https://ift.tt/3JYi9JD Lightning Network Powered App Strike Launches in Argentina

Jan 11, 2022 at 12:00 UTC

Strike announced today that it was launching in Argentina which, as CEO and Founder Jack Mallers put it “faces hyperinflation, predatory payment networks, and unusable cross-border transactions.” The announcement was made from Founder and CEO Jack Maller’s personal Twitter account in keeping with the company’s more personal approach to communications.

Argentina’s Troubled Economic Past

The country has a long history of inflation which has led to multiple attempts by the government to impose currency controls over the last 20 years. All these have failed and the annual inflation sits at 51% and the country has also recently defaulted on a $500 million payment due to its creditors in May 2020. 

The US dollar is highly used and demanded in Argentina as a store of value to protect against the debasement of the Argetine Peso with parallel and black markets for the US currency leading to a higher than officially quoted exchange rate. 

Strike’s Hope

Mallers and Strike’s aim is to provide their customers in Argetina with the ability to send “cheap, instant, cash final, global payments of any size, for anyone, to anywhere.” with the use bitcoin and the lightning network. 

Strike first launched in the US and its most recent roll-out prior to Argentina was in El Salvador which subsequently made bitcoin legal tender. 

Maller’s made an appearance on CNBC’s Power Lunch and when asked whether Venezuela was the next country for Strike to launch in Maller’s responded, “everywhere is next for us.”