Gomining launches GoBTC for 12-hour onchain Bitcoin settlement

Gomining, a bitcoin miner ranked among the world’s top 10 and serving roughly five million users, introduced GoBTC at Consensus Miami in May 2026. The company presented the protocol as a payment method that authorizes purchases instantly and settles on the Bitcoin base layer within 12 hours.

At checkout, GoBTC registers transactions in real time and finalizes settlement onchain within a 12-hour window. The protocol is noncustodial and free for end users. Merchants pay a flat 0.2% fee, which Gomining says will be split evenly between wallet providers and bitcoin miners. Any wallet provider can integrate the open protocol.

Gomining announced it will dedicate a specific mining pool to confirm GoBTC transactions. The company plans for that pool to allocate block space for settlements and to cover the time between instant authorization and onchain confirmation.

The 0.2% merchant fee is lower than typical card network rates, which range from about 1.5% to 3.5% per transaction. GoBTC is positioned as an onchain alternative to the Lightning Network. Lightning processed about $1.17 billion in volume in November 2025 and exceeded 12 million monthly transactions in 2026; Lightning routes payments across channels, and merchant adoption varies.

Adoption of GoBTC depends on wallet providers integrating the protocol and on merchants accepting an authorization-before-settlement timing. In the United States roughly 2,300 businesses accept bitcoin directly, while surveys indicate about 22% of American adults hold the asset.

Gomining described the launch as an expansion beyond its mining-as-a-service business into payments infrastructure and presented control of mining capacity as a potential advantage for settling Bitcoin transactions at scale. The company is targeting system-wide 12-hour onchain settlement by the end of 2026 and says the protocol is open for other ecosystem participants to build on while miners confirm and secure settlements.