Not exactly sure what you're referring to, but the said merchants don't have to do anything. Fold will update it's infrastructure so that merchants will be able to accept Lightning payments whenever a customer is asking for it. Obviously, they will just receive the fiat on their end while Fold is taking care of the conversions and whatnot.
And how will this be done?
The protocol integrates with existing payments systems in a merchant’s POS, dealing “directly with prepaid access programs like gift cards, store credit, rails or other options merchants are used to accepting,” said Will Reeves, CEO of Fold.
To be clear there is no direct connection between Fold and any of these big merchants. Transactions show up in fiat on a company’s balance sheet as either gift card purchases or store credit, depending on how Fold integrates with a particular POS. This integration requires “no effort on the merchant’s side,” and does not require the installation of new hardware or software.
That POS must receive some information from the customer, how is that being one?
And is really confusing since:
a) does not require the installation of new hardware or software
b) depending on how Fold integrates with a particular POS
I've never heard of integrating something in a piece of software without new software
As far as I can understand it works like a rechargeable gift card, so you depend on the company to actually accept those.
Anyway, nice seeing the LN in action, at least we're seeing some real implementation lately, not just projects that never materialize.
Edit:
Just run into this:
Is coffee.foldapp.com legit ? So it's not a new idea, they are simply trying again with LN?