Skywire

The Chicago based payment application Strike has confirmed that it has integrated with the Shopify ecommerce platform, promising quicker and cheaper payments. Eligible Shopify merchants can now receive Bitcoin payments denominated in United States dollars.  Lightning Strike Out So what does this news really mean for e-tailers? The Strike digital payments platform is constructed on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN), a ‘layer 2’ scaling solution designed to enable faster and cheaper transactions.  CEO and founder of Strike, Jack Mallers, commented: “We’re proud to partner with Shopify to provide merchants with a cheaper and faster way to accept US dollars using Bitcoin technology. The Lightning Network is a global payments network that lowers costs, enhances speed, drives innovation, improves financial inclusion, and brings the power of choice to consumers and merchants.”  Strike conveyed that the Shopify integration meant merchants using the platform could accept pa...

How well do you feel your own brand’s claims of eco-friendliness stack up against industry competition, or indeed customer expectation? More and more fashion firms will soon be asking themselves intently as the UK’s competition regulator gears up to take a strong grip on high-street clothing companies.  As reported by The Guardian, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has expressed concern over sellers perhaps convincing buyers to pay a premium for environmentally-friendly fashion goods that may not indeed live up to this billing.  How Sustainable and Eco-friendly is British Fashion?  The CMA has suggested that entire clothing ranges have such adjectives applied to them, without the brand necessarily being able to show proof that the whole process – encompassing manufacture, delivery, packaging, and sale – actually is gentle on the environment. The Guardian informs that the regulator was looking into claims that the British fashion sector has made and wi...

  Amid the overwhelming rush of events – both inside and outside of the fashion space – that has been 2022, even some of the keener catwalk-watchers could probably be forgiven for overlooking that this year has already seen what could turn out to be a very interesting ‘first’.  Yes, from Thursday 24th March, and continuing through to Sunday 27th March, we have seen the running of the inaugural Metaverse Fashion Week (MVFW) - an event that really can claim to be a fashion week with a difference. Introducing Metaverse Fashion Week – and why it matters  With there having already been some 3,000 fashion weeks in the first few months of 2022, Metaverse Fashion Week may not have been one that you were rushing to tick off your ‘must-attend’ list. But in many ways, it should have been – not least because it is one that fashionistas outside of a select circle of top industry insiders actually can attend.  This virtual-reality-only event has been demonstrating that a f...