There's a philosophical argument sitting at the center of Bitcoin payments that most people haven't fully engaged with. When a customer pays in Bitcoin and the merchant immediately receives dollars, what exactly was the point of using Bitcoin in the first place?
That's the question GoMining is betting its new product on. And it puts the company in direct competition with one of the most established names in payments: Jack Dorsey's Square.
What GoMining Just Launched
GoMining unveiled the software development kit and application programming interfaces for its Bitcoin payment protocol, GoBTC Pay, on Friday. These tools allow merchants and developers to build products and services that plug directly into the GoBTC Pay system, enabling businesses to accept Bitcoin for everyday purchases and, crucially, receive that payment in Bitcoin rather than having it automatically converted to fiat.
The company plans to start with an initial rollout of 10 merchants before scaling broader access.
The Key Difference From Square
Here's where GoMining draws the sharpest line between itself and the competition. Square, part of Jack Dorsey's Block company, has spent the past year rolling out Bitcoin payments to millions of U.S. businesses via the Lightning Network. The system works, but by default, the receiving merchant gets paid in U.S. dollars. If a business actually wants to hold Bitcoin, it has to actively choose that option.
GoMining flips that default entirely. Merchants using GoBTC Pay receive Bitcoin by default. If they want fiat, they handle that conversion themselves. The protocol doesn't make that choice for them.
CEO Mark Zalan was direct about the reasoning in an interview. His position is that squeezing Bitcoin into the old fiat experience loses what makes Bitcoin valuable in the first place. The goal with GoBTC Pay, as he described it, is to solve the real, practical problems with Bitcoin payments, the high and variable fees, the slow and unpredictable settlement, while keeping the non-custodial nature and onchain finality intact.
That's a meaningfully different product philosophy from what Square offers. It's also a bet that a growing number of merchants actually want Bitcoin exposure on their balance sheets, not just the ability to accept it from customers.
How the Settlement Actually Works
GoBTC Pay settles directly on the Bitcoin network, using GoMining's Stratum V2 mining protocol. Average settlement time runs around 12 hours, not instant, but predictable and fully onchain. Merchants pay 0.2% in transaction fees, split evenly between wallet providers and miners.
The 12-hour settlement window is longer than Lightning's near-instant finality, but the trade-off is direct settlement on the base Bitcoin layer without the liquidity channel management that Lightning requires. For merchants who prioritize onchain finality and genuine Bitcoin custody over speed, that's a reasonable trade.
Why the Timing Is Interesting
Bitcoin payment infrastructure is getting crowded fast. Block is scaling Square's Lightning integration. Strike has been pushing merchant Bitcoin payments globally for years. GoMining is now entering with a product built specifically for merchants who want to keep the Bitcoin they earn rather than treat it as a payment method that immediately converts to something else.
The argument that merchants will increasingly want Bitcoin balance sheet exposure isn't unreasonable given how many companies have added Bitcoin treasuries over the past two years. GoMining is essentially asking: if corporations are buying Bitcoin to hold, why wouldn't merchants want to earn it directly?
Whether adoption follows that logic is the real test. But the product positioning is clear, and the differentiation from Square is genuine. This one is worth watching.