Fold brings Bitcoin Lightning payments to Starbucks and Amazon
Fold has raised $2.5 million from the likes of Craft Ventures, CoinShares, Slow Ventures, Goldcrest Capital and Fulgur Ventures.
The startup is also giving early access to its mobile shopping app. Available on iOS and Android, this lets users spend fiat or Bitcoin and get up to 20% cashback in the cryptocurrency at such retailers as Amazon, Uber, Starbucks and Hotels.com.
“It’s become dangerous to go shopping. Every time you make a purchase, you reveal a lot — personal details, payment information, transaction history and location data — to the retailer, card network, bank, financial apps, and payment processor, all of which are the target of frequent attacks. Of course, there’s also the increasing surveillance of everyday payments by advertisers, governments, corporations, and even employers,” Fold says in a Medium post.
“Fold is one more tool in your arsenal to thwart the bad guys, right alongside your ad blocker, private browser, password manager, encrypted messaging, and lightning node. It’s time for the world to experience Bitcoin as a fundamentally better way to pay, save, and most importantly, live,” it adds.
The aforementioned funding will be used to cement partnerships in the crypto and retail sectors.