A Practical Guide to GoBTC Pay’s Bitcoin Payment Protocol

Bitcoin is easy enough to buy these days, and holding it is hardly unusual anymore, but actually spending it still feels awkward in a way that most other digital payments do not. If you pay with a card or Apple Pay, the shop gets an answer almost immediately.

With a normal Bitcoin payment, the merchant may need to wait for the transaction to appear on-chain, decide how many confirmations are enough and deal with whatever network fee happens to be attached at the time.

That is manageable for a large transfer, but it is not ideal when somebody is trying to buy a coffee or pay for an online order. GoBTC Pay is GoMining’s attempt to make that process feel much more normal.

The customer pays in Bitcoin, the merchant receives an immediate approval and the actual Bitcoin settlement happens later in the background.