Today marks another milestone in our history as we will be among the first merchants to accept bitcoin lightning payments for gold and silver through a partnership with Coingate.
There is quite some controversy surrounding bitcoin lightning and to be frank, we do understand why. The lightning network is growing with an incredible speed, but the average transaction size is still rather low. Currently lightning seems particularly fit for smaller transactions as people are not opening up their payment channels for larger amounts, yet this could be a matter of time and trust before the market for lightning matures. Bitcoin has amazed us before and we couldn’t be more exited to experience this front row by giving our users the opportunity to pay with it.
Free 1 oz coin for the first 20 lighting orders
In case you have not tried out lightning yet we may have a nice incentive for you to do so after all. Because the first 20 costumers that place an order through our bitcoin lightning payment option will receive a limited 2013 Bitcoin Cold Hard Cash coin with their order.
The Bitcoin Cold Hard Cash coin was created by Joseph Vaughn Perling in 2013. The reverse of the coin shows a QR code that leads to Coldhardca.sh where you can check the actual rate of silver against the bitcoin rate or your local currency. The coin is denominated in 0.25 BTC which was the price of 1 silver oz coin back in 2013 when it was minted. I personally love to give this coin as gift since it is a great way to introduce people to silver and bitcoin (and reminds people of the price of bitcoin in 2013). At Bitgild we also kept a bunch of them in our warehouse for special occasions like this one.
We welcome everybody to try out lightning at bitgild.com. Some bitcoin wallets that support lightning are eclair (android) and the bitcoin lightning wallet (android). After you placed your order we will let you know asap if you are among the first 20 lucky ones to receive the Bitcoin Cold Hard Cash coin.
Minimum and maximum order value
Since lightning network is still in it’s infancy you can only place orders up to 0.042 BTC, which is a limit currently set by the dev team for security purposes. Keep that in mind if you are placing an order with us. To make it more attractive for people to try it out we have temporarily decreased our minimum order value to €50,- for all payment methods. Use discountcode: “freeshippingLN” to deduct shipping costs.
EDIT: we got valuable customer feedback that our shipping costs are rather high for such small orders, which is valid argument. Therefor we have a temporary discountcode. Use “freeshippingLN” to deduct the shipping costs from your order.
EDIT 2: As it seems right now it can be a challenge to route a payment through the lightning network that is over €50. Most customers that succeeded in paying with lightning created a direct payment channel with CoinGate.
Edit 3: First 20 lightning orders are in! Giveaway has ended. Everyone that paid with lightning before the 6th of July will soon receive the bitcoin cold hard cash. Thanks to everyone who participated!
