GoMining unveiled a software development kit (SDK) and application programming interfaces (API) for its bitcoin payment protocol GoBTC Pay, positioning itself as a direct challenger to Block's Square service in the merchant payments space.
Market Context
The announcement comes as institutional adoption of bitcoin for everyday transactions remains limited by friction points including fee volatility and settlement delays. While several fintech platforms have introduced crypto payment options, most convert BTC to fiat at point-of-sale, meaning merchants never actually hold bitcoin unless they opt into it.
GoMining's approach differs fundamentally from incumbents like Square, which converts customer bitcoin payments to U.S. dollars by default before delivering funds to retailers. The company is betting that a growing segment of merchants will want direct exposure to bitcoin rather than fiat conversions.
Analysis
CEO Mark Zalan framed the launch as an effort to preserve what makes bitcoin unique rather than retrofit it into existing payment rails. "Our idea isn't to squeeze bitcoin into the old fiat experience and lose what makes it bitcoin along the way," Zalan said in an interview over Telegram, noting that competitors have sacrificed on-chain finality for familiarity.
The company built GoBTC Pay to settle transactions directly on the Bitcoin network using its Stratum V2 mining protocol. This architectural choice means merchants receive bitcoin with non-custodial control and on-chain settlement confirmation, though it introduces longer wait times than traditional card networks.
Block has been expanding its own bitcoin payment infrastructure over the past year, allowing businesses to accept BTC through the Lightning layer-2 network. Unlike GoMining's approach, Square's service automatically converts bitcoin amounts into dollars at point-of-sale, delivering fiat to merchants unless they actively choose to receive crypto instead.
The 0.2% transaction fee—split evenly between wallet providers and miners—positions GoBTC Pay competitively against traditional payment processors that typically charge 2-3% or more per transaction.
Key Numbers
- Settlement time: approximately 12 hours using Stratum V2 protocol
- Transaction fee: 0.2%, split 50-50 between wallet providers and miners
- Initial merchant rollout target: 10 merchants
- Bitcoin price reference: $62,737.54
- GoMining competitor Block trades under ticker XYZ
What to Watch
GoMining's ability to recruit merchants beyond its initial cohort of 10 will be closely watched as a test case for on-chain bitcoin payments at scale. The company faces the challenge of convincing retailers that accepting and holding BTC directly aligns with their treasury management strategies amid crypto price volatility.
Regulatory developments around cryptocurrency payments in major markets could also impact adoption trajectories for both GoMining's model and Block's Lightning-based service. The outcome of this competition may determine whether bitcoin maintains its monetary properties when used in commerce or becomes another payment rail that merely settles in the underlying asset.