Today we’re excited to officially announce support for Nimiq (NIM) as a payment method on our payments platform and our gift card service.

Starting today NIM holders can buy gift cards from over 150 top brands such as Amazon, Adidas, Ebay, Uber through our gift card platform! This allows the people who earn NIM to redeem the tokens for everything from diapers, to food, to travel. ✈️

In addition to being able to buy gift cards with NIM, now any online merchant will be able to utilize Bidali’s online payment and accounting software to accept NIM with ease. Online retailers that accept NIM through our payment gateway will also have the option of being paid out in local currency including USD, CAD, Euro, and GBP and having their taxes and conversion rates automatically calculated.

What is Nimiq?

Nimiq is a browser-first blockchain designed with simplicity in mind. The community behind Nimiq hopes to bring the benefits of blockchain technology, low-cost peer-to-peer payments, to the mainstream. To achieve that goal Nimiq has been built from the ground up to reduce barriers to entry that typically inhibit the mainstream adoption of blockchain technologies, including making it incredibly easy to run your own blockchain node and miner to participate in the network.

Like Bitcoin and Ethereum, Nimiq currently uses a proof-of-work algorithm to secure transactions. NIM is the native currency used on the Nimiq blockchain for payments and as a reward incentive for mining.

However, one of the novel things they have done is make it so that anyone can easily run a blockchain node right in their web browser or on any machine that runs Node.js. One of the challenges that has inhibited adoption of cryptocurrency is the how complex it is to get set up, including setting up your own blockchain node so that you can transact with the network without needing to rely on a third party.

Most of the code is written in JavaScript so it can be run pretty much everywhere these days. Nimiq also utilizes modern peer-to-peer web standards (WebSockets + WebRTC) to communicate with other nodes on the network without relying on an intermediary.

Since pretty much every internet connected device has a web browser, this browser-first and installation-free approach has the potential to democratize access to the Nimiq blockchain, onboard users with less friction, and make it truly a more peer-to-peer payment rail.

We’re very keen to see how the Nimiq project develops. Their attention to user experience and removing friction is evident everywhere in the project — from developer tooling, to marketing, to the user facing tools. We’re proud to be one of the first in the world to support Nimiq and provide immediate utility for this promising payment rail. ⚡️

Until next time,

Eric & The Bidali Team