Pick n Pay says you can now pay with bitcoin in 39 stores – and all cash registers will soon accept it

• Pick n Pay says its tests of the Bitcoin Lighting system have gone so well, it will soon be rolled out nationally.
• That means you’ll be able to pay for groceries at any PnP checkout with bitcoin, if you have the right software on your phone.
• 39 of their stores already accept bitcoin, after extending an initial trial period.
• For more stories, go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.

Pick n Pay says it now intends to accept bitcoin payments at all its tills in all its stores “over the coming months”, following the success of an initial pilot.

In an update on Tuesday, the retail chain said it had expanded testing to more stores, meaning 39 already accept bitcoin transactions.

An initial pilot had seen 10 Western Cape stores take bitcoin in the past five months, following a year-long hiatus since Pick n Pay first dipped its toes in cryptocurrency waters. In 2017, PnP said, they tried out crypto payments in a canteen store at the head office. It served as a proof of concept, “but the available technology at the time was too expensive for customers and it took too long to complete the transaction to make it sustainable.”

Now, it says, transactions take seconds after setting up one of a number of available software solutions on a smartphone.

Payments use the Bitcoin Lightning system, which is layered on top of the notoriously slow and expensive Bitcoin ecosystem for day-to-day transactions. But using Bitcoin Lightning, Pick n Pay says, takes less than 30 seconds and is about as easy as swiping a debit card.

The average cost of a transaction is 70 cents, says Pick n Pay.

To pay with bitcoin, you need an app that supports Bitcoin Lightning. It can be a non-custodial wallet, such as Zap or Muun, or a custodial wallet, such as Strike or Wallet of Satoshi.

The app, once set up and loaded with bitcoin, can connect to the CryptoQR scanner app, which in turn can scan a QR code at the point of payment. Then accept the bitcoin to rand call rate offered on your smartphone and you’re done.

Pick n Pay was the first major retailer in Africa to test the Lightning Network, says partner CryptoConvert, which provides some of the underlying plumbing for the system.

Here is Pick n Pay’s list of stores, including Pick n Pay Hypers and PnP Qualisaves, where you can already pay with bitcoin.

• Langeberg Shopping Centre, Mosselbay
• Sedgefield
• Stellenbosch Central and Stellenbosch Square
• Paarl Shopping Centre
• Willowbridge
• Local Big Bay
• Table Bay Shopping Centre
• Cavendish
• Kenilworth
• Kenilworth Campus
• Kenilworth Pam Golding
• Seapoint
• Waterfront
• Mall of Africa
• Mall of the North
• Mall of the South
• Menlyn Shopping Centre
• Nelspruit
• PnP on Nicol
• Liberty Midlands Shopping Centre
• The pavilion
• Tshwane Shopping Centre
• Beacon Bay
• Uitenhage
• Bedfordview
• Centurion
• Fourways Shopping Centre
• PnP Qualisave Carlton Center
• PnP Qualisave Diepsloot
• PnP Qualisave Midrand
• PnP Qualisave Rustenburg
• PnP Qualisave Commercial Road
• PnP Qualisave North Beach
• PnP Qualisave The Workshop
• PnP Qualisave Goodwood
• Hyper Bloemfontein
• Hyper Durban North
• Hyper Northgate
• Hyper Ottery