Lightning Pay: A tap-to-pay (point-of-sale system) technology using a Bolt Card.

Rob and Brandon are both keen bitcoiners; separately they decided to make an effort to find more like-minded individuals in NZ. Through grass roots meetups we connected and decided it was vitally important for NZ to be connected to the lightning network.

New Zealand’s economy is currently burdened with significantly high merchant fees by international standards.

We can do better.

Both Rob and Brandon have a significant amount of experience with lightning network tools and technologies. The company currently is in a concept and prototyping phase, and while there are technical challenges, the beautiful thing about the lightning network is that the payment rails are open source and maturing every day.

The real challenges with Bitcoin adoption as a medium of exchange lie in the lack of awareness around the lightning network as a payment solution, and the friction to onboard new users to not just bitcoin, but the lightning network. Onboarding merchants is hampered by a rightful fear of volatility, tax implications and accounting issues. At the same time, potential purchasers don’t have an easy path to using the lightning network for payments.

Our first product will be aimed at merchants, significantly decreasing the risks involved in accepting lightning network payments, by giving them the option to receive the full amount of the purchase in NZD quickly. This reduces their fee burden to zero, eliminates chargeback risk and accounting hurdles, while bringing bitcoiners through their doors.

By offering simple services using this innovative technology and making it more accessible to kiwis and addressing crucial needs of both merchants and payers, Lightening Pay aims to connect New Zealand to the lightning network.

Lightning Pay’s Mission

⚡ To connect NZ to the lightning network

⚡ To bring and support financial freedom for Kiwis.

⚡ To put NZ on the map for Bitcoin innovation.

Progress and Traction

Lightening Pay have a working proof of concept that could be used by a merchant right now with real bitcoin and real NZD. Our current effort is in laying the groundwork for regulatory compliance and banking requirements, while exploring options to reduce the costs further when we bring merchants and payers to the lightning network.

Next Steps:

Lightening Pay are currently in the early startup stage; they have a POC ready to test and are engaging lawyers to ensure our business is running by the book.

Challenges: Blockers they’re facing.

Lightening Pay say they need to get a bank to understand and align with their mission and provide the company with banking services.

The Impact Lightning Pay are hoping to make

Lightening Pay hope long term to bring financial freedom to all Kiwis by removing unnecessary fees, blockages and overheads by making it 10x easier for Kiwis to connect to Bitcoin and reap the benefits of the latest Bitcoin technology.

What do they see as New Zealand's super power in setting up a Web3 business? In their view, what else does the ecosystem need to thrive?

New Zealand’s superpower is in its can-do attitude and smaller and more nimble market. It would be of much benefit to the Bitcoin and Web3 industry in NZ if the banks could provide more time and effort to provide help and support for small financial services to startups rather than a blanket ban on anything that doesn’t slot exactly into the status quo!

Demo of Lightning Pay for Web3NZ Community

In this session, Rob Clarkson and Brandon Bucher presented on the Lightning Network, explaining its functionality whilst highlighting its current capabilities. They demonstrate personal projects as well as their working Proof of Concept project, a tap-to-pay (point-of-sale system) technology using a Bolt Card, drawing attention to the scalability and efficiency of this technology and its applicability across various use cases.

Looking to get involved in the joyride of learning and building in Web3?

Whether you are a founder, creator or a curious soul wondering what Web3 has to offer, the Web3NZ community is a peer to peer learning platform and connection ecosystem that encourages and supports anyone who would like to learn, collaborate and innovate in Web3 🚀

Rob Clarkson, Founder of Lightning Pay

Brandon Bucher, Co Founder of Lightning Pay