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What is the Strike widget?

What is the Strike widget?

Add a “Buy bitcoin” button to your app

The Strike widget

The Strike widget is a web-based tool that enables your users to buy bitcoin within your app.

It’s a plug-and-play solution to add a “Buy bitcoin” button to your app and have users guided through a step-by-step bitcoin purchase, including:

  • Signup
  • Know Your Customer (KYC) verification
  • Cash payment method linking
  • Bitcoin purchasing
  • Bitcoin delivery via on-chain or Lightning transaction

It’s a simple and secure on-ramp for people to convert their cash to bitcoin.

Once a purchase is made, the bitcoin can be delivered to the user’s external wallet, a designated custodial wallet, or held on the user’s behalf in your Strike account. In conjunction with the Strike API and Strike OAuth Connect, you can then create transaction experiences, capable of making borderless payments on the user’s behalf through the Bitcoin and Lightning Networks.

Since bitcoin is a global asset, traded 24/7/365 across all major currencies, money can flow in, out, and through the Bitcoin and Lightning networks, in micro or macro amounts, for low-to-no cost. With the Strike API, your app can use the Bitcoin network as global payments infrastructure – optimized for speed, scalability, and programmability.

Bitcoin journeys begin by clicking the “Buy” button.

How does the Strike widget work?

Adding the Strike widget begins with setting up your Strike account. You can contact our business team to get onboarded and your account verified.

You can then start building by following the Strike widget integration guide, which details the necessary steps to add a “Buy bitcoin” button to your client app, redirect to the web-based Strike widget, and provide the necessary parameters to interact with the widget.

Once added, a user can tap the “Buy bitcoin” button in your app, which will open the Strike widget and guide them through the step-by-step process:

  1. Enter an amount to purchase
  2. Proceed to create an account by verifying an email address
  3. Verify KYC details, such as country of residence, phone number, and identity information
  4. Link a payment method, which includes sending a verification code to the payment method’s bank account
  5. Specify the purchase details, such as the desired delivery time and fees for on-chain deliveries
  6. Review the purchase details and tap confirm

Once confirmed, the payment method is charged, the purchase is made, and the bitcoin is delivered to the specified destination. The entire process can be done in seconds to minutes.

Through the widget, a user is creating a Strike account, meaning they can log in again and reuse their linked payment method to make their next purchases faster and easier. Additionally, existing Strike users can log in with their Strike account email to bypass payment method linking and KYC steps by using their established credentials and payment methods to buy bitcoin.

Within the Strike widget, users can also review their limits, payment methods, account information, and transaction history, including pending transactions for on-chain sends that have yet to be broadcast.

The Strike widget is your simple and secure on-ramp to bitcoin.

Integrations with the Strike API

Once your users buy bitcoin, what next?

With the Strike widget, delivery is what you need it to be. As part of the widget flow, your app specifies the delivery destination for the bitcoin (either on-chain or via Lightning), such as the user’s external wallet or a designated custodial wallet. Depending on your use case, you can also hold bitcoin in the user’s designated Strike account, which grants the ability to use the Strike API to build sophisticated transaction experiences within your app.

With the Strike API, you can make borderless, low-cost transactions through the Bitcoin and Lightning Networks, using your own account or on your users’ behalf. It supports transactions for sending, receiving, exchanging, and directing payments at the speeds and scales of Bitcoin and Lightning, including sub-penny amounts, instant settlement, and borderless transactions.

The Strike API lets you extend these transaction experiences to your users by offering:

  • Network flexibility: Transactions can be made using the Bitcoin or Lightning networks, according to the use case and payment size
  • Asset optionality: Money can be sent and received either as cash or bitcoin, with the Strike API handling any asset conversions behind the scenes
  • Global interoperability: Transactions are compatible with all all global Bitcoin and Lightning-enabled wallets, providing access to a global network of potential users
  • Payment scalability: Large payments can be sent as on-chain transactions, settled within 10-60 minutes, whereas small to medium payments can be sent and settled instantly via Lightning, including micro-transactions that are less than a penny

The Strike API lets you build transactions into your app with amounts, speeds, and costs that are impossible within legacy financial systems. When combined with the Strike widget, you can onboard users into bitcoin, let them hold a balance, and make borderless, low-cost, micro/macro transactions – all within your app. Read more about the Strike API, or check out the docs.

The Strike widget and the Strike API are your tools to provide superior money experiences to your users. Contact partners@strike.me to get started.

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Lightning

What is the Lightning Network?

The global bitcoin payments network that’s instant, private, and low-to-no cost