The first Bitcoin lightning NFC card (The Bolt Card) is released by CoinCorner, a British bitcoin exchange

On May 17, 2022, CoinCorner, a leader in Bitcoin and Lightning services, announced the release of The Bolt Card, a world-first innovation in the bitcoin payment space. The Bolt Card was a contactless card powered by near-field communication (NFC) and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, designed to streamline in-person Bitcoin transactions.
 

The Bolt Card allowed users to make payments by simply tapping the card on a point-of-sale device displaying a Lightning invoice. The transaction would then be processed in seconds over the Bitcoin Lightning Network, without the use of any legacy payment systems. This technology was akin to traditional Visa contactless cards but operated on a completely open, permissionless, and decentralized monetary network.
 

CoinCorner’s CEO, Danny Scott, emphasized the need for more efficient and user-friendly in-person payments with Bitcoin and Lightning. He pointed out that the existing process involved multiple steps that were less convenient than the contactless payments people were accustomed to. With the introduction of The Bolt Card, CoinCorner aimed to facilitate the transition for consumers to a more efficient experience, aligning with the global trend towards NFC payments.
 

The Bolt Card was also designed to be interoperable within current industry protocols, such as Lightning and LNURL, making it easy for other Bitcoin payment gateways around the world to introduce NFC capability to interact with it. At the time of its release, The Bolt Card was compatible with CoinCorner and BTCPay Server payment gateways, with plans to expand to other platforms like Ibex Mercado, LNBits, and FastBitcoins.
 

The release of The Bolt Card represented a significant step towards hyperbitcoinization, the vision of a world where Bitcoin is widely used and accepted.