South African Supermarket Chain Pick n Pay Now Accepts Bitcoin Payments: Report

Pick n Pay, which is one of South Africa's largest supermarket chains, is now allowing customers to pay with bitcoin (BTC) using any Lightning Network-enabled app, according to South Africa's The Times.

The payment method was tested in 10 stores over the past five months and is now available in 39 stores across the country, according to The Times.

The Lightning Network is a layer 2 scaling tool for the Bitcoin blockchain that reduces the time it takes to send a transaction and that is also much cheaper than the main Bitcoin network, making it more appealing to merchants.

“The transaction is as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card. Customers scan a QR code from the app and accept the rand conversion rate on their smartphone at the time of the transaction," a spokesperson for Pick n Pay said in the report, referring to South Africa's currency.

“The service fee for each transaction is minimal, costing the customer on average 70c (about 4 cents) and takes less than 30 seconds," the spokesperson added.

According to the report, Pick n Pay plans to roll the payment method out to all of its 1,628 stores over the coming months.