bitcoin. It transmits the bitcoin to a Strike partner in the destination country over the Lightning Network, which in the Philippines is Pouch. Ph. Pouch. Ph then translates the bitcoin to the recipient’s fiat currency and funds their bank or mobile money account, while Strike protects both parties from the tax consequences of dealing with bitcoin directly.
The Lightning Network on the Bitcoin blockchain is a layer-two solution that permits micropayments between nodes through a payment channel. In contrast to established payment networks, Lightning’s minimal costs allow for near-zero-cost transfers.
Mallers has launched a pilot to deliver Bitcoin Lightning Network payments to merchants via a collaboration with Fiserv’s point-of-sale technology, Clover Commerce. The pilot lets any application with Lightning support pay for products and services with Bitcoin at Clover merchants.
Send On December 6, 2022, it will be globally pushed out to Strike users in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, where it has garnered considerable momentum.
However, widespread acceptance in the Philippines will depend strongly on network effects fueled by smartphone and internet usage.
Statista predicts that smartphone users will rise from 85 million in 2022 to 87 million by 2023. Furthermore, predictions indicate that smartphone usage will reach 91.5 million by 2025, accounting for nearly 83% of the island nation’s population.
Furthermore, Statista projects that by the end of 2023, around three-quarters of the population will have internet access. Growing internet availability boosts Strike’s chances of success because it aided in the popularity of the crypto game Axie Infinity.
