The friction between digital assets and daily commerce narrowed this week as WalletConnect officially launched its physical payment rail, WalletConnect Pay, at 94° Coffee in Lisbon.
The move marks a strategic transition for the firm, moving from a protocol that connects wallets to decentralized applications to a direct competitor in the point-of-sale landscape.
In a city increasingly recognized as a European hub for blockchain innovation, the pilot aims to prove that on-chain transactions can outperform the legacy card networks that have dominated retail for decades.
WalletConnect Pay Moves Into Physical Retail
Traditional payment processors often burden small merchants with a complex web of interchange fees and foreign exchange surcharges that can erode thin margins.
According to industry data, crypto-native payments can be up to five times cheaper than traditional card transactions, particularly in international hubs where currency conversion adds layers of opacity.
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For Illia, the Ukrainian entrepreneur behind 94° Coffee, the decision to integrate WalletConnect Pay was driven by a requirement for operational efficiency. He noted that the transition to crypto payments enables significantly faster settlement times and fewer intermediaries, providing a more predictable cash flow that traditional banking rails often fail to deliver.
Crypto Payments Challenge Card Networks
The launch comes at a time when consumer appetite for stablecoin-based transactions is surging. By utilizing WalletConnect’s protocol, which supports thousands of different wallets, the café can cater to a global demographic without the risk of declined transactions or the three-to-five-day clearing cycles associated with legacy finance.
This infrastructure allows for near-instant confirmation, turning what was once a niche technical experiment into a viable retail tool.
As WalletConnect looks to scale this model beyond the Portuguese capital, the success of 94° Coffee will serve as a critical case study for whether decentralized payment standards can achieve the “tap-to-pay” ubiquity required to disrupt the incumbent financial giants. The company anticipates that this integration is merely the first step in a broader rollout across global retail and hospitality sectors.
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