By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
Once again, Bitfury surprises the crypto-community introducing a new coffee vending machine that accepts Bitcoin payments.
In no time for recovery since the launch of its capacious mining chip, Bitfury has confronted the public with another novelty. This time the company devised the new coffee vending machine accepting Bitcoin payment.
A little informative step back off the main story is needed to explain why the Bitfury endeavor is being considered as a breakthrough.
No doubt, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency pioneer and therefore it became the most popular digital coin that domineers over 50% of the total market capitalization. Yet the array of hot-spot issues including hefty transactions fees and long wait times is keeping Bitcoin apart from the mainstream adoption. In a bid to resolve these problems, Bitfury has turned to the disrupting Lightning Network.
Lightning Network is a second-layer transaction protocol designed to make Bitcoin transaction more scalable and cheaper. This decentralized network is operationg on smart contracts to empower instant payments by processing transactions off the main Bitcoin blockchain, which simply means reduced costs for those sending or using Bitcoin as a payment. The respective network also is capable of ceasing a scalability problem, which has become a growing problem, as the number of transactions and wait times continue to explode.
With their respect to the underlying robust technology, the team under the hood of the project took the name of LightningPeach. As a part of experiment, LightningPeach modified a commercially available internet-connected coffee maker that already combined smart components.The developers joined the network with help of a small computer-like piece with a chip, thus forcing the Lightning Network to a new vending machine.
Notably this tiny device is available not only for coffee machines. It can be easily incorporated into any type of scheme that considerably boosts the Bitcoin adoption and clears a path for the crypto-related enterprises.
Speaking on the technical details of the project the Head of Community for LightningPeach, Vasyl Grygorovych commented:
“With a small computer and a chip, which is assembled by us or is easy to reproduce, it is much easier to pay with cryptocurrencies than with credit cards, because you don’t need your credit cards at all, you just need your mobile device.”
The concept of the new coffee vending machine is indeed simple. Users have to scan a QR code on the machine using their phones, which connects to a Bitcoin wallet and then they would be charged $2 for a cup of coffee, which the system would then convert into the smallest fractions of a Bitcoin.
While the first coffee machine LightningPeach has modified remains operational inside Bitfury’s office, it seems questionable whether the team plans to increase production and distribute the machine to the wide audience. However, Grygorovych did underline the fact that they will continue to help businesses understand real life use-cases of lightning.