Should Your Company Accept Bitcoin And Other Cryptocurrency Payments?

Story by: Kate Harrison

While your organization may have already grappled with whether or not to add PayPal, Square or Apple Pay to your payment options, adding the ability to accept cryptocurrency is a bit different. Deciding to accept cryptocurrencies is more like the decision to accept foreign currencies than just choosing to add a new form of payment processor. There are significant benefits to accepting crypto, but it is not without some drawbacks. Savvy business owners should weigh these pros and cons when making the decision for their company.

Should your company accept cryptocurrency?

According to Michael Foster, co-creator of localethereum — a decentralized Ethereum marketplace enabling peer-to-peer exchanges — “crypto enables cheap and borderless near-instantaneous transactions. This enables customers all over the world — even those without access to traditional banks, but with access to the Internet — to purchase your company’s services or products.” Dibu Paul, of Alchetron, the Free Social Encyclopedia for the World, notes that this is a big change. “Especially for large payment amounts, which have historically taken extra time to clear, crypto transactions are nearly instantaneous.” In addition, cryptocurrencies are not bound by a specific country’s exchange rate: rather, they are universally recognized, which makes them more attractive for many businesses. For international e-commerce companies in particular, these advantages can be significant.

Paul also notes another benefit of crypto: it makes it easy for many people to contribute to a single purchase because everything goes to a smart public ledger, which can be trusted. This makes crypto a good medium for crowdsourcing. Using cryptocurrency as payment is also a good choice for high-risk businesses, since traditional payment gateways might not support them.

Transactional benefits aside, Josh Reif of Reif Ventures, LLC, adds that “accepting cryptocurrency can help you attract a younger demographic of people who prefer the simplicity and anonymity of crypto transactions.” Carmen Mastropierro, the owner of three digital magazines and an e-commerce website which accepted cryptocurrency, concurs: “I believe accepting cryptocurrency as a payment is wise for many businesses. Just offering several payment options has always been linked to higher conversion rates. In addition, some customers feel safer paying with crypto as compared to PayPal or credit cards.”

Alexander Winston, Managing Director of PPC Limited, adds: “I think it’s important to always be open to new technology. If a customer wants to pay you in crypto, why should you turn them down? Originally, we only accepted payments in dollars through processors such as Stripe and PayPal. But with the vast increase in the number of cryptos available over the past few years, we’ve had quite a few customers request to pay in crypto.”

Original story: https://tinyurl.com/y8c599xx

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