Blog: “With Bitcoin, please!”

… perhaps a phrase soon more commonly heard in cafés, restaurants, and shops around you. Digital payments are, just as 40 years ago payments with credit and debit cards, on the rise. Especially now, where scepticism about the hygiene of cash due to the Corona crisis and the call from governments, health organizations, and retailers for increased use of contactless payments, cryptocurrencies, and digital assets are more topical than ever.

Despite numerous advantages of digital payments, this is not yet reflected in their acceptance through merchants. The situation is different in Asia in countries like China, where hardly anyone uses cash anymore.
The number of users of cryptocurrencies is also steadily increasing, with estimates predicting more than 15 million new users worldwide in 2020. Digital assets, such as digital currencies, are revolutionizing the future of financial transactions, usually with significantly lower transaction fees than credit or debit cards.

The fact is, there is no way for businesses to avoid dealing with digital currencies when facing a global, financially strong, and steadily growing customer base that values payment with digital currencies. With currently existing regulations, which are not always easy to handle and integrate into business structures and accounting systems, and which can vary greatly from one EU country to another, it is hardly surprising that the points of acceptance for cryptocurrencies are lagging far behind the users.
So what is crucial for a merchant wanting to offer cryptocurrencies as a payment method and what added value do they provide?

Requirements and challenges for the trade

On a positive note, merchants who adopt digital currencies are clearly leading the way. Those who recognize new trends in the payment market and respond with innovation not only actively tap into new target groups, also are always equipped for the future. Special crypto directories and online maps can be used to search for nearby merchants and service providers who accept digital currencies.

With providers such as Salamantex or A1, merchants avoid the inherent volatility risk of cryptocurrencies. The amount paid is credited to the merchant or service provider in Euros as usual, even if the customer pays e.g. with Bitcoin, Stellar, Dash or XRP from his mobile wallet. Of course, the merchant can choose to keep the received cryptocurrencies as well.
This is even more attractive for tourists, who can pay in the currency of their choice without having to exchange their home currency for local currencies in advance.

The integration of such payment methods must be simple. Add-on products or all-in-one solutions that require no or little additional installation efforts are especially important criteria for being attractive to point-of-sale businesses, like retailers. In addition, smooth integration into accounting procedures must be ensured to provide compliance and security.

To close the gap between user numbers and payment options and to meet the growing global demand, a simple and secure solution is needed. Both customers and businesses expect a standardized and above all risk-free crypto-payment interface with the same degree of flexibility and convenience already standard with other digital payment solutions.

In order to be prepared for this future and to be able to accept digital currencies as payment options at the POS as well as online, it is important to already keep an eye on these new payment methods now, with a high focus on simplicity, security, and compliance.

So next time you or your customers too can say:
“With Bitcoin, please.”