Strainly is Bitcoin-only and will always be. No shitcoinery, no Central Bank Digital Currency, no high-fees payment processors, no credit-card chargebacks, no PayPal disputes… True to our values, we have integrated a long awaited payment method inside the platform, thus simplifying transaction settlement, instantly and with no intermediary. In this article, we explain how this wallet works.
In our previous article, we explained how to create your wallet in a couple of minutes. It’s now time to make good use of it.
Wallet overview
Your Strainly wallet is compatible with on-chain and Lighting transactions. On-chain BTC transactions happen directly on the Bitcoin blockchain, which involves mining fees (usually very reasonable). They are confirmed within 10 minutes, while Lightning is a layer 2 payment system that allows for instant and almost no-fee payments (a couple of cents or less).
According to a convention used across many wallets, your on-chain balance is expressed in BTC while your Lightning balance is in sats. Remember 1 BTC = 100 million sats, just like 1 USD = 100 cents.
Receive BTC
The only possible inflow of bitcoins into your Strainly wallet is via unique invoices generated when settling transactions with other members. In other words, you can receive BTC to your Strainly wallet when another member pays you for an item you are selling. To improve privacy, those Bitcoin invoices generate single-use addresses.
Strainly is configured as follows:
- All payments under $100 are made via the Lightning network and will go to your Lightning balance.
- All payments of $100 or more are directly made on-chain and will go to your Bitcoin balance.
Send BTC
Once you have a positive balance, you can only send to external wallets (e.g CashApp…). This feature is particularly useful to instantly convert your BTC balance from your Strainly wallet to your Strike USD cash balance, or to convert your BTC into a VISA card!
Send BTC on-chain:
Paste the Bitcoin address to which you want to send (will often start with “bc1…”) in the wallet address field and enter the amount to send (which cannot exceed your available balance). Then hit “Send”.
Send BTC (sats) via Lightning:
Paste the Lightning address/invoice you previously generated from your external wallet and hit “Send”. Pay attention to your available balance when you generate that Lightning address/invoice, as you won’t be able to send more than you have available.
Watch how to generate a Lightning address/invoice with an associated amount: