Today we’re incredibly excited to announce a pilot program to bring local off-ramps to BTCPay Server utilizing the Strike API. Now, all BTCPay Server merchants can enjoy open, interoperable, instant, and cheap bitcoin payments with access to local currency settlement wherever Strike supports fiat currency balances. BTCPay Server’s integration with the Strike API allows any BTCPay Server merchant, anywhere Strike is available, to convert any portion of their bitcoin into supported local currency both at the point of transaction or anytime in the future.

Businesses typically have a unique but consistent challenge when it comes to accepting bitcoin payments. Unfortunately, we are not quite on a Bitcoin standard yet, and much of their overhead, staff, inventory, and supply payouts are still denominated in fiat, which can make accepting bitcoin payments seem like more of a challenge than a benefit. Every merchant we’ve ever spoken to wants cheaper fees, faster settlement, cash finality, and open network interoperability. The challenge is integrating bitcoin payments without interrupting their existing business operations. We want Bitcoin to be additive. With BTCPay Server’s utilization of the Strike API, we achieve exactly that.

Let’s walk through a practical example: Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville. The conference is hosting over 50 merchants, all of which want to interoperate with the bitcoin network and accept instant, cheap, cash final payments from the attendees. However, each merchant has their own needs. Some may accept all BTC and HODL forever, some may need to settle each payment in USD for accounting requirements, others may want to split their bitcoin exposure 50/50 to cover basic fiat denominated costs. The solution? Open source Bitcoin point-of-sale software with optional financial services that allow you to optimize for the experience your business needs.

That is why, we’re stoked to announce that Strike will be processing all payments at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. Every merchant at Bitcoin 2024 will be using BTCPay Server with the power to cash out, choose USD settlement, and more. The power of open source software and open networks with the convenience businesses sometimes require.

BTCPay Server’s integration of the Strike API is simple, as it should be. Any merchant running a BTCPay Server instance can sign up for a Strike Business account, generate an API key for their account from their Strike dashboard, plug it into BTCPay Server, and they’re done. Your business can now accept bitcoin payments in local currency or convert bitcoin into local currency, all settled directly into your account to your bitcoin or supported currency balance. You can view your fiat or bitcoin balance in your Strike dashboard and do what you want with either of them. Pretty cool, right?

The most exciting part? This solves fundamental issues for all businesses looking to accept Bitcoin and Lightning payments. Hosting a conference? Music festival? Chain of bars? Food trucks? The list goes on. Now, all you need to do is install free open source software in BTCPay Server and opt-in to any supported financial service you need to run your business supporting Bitcoin. It’s that simple, it’s that seamless, and we hope to see more major events both in the bitcoin space and beyond adopt our simple integration in order to accept bitcoin payments at their events.

The Strike API has been public since 2021, allowing developers to leverage our Bitcoin, trading, and payments infrastructure globally. Customers use our API to run their entire enterprise’s Lightning services, power programmatic BTC-to-fiat executions, build novel payment and cross-border solutions, or simply use bitcoin at scale. No matter your ambitions, our goal is to make it easy for you. We want anyone to easily access regulated, global, scalable, enterprise-grade infrastructure to solve real problems that accelerate Bitcoin adoption.

If you’re a business and would like to open an account with us, you can register here. If you’re a developer and would like to learn more about our API, you can check out our documents at docs.strike.me or our Strike Learn article: What is the Strike API?

And with that, we’ll see you in line at Bitcoin 2024! We support any and all Lightning wallets, because that’s how open networks work. This ain’t Coinbase!

Open source software and open networks win.