Bitcoin Daily: Bitcoin Lightning Payments Come To Retail; Rep. McCarthy Eyes Blockchain For Gov’t Efficiency, Transparency

A beer vending machine that accepts cryptocurrency payment is now available for preorder.

Decentralized identity startup Civic debuted a $15,000 machine that can verify a user’s age, as well as accept payment via crypto.

“We’re merging identity and payment into one transaction,” Civic’s Titus Capilnean told CoinDesk.

The company estimated that the machines have sold about 150 beers per day since they debuted last Sunday, totaling around 100,000 CVC ($7,600) in sales.

In other news, IBM and the National Council of Clerks (NCC) announced they have teamed up on a blockchain-based commercial court solution that will be used by clerks across France.

The network will be used to record and share information on exchanges of regulatory information related to companies’ difficulties, and the changes of status of the company registered on the French territory.

“This initiative is a first in the justice sector in France and is a perfect example of blockchain’s role in helping regulated professions as they transform,” Vincent Fournier, senior manager for blockchain at IBM France, said in a press release. “Blockchain’s qualities are ideal for this use, improving the clerks’ business processes and adapting to the ever-changing nature of their missions.”

The Bitfury Group revealed that it has integrated its web-based lightning network Peach Merchant API with HadePay’s platform.

This enables merchants in the U.S., Canada and the EU to accept payments over the lightning network, “improving the efficiency and lowering the costs” of bitcoin transactions.

“By bringing the lightning network to HadePay’s payment processing platform, we are making it easier for businesses across the United States to accept bitcoin payments,” said Pavel Prikhodko, head of Lightning Peach, Bitfury’s team of lightning network developers, according to CoinDesk.

And the Republican leader of the U.S. House of Representatives wants to test blockchain to see if the technology can make the U.S. government more efficient and transparent.

In a speech before the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress on Tuesday, Kevin McCarthy said that blockchain is “revolutionizing” the security of the financial industry and that it can also help transform the “transparency of our own legislative process.”

“Why would we wait around and why wouldn’t we institute blockchain on our own?” Kevin McCarthy said in a speech before the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. “As technology continues to change our life, let’s make sure Congress has the same ability to do it … to make this place more effective, more efficient, and most importantly more accountable.”

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