Bitcoin and blockchain technology have become a part of the financial world even without funding or backing from large investors, institutions, or even the government. Today Bitcoin is part of the cryptocurrency investment industry which includes almost $2 trillion of investment from various sources.
The global nature and decentralization of Bitcoin make it a viable payment resource that can be used to attract additional customers to your business. Today, everyone who owns Bitcoin or any other major cryptocurrency is able to shop online and offline without worrying about currency exchange with high fees. But in order for you to start accepting Bitcoin as payment for your services you will most likely need to use third parties that will provide you with a cryptocurrency payment gateway.
First and foremost: Legitimacy
Even though Bitcoin is being massively adopted all over the world not every government is happy to see businesses working with almost untrackable and anonymous payment tool. In order to stay out of trouble, you should start working with services that follow Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering guidelines.
After you decided to receive crypto as payment make sure that gateway that you work with is legal in your country and it complies with local laws and regulation.
Choosing the platform and gateway
Once you’ve made sure that it’s legal to receive Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies in your country as a payment you can not start looking for the best way of transacting Bitcoin from your clients to your business.
Each and every transaction on the blockchain is being made by using a public Bitcoin wallet address. Once someone decides to send you Bitcoin they choose the amount and send it to the provided public address. That method works perfectly fine if you provide one-time services and receive digital funds directly on your cryptocurrency wallet. But if you own an online store or offline shop you’ll need something different.
In order to constantly be able to receive digital money from your customers, you will need an online payment gateway which is a third-party service that processes transactions that you receive from individuals and transfers them to fiat or keeping them on multiple wallets for a small fee. Most payment gateways also provide you with physical point-of-sale systems that you can use to receive Bitcoin offline.
What should I choose for my business?
In order to make the right choice ask yourself: “What’s the target audience of my business. Is it online or offline targeted? How often will I receive cryptocurrency transactions?”
If you own an offline store you will need a physical point of sale and payment gateway provider. If you are a private specialist all you need is the multicurrency crypto wallet in order to receive payments from your clients directly on your wallet. If you own an online shop cryptocurrency payment gateway with ready-to-implement website solutions is your way to go.
How to implement Bitcoin payments on my website?
Each and every company does it differently and usually provides you with a professional that helps you to connect your website to their gateway. But if you decide to do it by yourself the easiest solution would be the implementation through the WooCommerce platform that includes cryptocurrency payment gateways plugins from major companies like Coinbase and CoinGate.
In order to receive a physical point-of-sale to your offline store, you should contact the chosen gateway.