How to Accept Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies on Your Website

So why should you accept Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies on your website? Because Bitcoin offers an alternate payment method that can be used by anyone from anywhere in the world. This will allow you to greatly expand your customer base by offering more ways to pay and checkout on your website. Accepting cryptocurrencies also provides a way to virtually eliminate chargebacks and exposure to fraud. Moreover, transaction fees are greatly reduced when a customer pays with a cryptocurrency than when they checkout with more common payment methods such as a credit card. Once you accept payments in Bitcoin, you can transfer them to your bank account or keep them in your wallet. Here are some popular ways to enable your website to accept cryptocurrencies.

Popular Ways to Accept Cryptocurrencies

Some of the most popular ways to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on an ecommerce website are through the following platforms. We’ll dive deeper into each of them below:

• Stripe
• BitPay
• Coinbase
• GoCoin
• Coinpayments
• Blockonomics
• And many more solutions are being developed every day.

Getting Started with Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies

First, you will need a Bitcoin wallet. This is a piece of software that you will use to send or receive Bitcoins and store your bitcoins safely. There are many different types of wallets available. Many of the solutions below offer their own wallet to store your bitcoin balances.

Description of Payment Solutions

Here is a brief description of each payment solution that will enable you to accept cryptocurrencies on your website:

Stripe

Stripe offers a very simple integration if you are already using a Stripe account to as a payment solution on your website.

Stripe offers two options:

• An easy API for your own checkout form on your website, or
• If you already use Stripe’s checkout solution, then you can enable Bitcoin acceptance with just a few lines of code.

Some of the benefits of using Stripe to accept Bitcoin include:

• Fluctuation-resistance – Avoid exchange rate hassles by receiving your funds in US Dollars.
• Transparent pricing – Stripe charges 0.8% per successful Bitcoin transaction, capped at $5. There are no other fees.
• Unified reports – Bitcoin payments are integrated into the same reporting as credit cards.

You can learn more at: https://stripe.com/bitcoin. If you want to learn more about the technical details you can access Stripes developer documents at: https://stripe.com/docs/sources/bitcoin.

BitPay

With BitPay, you can sign up for a business account and begin to accept Bitcoin pretty easily. You can elect to have the coins converted and transferred to a bank account. You can also elect to have a percentage or all of the coins remain in your account. BitPay takes the risk of all the bitcoin price volatility. BitPay supports many shopping carts including Shopify, WordPress, Magento and many more – over 40 integrations.

Some of BitPay’s Benefits include:

• Low Transaction Fees – While credit cards can take up to a 3% processing, BitPay offers direct bank deposits in your own currency for a flat 1% settlement charge.
• Sell to anyone, anywhere – Receive payment in any amount, from anywhere in the world, from any computer or mobile device.
• End chargeback fraud and identity theft – Other payment methods force customers and businesses to shoulder the risks and costs of payment fraud. With bitcoin, customers can pay without handing over sensitive personal information, and refunds are made through the merchant so there are no chargebacks.
• Direct Bank Deposits – BitPay allows you to accept payments in bitcoin and receive funds directly to your bank account. Bank deposits in 38 countries, settled in US Dollars, Euros, GBP, and more.

The process works through the following steps:

• The customer chooses to pay with bitcoin during the checkout process.
• They pay the BitPay invoice at a locked-in exchange rate.
• BitPay instantly converts the bitcoin, shielding you from any volatility risk.
• You get direct deposits into your bank account.

You can learn more at: https://bitpay.com/. You can also get access to their developer API documentation at: https://bitpay.com/docs.

Coinbase

Coinbase offers the same benefits described above. When your business makes a sale, you can instantly sell the bitcoin received to Coinbase to avoid exposure to bitcoin volatility. Some of the common benefits include:

• Eliminate Chargebacks and Fraud – Coinbase confirms most bitcoin payments in just a few seconds with zero chargebacks, so costs associated with online fraud are greatly reduced.
• Get Paid Quickly – Payouts are initiated daily so you will receive cash in your bank account in 2-3 business days.
• Issue Refunds – Refunds can be issued to bitcoin customers by using one simple Coinbase API call.

Coinbase supports checkout pages, embeddable widgets, plugins, and an API for custom integrations. You can learn more at: https://www.coinbase.com/merchants?locale=en-US. Documentation for the full API can be found at: https://developers.coinbase.com/docs/merchants.

GoCoin

GoCoin offers the same benefits described for the other solution above. Their platform makes taking Bitcoin and other blockchain currencies as easy as installing a plugin. Some of the benefits include:

• Simple integrations – They have already coded and implemented their payment processing on every major shopping platform. Their API is easy to work with too and they offer very strong customer support.
• No chargebacks – They handle all the transactional risk for all the payments from customers. You don’t have to worry about chargebacks.
• Low Fees – Every sale is final, and they take a 1% fee.

You can get a list of existing integrations at: https://gocoin.com/integrations. Documentation for the full API can be found at: https://gocoin.com/docs.

Coinpayments

Coinpayments.net is a one stop solution for consumers to use their AltCoins and cryptocurrencies. The merchant tool allows businesses to start accepting almost any AltCoin. The features and benefits are similar to what was already outlined above.

Learn more about Coinpayments.net here: https://www.coinpayments.net/home.

Blockonomics

This is a WordPress plugin that works with WooCommerce so you can accept bitcoins. Payments are secure and go directly into your wallet. No personal information or documentation is required.

Integration information can be found at: https://www.blockonomics.co/merchants. Blockonomics WordPress plugin can be accessed at: https://wordpress.org/plugins/blockonomics-bitcoin-payments/.

Conclusion

The solutions outlined above are just a few of the many payment processors available to enable you to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on your site. As outlined above, cryptocurrencies offer an alternate payment method that can be used by anyone from anywhere in the world. They allow you to expand your customer base by offering more ways to pay. Accepting cryptocurrencies also reduces your risk of chargebacks and can almost eliminate any possibility of fraudulent payments. What’s more, you’ll pay less in transaction fees because the process requires less cost because many of the traditional “middlemen” are no longer needed. Best of all, once you receive payments in a cryptocurrency, you can elect to keep it in that coin or convert it to your local currency and have the money deposited in your bank account.

Business Consulting Services: If you’re a small business owner looking to start or improve an online business then let me show you how to benefit from my experience. I have helped several online resellers grow their businesses by developing an online strategy to sell on Amazon, eBay or any other marketplace. Call me at 310-574-2541 or email me at Pez@Pezlogic.com for a complimentary business review.