Bakkt to launch consumer app by 2020-mid, Starbucks to begin tests

Bakkt plans to launch its consumer and the merchant application by the first half of next year. It allows consumers to pay for their purchases in Bitcoin and for merchants to get the instant conversion in fiat currency.

Announcing the development in a blog post, Mike Blandina, Chief Product Officer of Bakkt said: “Our vision is to provide a consumer application for managing a digital asset portfolio, whether they wish to store, transact, trade or transfer their assets”.

He added, “For merchants, this enterprise-grade infrastructure enables a new form of payment acceptance at a lower cost per transaction along with faster settlement times, driving efficiencies compared to existing workflows”.

Starbucks will be the first to try out the platform, allowing the consumer to pay for their purchases in Bitcoin. The portal will allow merchants to set the option to either accept Bitcoin or convert to fiat currencies. Microsoft is another founding partner in Bakkt. At this stage, it’s unclear if Microsoft is planning to test the app or not.

“As the flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a pivotal role in developing practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into US dollars for use at Starbucks,” said Maria Smith, Vice President, Partnerships and Payments for Starbucks.

With volume in Bakkt futures contract starting to pick-up and the first to soon offer Bitcoin futures option, Bakkt’s vision to provide a widely-accepted platform for managing a digital asset portfolio is close to reality.