Strike is an application built by Zap Inc founded by bitcoin developer Jack Mallers. Many Americans currently use Venmo to transfer payments to their friends or family. PayPal is a parent company to Venmo. Venmo was launched in 2009 targeting friends splitting bills, for movies, dinner, rent, tickets, etc. Venmo account holders can transfer funds to others via a mobile phone app; both the sender and receiver must live in the U.S. It handled $159 billion in transactions in the first quarter of 2018. [1]
Strike is very similar to Venmo, but its application allows its users to receive their direct deposit through the app. Users can receive their direct deposit within the Strike app but more importantly the funds will already be in Bitcoin. A real debit card with rewards is coming soon to the Strike platform. The ability to have all your funds directly deposited into Bitcoin and have immediate access to those funds with a debit card makes Strike a direct competitor of Venmo. Currently Strike doesn’t allow shared accounts amongst couples or authorized users. Many features will be added to the Strike platform in the future. Bitcoin will continue to rise as the world’s main currency and with this rise, I expect strike users to increase. It is very possible that in 2024 most Americans will be receiving their direct deposits in Bitcoin and transferring assets to one another on the Strike platform. Strike is an application that will only positively affect the overall influence on Bitcoin. Your employer direct deposits you in US dollars and Strike converts a percentage of your paycheck into bitcoin for you with no fees. The employer has no clue you’re getting paid in bitcoin. Will Venmo add a Bitcoin or direct deposit feature to their application? Time will tell what will happen in this payment transfer industry, the only thing that is for certain is Bitcoin dominance.
Reference
“Venmo.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Oct. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venmo.
