The announcement was made after a successful rollout of a pilot phase where it tested the payment mechanism in a few of its stores.
South Africa took a step ahead in crypto adoption as its grocery retail giant Pick n Pay enabled customers to pay in their stores using Bitcoin. The move was implemented in all of its 1628 stores after an experimental trial phase of three months ended successfully in 39 locations.
In October 2022, South Africa’s financial regulator, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), brought crypto under traditional financial products and started allowing financial firms to offer crypto assets. This helped Pick N Pay announce the pilot with Bitcoin payments in November 2022. The retail chain experimented with Bitcoin in Cape Town in 2017, but the project wasn’t successful due to several reasons.
In the pilot test phase, a partnership was formed between Electrum, CryptoConvert, and Pick n Pay to enable customers to pay through the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Customers would need a Bitcoin Lightning wallet and CryptoConvert’s CryptoQR scanner app to scan QR codes. Once the item’s QR code is successfully scanned, the customer must approve the payment from the Lightning Wallet after confirming the rate. Customers welcomed the move, many posting about their experiences on Twitter.
This is a positive development for South Africa in a move to become a crypto hub. While only 10% to 30% of their people hold crypto assets, this latest development could influence more people to adopt crypto.