Pick n Pay, one of South Africa’s largest supermarket chains, is set to allow its customers to pay for items in all its stores using Bitcoin.
Pick N Pay is planning to roll out its cryptocurrency payments service to its stores nationwide in the coming months after years of experimentation in select stores. The supermarket chain allegedly started experimenting with Bitcoin payments five years ago in Cape Town but was stymied by expensive costs and long transaction wait times.
The nationwide rollout will allow the store’s customers to pay for items using cryptocurrency through trusted apps on their smartphones or by simply scanning a QR code and accepting the rand conversion rate at the time of payment.
As per the report, Chris Shortt, the group executive for IT at Pick n Pay, shared that the advancement and evolution of cryptocurrency technology over the years has made it possible to now provide an affordable service for high volume, low-value transactions that will promote financial inclusion in South Africa.
Pick n Pay reportedly partnered with Electrum and CryptoConvert during its pilot program to make it possible for customers to pay for items via the Bitcoin lightning network.
