IMPORTANT POINTS:
- Shopify has integrated Solana Pay into its payment options, allowing for transactions in cryptocurrencies, starting with USDC.
- Solana Pay promises to drastically reduce transaction costs compared to credit cards.
- Despite previous challenges, the Solana network shows significant improvements in reliability and uptime.
In the e-commerce arena, little news has been as revolutionary as the recent addition of Solana Pay to Shopify’s payment solutions. This collaboration provides millions of merchants on the Shopify platform with direct access to cryptocurrency, starting with the USDC stablecoin.
According to TechCrunch reports, it’s not just the USDC that has been integrated. In the coming months, Solana has plans to add more altcoins to the platform, such as its native Solana (SOL) token and the Bonk Coin (BONK) meme token. On the other hand, Josh Fried of Solana Labs noted that the intersection of digital assets and payment solutions is the “star app for crypto”. In addition, he emphasized that “everyone should be betting more on this.”
**Drastic Reduction in Transaction Costs**
Solana Pay does not only offer diversity in terms of cryptocurrencies. According to Fried, the platform can drastically reduce transaction costs compared to credit card processing fees. To put it in perspective, the network’s average fee is $0.00025 per transaction, while credit card processing fees range from 1.5% to 3.5%. However, in recent times, Solana users have paid an average transaction fee of 0.000009664 SOL.
Shopify estimates that 10% of all e-commerce transactions in the United States take place through its platform. This equates to an impressive $444 billion of the global e-commerce market. With these numbers, it is clear the magnitude of the impact that this collaboration could have. In addition, Shopify has gradually integrated Web3 solutions into its operations, including blockchain commerce tools for Web3-centric stores and crypto wallet connection features.
In previous years, Solana faced reliability and uptime issues. Anatoly Yakovenko, its co-founder, described these problems as a “curse” attributed to the network’s low-cost transactions. However, recent statistics show an improvement in network performance. Since February 25, Solana has experienced 100% uptime, marking a full quarter without interruption. It is relevant to mention that the only blackout in February left the network offline for almost 19 hours.
Launched in February 2022, Solana Pay presents itself as a peer-to-peer payment infrastructure. This platform allows merchants to accept and settle payment transactions in digital assets. It is the result of a collaboration between Solana Labs, Checkout.com, Circle and Citcon, with wallet integrations from Phantom.
