GoMining Unveils GoBTC Pay SDK for Merchants Seeking Native Bitcoin Settlement
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Key Takeaways
- GoBTC Pay settles payments entirely on the Bitcoin network using Stratum V2, with a 12-hour average settlement time and 0.2% transaction fees split between wallet providers and miners
- Unlike Block’s Square, which defaults to fiat conversion, GoBTC Pay leaves any fiat conversion to the merchant, targeting businesses that want to hold Bitcoin directly
- GoMining plans to onboard an initial 10 merchants as part of the rollout, with the SDK and APIs designed for direct point-of-sale integration
Bitcoin mining company GoMining unveiled a software development kit and application programming interfaces for its Bitcoin payment protocol GoBTC Pay on Friday, allowing retailers to accept and settle payments directly in Bitcoin with no built-in fiat conversion. The launch comes as Block’s Square, the payments service co-founded by Jack Dorsey, has been rolling out its own Bitcoin payments system over the past year.
GoBTC Pay Settles Entirely in Bitcoin, Leaving Fiat Conversion to Merchants
The key distinction GoMining draws between its product and existing competitors is that GoBTC Pay completes transactions entirely in Bitcoin with no built-in fiat conversion. Block’s Square allows customers to pay in Bitcoin while delivering fiat currency to the retailer by default, converting to BTC only if the merchant opts in. GoMining retailers who want fiat currency will need to handle that conversion themselves.
“Our idea isn’t to squeeze bitcoin into the old fiat experience and lose what makes it bitcoin along the way,”
CEO Mark Zalan said in an interview over Telegram.
“It’s to solve the real problems with BTC payments, the high and variable fees, the slow and unpredictable settlement, while preserving non-custody and onchain finality.”
GoBTC Pay Uses Stratum V2 Protocol With 12-Hour Settlement and 0.2% Fees
According to GoMining, GoBTC Pay settles Bitcoin payments directly on the Bitcoin network using the company’s Stratum V2 mining protocol, with an average settlement time of approximately 12 hours.
According to GoMining, merchants will pay 0.2% in transaction fees, split evenly between wallet providers and miners. The SDK and APIs allow retailers to integrate GoBTC Pay directly into their point-of-sale systems. GoMining said it plans to onboard an initial 10 merchants as part of the rollout.
Square Defaults to Fiat Conversion as GoMining Targets Bitcoin-Native Merchants
Block has been rolling out its own Bitcoin payments service over the past year, built on the Bitcoin layer-2 Lightning network. Square’s service converts the Bitcoin amount into U.S. dollars by default, with merchants receiving payment in BTC only if they choose that option. Zalan said GoBTC Pay is designed for businesses that want to receive and retain Bitcoin directly rather than convert to fiat at the point of sale.
