Shopify to Accept USDC Payments Via Solana Pay Integration

Solana Pay has integrated with Shopify, allowing businesses on the platform to use Solana Pay as a payment option, initially accepting USDC payments and potentially expanding to other crypto-assets in the future, offering benefits such as immediate settlement, reduced fees, and Web3-enabled commerce experiences. Additionally, Solana blockchain has achieved six months without any outages since implementing upgrades to improve network capacity.

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8/25/2023

Crypto Biz: Coinbase-Circle re-alignment, Binance fiat hurdles, and USDC at Shopify

Summary: Coinbase and Circle have dissolved the Centre Consortium due to regulatory clarity issues surrounding stablecoins, with Coinbase taking an equity stake in Circle and Circle assuming enhanced responsibilities for the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin; Binance.US partners with MoonPay to use Tether (USDT) as its new "base asset" for transactions, while Binance faces challenges with fiat withdrawals in Europe; Shopify now accepts USDC payments on its platform, and Solana Pay plans to add additional altcoins; China launches a blockchain-powered data exchange with over 300 participating enterprises.

9/5/2023

Visa to send stablecoin USDC over Solana to help pay merchants in crypto

Visa has announced a pilot program to send USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, to select merchants using the Solana blockchain, allowing for faster transaction processing than Ethereum, as the payments giant continues to explore the potential of stablecoins in the payments industry.

9/5/2023

Visa taps into Solana to widen USDC payment capability

Global payments firm Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement capability to include USD Coin (USDC) tokens issued on the Solana blockchain, allowing for faster and more efficient cross-border settlements.

9/5/2023

Making real-world blockchain solutions possible — Solana co-founder Raj Gokal

Solana co-founder Raj Gokal discusses the real-world use cases, architectural considerations, mobile and payments landscape, asset tokenization, and mitigating risks associated with the Web3 ecosystem.

9/5/2023

Solana jumps on Visa stablecoin announcement as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain flat

Visa's announcement of expanding its stablecoin capabilities to the Solana blockchain caused a 5% increase in the value of Solana's sol token, which aims to rival Ethereum due to its speed and cost effectiveness.

9/17/2023

Fed Launches Instant Payment System FedNow to Modernize Financial Infrastructure, Though Blockchain Solutions Offer More Open Models

The U.S. Federal Reserve has launched FedNow, the country's first government real-time payment system, allowing banks and credit unions to instantly transfer money for their customers and improve inter-bank and retail transactions, although concerns remain about competition with private-sector entities. However, while FedNow does not use blockchain technology, its goal aligns with blockchain innovations of enabling instant peer-to-peer transfers and low-cost payments, and blockchain projects may benefit from leveraging FedNow's infrastructure. Nonetheless, decentralization and user-first approaches in Web3 payment systems could offer greater financial inclusion and transform the payments space.