Kraken is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, if not the world, and today, it has announced its support for a digital currency venture known as BTC Pay Server.
Kraken Gives a Hand to BTC Pay
Kraken is providing a $150,000 grant to the company, which is a bitcoin payment processor and tech solution. The money was paid in BTC and is designed to assist the company in its plans for expansion and aid in its coming operations. The company has also integrated BTC Pay Server onto its Cryptowatch trading terminal.
BTC Pay has been getting a lot of attention from leading crypto-based platforms and has received grants of $100,000 or more from the likes of OK Coin, Square Crypto and others over the past 12 months. One anonymous developer working with the startup explained in a recent interview:
Receiving a grant from a company like Kraken feels rewarding for the entire team. A grant of this size puts a greater responsibility and pressure to strive towards excellence with each line of code. We owe the mindset to the entire community that has shown us an incredible amount of love, and to our supporters who make sure that we can continue building a truly free and open-source payment software for anybody without worrying about sustainability.
Kraken is a leading exchange that has often integrated itself into the most unique positions in the crypto space. The trading platform was one of the first to delist bitcoin SV (BSV, or Bitcoin Satoshi Vision), the new cryptocurrency that stemmed from a bitcoin cash hard fork two years ago. The asset is widely labeled as responsible for bitcoin’s sudden drop into the $3,000 range in late 2018, and Kraken described the coin as “extremely high risk” when discussing its reasons for not wanting to offer the coin to customers.
In addition, the company was chosen to aid in the liquidation process and the investigation into Mt. Gox, the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange that lost more than $400 million in BTC funds overnight in February of 2014.
Boosting the Crypto Payment Space
Kraken says it chose to support BTC Pay Server thanks to its open-source crypto software. The company stated that an open-source status is important for any crypto-related product or service, as bitcoin was designed to be completely decentralized and operate through the hands of the people rather than big banks. A Kraken spokesperson explained:
Open source is in bitcoin’s DNA, so it is critical to the future of the industry to support leading open-source teams, products and initiatives. We all benefit from the important work they are doing.
BTC Pay says that it is looking to integrate e-commerce systems with CMS plugins so that its software and services can be available on multiple financial platforms. Today marks the release of a new form of BTC Pay software that will offer several new features to both “merchants and freelancers.”