CoinCorner, a global leader in Bitcoin and Lightning services, is excited to announce The Bolt Card - a world first contactless card, powered by near-field communication (NFC) and the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Using a standard NFC card, the Lightning Network and LNURL, The Bolt Card enables a user to simply tap their card on a point of sale device displaying a Lightning invoice and the Lightning payment is made in the background, taking just seconds to complete. This transaction takes place over the Bitcoin Lightning Network, with not a single legacy payment system used. This is similar to the likes of a Visa contactless card, but now on the Bitcoin Lightning Network - a completely open, permissionless and decentralised monetary network.

CoinCorner CEO, Danny Scott, said, “Making in-person payments with Bitcoin and Lightning is still not as efficient and user-friendly as we need it to be for the mass audience. It still involves unlocking a phone, opening an app, scanning a QR code and then making the transaction. This is a backwards step when it comes to user experience in comparison to what we're used to today for in-person payments.”

According to new data from Barclaycard, 91% of in-person payments made in the UK in 2021 were contactless card payments. Scott said, “With contactless (NFC) payments becoming more popular globally, it just makes sense to help with the transition for consumers and offer the most efficient experience.”

The team at CoinCorner have worked hard to ensure that The Bolt Card is also interoperable within current industry protocols, namely Lightning and LNURL, making it easy for other Bitcoin payment gateways around the world to introduce the NFC capability to interact with it.

At the time of this release, The Bolt Card is compatible with CoinCorner and BTCPay Server payment gateways, and coming soon to Ibex Mercado, LNBits and FastBitcoins.

Scott said, “We’re still early, so as we continue to work on making Lightning an everyday use case, we will explore other concepts around how to make The Bolt Card, and the user experience for all Lightning use cases, better.

We couldn't have done this without the hard work done by others, so for that, we thank you all. Everyone plays a part in this ecosystem and we're just a small piece of the bigger picture.”

Scott added, “Innovation to drive Bitcoin adoption is what we do at CoinCorner. We're building real products for the real world and yes, we mean the world - all 7.7 billion of us. We have more big plans ahead, so keep watching throughout 2022, the beginning of the future is here - bring on hyperbitcoinization!”