Square Sends Bitcoin Commerce to All Time High
We go in-depth on Square, a NOSTR app going viral and more in this edition.
This edition touches on core pillars of Bitcoin Commerce: merchant payments, decentralization, and bitcoin tipping and rewards!
The Square Bitcoin integration is live and more merchants than ever are accepting Bitcoin
A closer look at Bitcoin payment taxes in the USA and a proposal to fix this
DiVine, a NOSTR video sharing app goes viral (Yes, you read that correctly, a NOSTR-based app has gone viral)
50,000+ athletes worldwide can now receive bitcoin tips on millions.co
Bitcoin rewards platform Lolli acquires Slice in a Bitcoin reward consolidation
Looking for a laugh? Check out our Bitcoin meme of the week at the back of the Roundup! đ
Find it all here, and thanks from the Velas Team!
Square Integration Pushes Bitcoin Commerce to an All-Time High
The ability to accept bitcoin payments was rolled out to all 4 million plus businesses in the USA that use Square point-of-sale terminals on November 10th.
It took less than a week for the Square Bitcoin integration to make its mark.
By November 16th, BTCMap was reporting an all-time high for merchants advertising they accept bitcoin. The graph went vertical. And speaking of BTCMap, Square merchants can add themselves to the map of businesses accepting bitcoin directly from their Square dashboard!
Initially, we were hearing reports that the Bitcoin payment option was difficult to find, but on the companyâs youtube how-to guide, the user interface looks much improved, with a clear âBitcoinâ button shown to the customer at checkout.
Hopefully this means we can look forward to more fast improvements for customers and merchants using Square to accept bitcoin!
Also - if you are a merchant accepting bitcoin or you are working on onboarding businesses, they have also put out an open-source merchant-focused website and educational kit designed to help onboard new merchants.
This will be a space to keep watching. Accepting bitcoin payments in the USA has never been easier.
Lots more here:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/square-bitcoin-payments-go-live-today
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USA Bitcoin Merchant Tax Guide (And a Glimmer of Hope)
Bitcoin payments offer enormous advantages to traditional payment systems. They are faster, more economical and less complicated.
Thatâs on the tech side of things. On the taxes side, in many countries, it is a very different story.
In the USA, bitcoin payments are treated like selling property for tax purposes. Weird but true. So if you receive a bitcoin payment for a coffee in the morning and use that bitcoin to pay a bill that evening, technically any change in that price is treated like a âcapital gainâ.
Does that sound like an accounting nightmare? It is.
On the other hand, accepting bitcoin has huge advantages for businesses: saving on payment processing fees, attracting new customers, a simple way to save bitcoin, etc.
Luckily, thereâs a really handy guide to help merchants sort out the current bitcoin tax maze, check it out here.
Down the road there are hopes that this situation could become more sensible for all involved, with a proposal to exempt payments less than $ 600 from these requirements.
Itâs the sort of reform that could have a big impact on Bitcoin Commerce. Read more about it here:
DiVine Video Sharing Goes Viral
A NOSTR app goes viral? This headline sounds surreal but itâs true.
NOSTR, Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays, came online 2020, primarily as a decentralized replacement for Twitter. And as a Twitter replacement, it has seen a lot of success within the die-hard Bitcoin Community.
But reaching the overall public has been a challenge. Until DiVine! This short-video reboot of the Vine social app is designed to block AI content and be a healthier place for users overall.
The idea resonated with many people and demand for the app is surging. Note that the RollingOut article doesnât even mention NOSTR, but instead just focuses on the benefits of decentralization to DiVine users.
Cool stuff. Hopefully the first of many to come.
Read more here:
https://rollingout.com/2025/11/14/vine-returns-with-divine-jack-dorsey/
Millions.co brings Bitcoin Tipping to 50k+ Athletes Worldwide
Sports fans can now tip over 50,000 of their favorite athletes and content creators directly using a built-in tipping feature on millions.co.
The bitcoin tipping feature could play a headline role in the over 500 planned pay-per-view events scheduled for this year.
Thereâs even a built-in e-commerce platform where athletes can post merch - which looks like another great opportunity to incorporate Bitcoin : )
Read all about it here:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/millions-co-launches-bitcoin-usd-090000785.html
Bitcoin Rewards Consolidation: Lolli Acquires Slice
Lolli, a popular Bitcoin rewards platform, just announced that it is acquiring Slice, which is a browser extension designed to reward users in BTC while they browse the web.
Itâs an interesting consolidation in an important part of Bitcoin Commerce.
A quote from the announcement states that Bitcoin rewards can play a crucial role in jump-starting online Bitcoin circular economies, and we couldnât agree more.
Get all the info here:
https://www.dlnews.com/external/lolli-acquires-slice-to-unify-bitcoin-rewards-space/
And our Bitcoin Commerce meme of the week.............đĽđĽđĽđĽđĽđĽ
đ§ Bitcoin Node Runners Matter
We just released our latest research into running independent Bitcoin nodes and why it matters. Find it here and let us know what you think!
⥠Taproot Assets: Making Bitcoin a Medium of Exchange
Check out our founder, Hannah Rosenbergâs article in Bitcoin Magazine(!) about how a multi-asset Lighting Network can make Bitcoin payments as ubiquitous as Visa!
đŞBitcoin for Ecommerce
Our director (and your Bitcoin Commerce News author đ), Erik Alvarez gave a presentation on Bitcoin Ecommerce at the Bitcoin Veterans Summit in Nashville last week! Find the presentation here.