How To Accept Bitcoin Payments On Your Website

According to CoinsPaid’s most recent report, the number of businesses accepting cryptocurrencies through this gateway has increased from 300 to over 800 by 2021. What motivates all of these businesses to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment on their websites? There are four basic causes behind this.

80% less in processing costs

In comparison to the 2-5% that retailers must spend on bank acquiring fees when accepting card payments, the average processing charge for a BTC payment starts at 0.8 percent. You may also forget about chargebacks and rolling reserves if you accept Bitcoin payments.

Near-universal acceptance rate

Almost all cryptocurrency transactions are successful. Furthermore, several big providers process BTC, ETH, and BCH payments almost instantaneously.

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Security

Because bitcoin payments are easy to follow, if the gateway notices anything unusual about a transaction (for example, if it involves so-called “dirty” coins), it immediately alerts the merchant.

Competitive edge

On a daily basis, more than 400,000 people use Bitcoin, and many of them actively seek out businesses that accept Bitcoin. Adding this payment option to a merchant’s website can give them access to an ever-growing market.

If you’re wondering which businesses take cryptocurrency, here are some notable examples:

• AMC, the largest cinema chain in the US;
• Twitch, a game streaming platform;
• Microsoft (store only);
• Newegg, an electronics retailer;
• Overstock, a leading furniture & home goods store, etc.

8 Steps to Integrating a crypto processing gateway

Most businesses that take Bitcoin do so through a third-party processor rather than directly. The crypto payment market has its main PSPs, such as BitPay, CoinsPaid, CoinBase Commerce, and others, much as there are Stripe, ChronoPay, Braintree, and others in the fiat payment world.

Merchants should check for the following features when choosing a gateway to accept Bitcoin payments:

1. Fees that are clear (no hidden commissions or exchange rate differences);
2. At least ten different cryptocurrencies, as well as various fiat currencies, are accepted;
3. Direct fiat settlements and instant crypto-to-fiat conversions;
4. A report on the security audit.

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The integration process can be completed in as little as one business day and will follow the steps outlined below.

Step 1: API setup

The merchant’s website can communicate with the gateway’s server through an API. The secret API access code is required to withdraw funds from the account and must be kept in a secure location.

Step 2: choosing which coins to accept

While accepting Bitcoin payments is a must, there are numerous other coins and tokens that should be added to your site. ETH, BCH, LTC, USDT, DOGE, TRX, and other cryptocurrencies are examples.

A few fiat currencies should also be included. To prevent volatility risks, many shops who accept crypto prefer to change it into fiat currency (USD, EUR, etc.) immediately. You can always convert money back into Bitcoin for more gains if the price of BTC falls.

Step 3: automatic withdrawals

Instead of manually withdrawing coins to an external wallet every time the balance reaches a specific amount, certain gateways allow you to direct the system to withdraw the accrued revenue automatically once the balance reaches a given value.

Step 4: setting up fiat options

Accepting crypto and withdrawing cash is quite convenient, and it will save your accounting and reporting teams a lot of time. You can also use a SEPA or SWIFT transfer to deposit fiat money into the merchant balance with select gateways.

Step 5: learning to manage transactions

Dashboards for bitcoin processing provide full information on every transaction, whether it’s a user paying in cryptocurrency for goods and services, an automatic withdrawal, a top-up by a member of your staff, and so on.

Step 6: testing

Before accepting Bitcoin payments in live mode, it’s highly advised that you experiment using a demo dashboard. You’ll need to test deposits, currency conversions, API calls, callbacks, and withdrawals (using special testnet cryptocurrency obtained from sites like BitcoinFaucet https://bitcoinfaucet.uo1.net/, https://tbtc.bitaps.com/ ).

Step 7: add a BTC payment button or form

Now that everything is set up on the back end, you’ll need to create a visually appealing payment button or symbol to let users know that Bitcoin is an option. This should be something that the crypto payment provider can help with.

Step 8: let the world know that you accept Bitcoin payments

Using a processor to set up crypto payments is only half of the effort. The second part is to drive crypto visitors to your website, which means spreading the news that crypto holders may pay with crypto and encouraging current users to switch to digital currency.

The best ways to do this include:

• Campaigns on social media utilizing relevant hashtags and appealing images;
• Adding your website to crypto-friendly merchant directories;
• Discounts, giveaways, or prizes for cryptocurrency users;
• Publications such as press releases, newsletters, and blog posts;
• Collaborations with key figures in the industry;
• Creating a lesson for first-time cryptocurrency users on your website.

The question isn’t whether to accept Bitcoin payments or not, but rather what is the most effective way to do so, as cryptocurrency acceptance grows and BTC gains more media attention. Working with a reputable processing company and the right marketing tools, you’ll soon witness a trickle, then a steady stream of new customers, more income, and significantly cheaper payment costs.

Note: Investing in bitcoin has risk, and readers should conduct their own research. Any such investment is not recommended by TechKnowmad.