A sign advertising Bitcoin as an accepted form of payment at the local markets in Tofo, Mozambique. (Photo: Kara le Roux) Crypto Corner newsletter subscribers already know that MoneyBadger is the most important company driving digital payments adoption in South Africa. Did you know you can pay for your Pick n Pay groceries with bitcoin? That was made possible in 2023, thanks to MoneyBadger.
It’s cool, then, to see the international press picking up on genuine local market leadership. But we’ve had it since October, if we’re being honest with ourselves.
Now SAA, the national airline carrier, has taken it a step further, becoming the first major African commercial airline to formally integrate bitcoin payments directly into its reservation system. Passengers booking flights on the SAA website or mobile app can simply select “crypto” at checkout.
Getting your payment wings
To pull this off, the airline partnered with local fintech heavyweight Ozow and the aforementioned bitcoin-centric bridge builders, MoneyBadger. When you hit that crypto checkout option, a dynamic QR code pops up. The exact millisecond your bitcoin is deducted from your wallet, MoneyBadger instantly converts that digital asset into fiat currency. SAA receives the exact invoiced amount in Randelas.
From a corporate treasury perspective, this is a beautiful thing. It eliminates the risk of chargeback fraud (a massive headache in the travel sector) and accelerates working capital realisation. The airline is paid immediately, safely, and in its operating currency.
Local fintech flex
Again, it can’t be stressed enough that this is not happening in a vacuum; it’s the culmination of MoneyBadger quietly tunnelling the entire South African retail landscape to connect legacy point-of-sale systems with blockchain networks.
Look at the timeline: Pick n Pay got over the crypto payment line in February 2023. In September last year, MoneyBadger enabled VALR app users to pay at more than 31,000 Zapper merchants.
A month later, that Scan to Pay integration opened up direct Bitcoin payments at 650,000 merchant locations across the country.
In January, MoneyBadger powered Travelwings (via Peach Payments), letting travellers book flights and hotels with bitcoin and USDT. And last month, Ozow officially integrated crypto as a primary payment solution on its platform.
It’s not an understatement to say that Mzansi is leading the charge in real-world crypto utility.
Struck by lightning
How does this work at the checkout without making you wait a long time or pay high fees for a simple transaction confirmation? The answer is the Lightning Network.
Think of the main bitcoin blockchain as a secure but slow vault, while the Lightning Network is like a quick and efficient checkout till point.
It’s designed to handle many small transactions quickly – which makes it complete overkill for booking flights, but YOLO mos.
With the Lightning Network, transactions cost almost nothing and are completed almost instantly. This makes Bitcoin as fast and easy to use as a credit card for buying things like an airline ticket or a coffee.
What you need to fly
So, how do you, the intrepid traveller, actually buy that ticket?
MoneyBadger’s infrastructure is incredibly interoperable. If you keep your funds on an exchange, you can pay directly from your Binance, Luno, or VALR wallets. But the real magic is experienced through dedicated Bitcoin Lightning Wallets.
Tools like Blink, Strike, Wallet of Satoshi, Muun, Phoenix, Aqua, Breez, and Zeus are all supported, but keep in mind you might need to use the MoneyBadger App alongside some of these to scan the merchant QR codes.
Flying with the flock
While SAA is pioneering this on the African continent, international carriers have been getting lift on the crypto market for over a decade. Latvia’s airBaltic jumped out of the nest way back in 2014, eventually expanding to accept Ethereum and Dogecoin (which are instantly converted to Euros, naturally).
Poland’s LOT followed in 2015. Norwegian Air got so invested in the idea that it established its own cryptocurrency exchange (NBX) in 2019 to handle its payments.
Spain’s Vueling rolled out crypto checkouts in 2023, and Emirates is scheduled for a public rollout of Crypto.com Pay this year. And if you’re flying Delta or Qatar, you can already book indirectly using crypto via online travel agencies (OTAs) like Travala.
We’re in good company in the sky, then. DM