GoMining launched GoBTC Pay this week to enable instant Bitcoin transactions directly on Bitcoin's base layer, fulfilling the 2008 whitepaper's peer-to-peer cash vision. The move comes as Bitcoin's market cap exceeds $1.5 trillion yet only 2,300 U.S. businesses accept it directly despite 22% of adults owning the asset.
How the Fees Actually Work
Merchants pay just 0.2% per GoBTC Pay transaction. That's under a third of traditional card processing fees. GoMining splits the fee evenly between miners and wallet providers. The company takes zero cut from third-party transactions. This structure avoids the revenue leakage that killed past Bitcoin payment experiments.
Why 2,300 Stores Isn't Enough
Twenty-two percent of U.S. adults own Bitcoin but only 2,300 businesses accept it directly. That gap has widened even as 150+ public companies hold BTC. The U.S. government's 328,000 BTC hoard highlights the disconnect between institutional adoption and retail payments. GoBTC Pay's instant-settlement promise directly targets this weakness.
Security and Settlement Timeline
The protocol uses a 2-of-3 multi-signature system. User security requires signatures from the customer, GoMining, and a regulated third-party custodian. GoMining targets 12-hour on-chain settlement by year-end via its dedicated mining pool. That's faster than current base-layer limits but slower than credit cards for now.
U.S. Expansion Underway
GoMining is building 1 GW of U.S. compute capacity by 2026. It'll run both Bitcoin mining and AI workloads. The company already serves 5 million users globally through three-continental data centers. This infrastructure directly supports the GoBTC Pay rollout.
GoMining expects the first 500 U.S. merchants to go live with GoBTC Pay by Q3 2026 as settlement times accelerate toward the 12-hour target.
