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Earlier this year, in January, one of the leading payment solutions – Visa, surveyed around 2,250 small businesses across nine countries, including the US, Canada, Brazil, and Singapore. The survey revealed that cryptocurrencies might soon become mainstream as a means of payment in 2022 and beyond. Therefore, this is the right time to integrate cryptocurrency payment options on your website and app.
According to the survey, around 25% of small businesses in these 9 countries globally plan to accept digital currencies as a payment method in 2022. The survey also revealed that about 13% of consumers want companies to start offering crypto payments from this year onwards. It goes without saying that accepting digital currencies like Bitcoin will only benefit small businesses. By expanding the range to altcoins like Ethereum, Litecoin, and other popular cryptocurrencies, small businesses will only benefit.
However, there are a lot of security threats associated with cryptocurrencies. The downsides of these alternate currencies include volatility and cyber-attack risks. You can reduce any security risks by using customer ID verification and fraud prevention solutions like au10tix.com. Such solutions ensure the secure onboarding of customers without them even realizing it. It can convert human faces, ID documents, and customer data points into access passes for your products and services.
Once you have done your part to adopt cryptocurrency payments properly, you’ll need to know how to integrate them into your business. The first thing that you need to know is that it’s not rocket science and can be done in a few steps if you know what needs to be done. Here is a guide to help you start accepting crypto as a payment method.
Know Your Basics
Before you start accepting crypto payments, you need to understand what cryptocurrency is. It’s a decentralized digital currency that has been built on and encrypted by blockchain technology. Unlike the conventional currencies like the US Dollar, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not regulated by a government or any other authority, and it only exists online.
Since cryptocurrencies are decentralized and unregulated, they act as P2P (peer-to-peer) payments and are only transferred from wallet to wallet online. In comparison, traditional methods like debit and card payments are processed through banks and card networks, which further add to the fee. Also, unlike conventional currencies, crypto is treated as an investment. It is something to be bought and held to build value and sold for gains when the value is high. But crypto owners can also use it to trade for goods and services.
Due to its multi-utility nature, cryptocurrency is one of the best investments. However, you’ll need to know the basics of crypto trading and diversify as much as you can.
Set Up a Crypto Payment Method
Before setting up the appropriate method for crypto payment, you need to decide how you want to receive the currency. You can accept it as cryptocurrency itself, or you can receive it as fiat money, which is another term for the standard government-issued currencies like the US Dollar. Fiat money is not made or backed by some commodity like gold.
A crypto wallet is more suitable for businesses that want to collect payment in cryptocurrency only. It will allow the company to collect, store, and use the cryptocurrency for its business or personal use. If you want the cryptocurrency to be converted into traditional money after the payment has been made, you’ll need to use a crypto payment gateway.
The advantage of a crypto wallet is that it maintains the security and encryption associated with the currency. However, you won’t be able to use the currency at places that don’t accept digital currency yet, which is to be expected. On the other hand, a crypto payment gateway lets you collect traditional money but involves a third party, which might void the security and also involve additional fees.
Popular cryptocurrency exchange platforms like BitPay and Coinbase offer both wallet and payment gateway solutions. Weigh your pros and cons for both methods before going ahead with either wallet or gateway. You simply need to decide whether you want cryptocurrency only, convert to fiat currency, or have the flexibility of both.
Integrate Crypto in Online Checkout
Now that you have decided to set up your crypto wallet or payment gateway, it’s time to integrate it into your website. You’ll need to enable it as the payment option in the checkout process on your website so that your customers can make payments using their cryptocurrency. You can do this in two ways – through open-source API and by using a plugin or app. The former requires technical know-how, whereas the latter is offered by the crypto solutions provider.
If you have opted for a crypto solution that offers an open-source API, you can use a custom HTML code to integrate the API into your website. The positive of using API is that you will have more control over the look and functionality of the payment method. On the flip side, an API requires more technical resources that many small businesses might not have, and it might prove to be expensive if they hire a team to integrate the API.
As for the plugin or app, your crypto solutions provider might have one depending on your eCommerce platform. It is easier for small businesses as the solutions provider assists in all technicalities involved in integration. All you need to do is download the plugin or app and install it on the website.
While cryptocurrency is still primarily viewed as a futuristic fad that wouldn’t stay for the long term, businesses and consumers are adopting it quickly. Accepting cryptocurrency as payment will only help boost conversion rates and give your business an edge over the competition in the market. This is the right time to integrate crypto payment options on your website.