- Both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash will now be available instore
- New upgrade announced in company blog
BitPay, the fast-rising international money transfers cryptocurrency platform, has announced an important update to its checkout app that amounts to a major upgrade to checkout counters in bricks-and-mortar stores using the service. From now on, Bitcoin Cash will be available as an additional digital currency option for customers.
Until the latest update, customers and stores using BitPay had only one payment option: Bitcoin. That soon began to feel like a glitch to be mended, as it forced those holding other cryptocurrencies to convert to Bitcoin before they made any purchases.
Even so, a rising tide of businesses have begun accepting blockchain payments with BitPay because of its security, accuracy and speed. Big names include Newegg and Microsoft, but a multitude of smaller merchants have followed suit, including small gaming marketplaces and Shopify stores.
The attractions are obvious: blockchain transactions don’t transmit sensitive personal information, so they protect users from the horrors of identity theft. Businesses benefit too, because they’re protected from the costs of credit card fraud and chargebacks, both of which combine to drive up credit fees and other business overheads. And BitPay charges a processing fee that is substantially lower (by between 30% and 70%) than the average for credit card fees.
But as BitPay announced in its company blog this week, blockchain payments don’t have to be confined to online transactions only. It is now aiming to make blockchain payments the most secure and powerful payment method at bricks-and-mortar businesses as well.
The company originally launched its BitPay Checkout app in November 2014, aiming to help high street merchants like retail stores and restaurants accept in-person Bitcoin payments. In the ensuing three-and-a-half years, the company has been learning from its experience with these bricks-and-mortar businesses, which include the prestigious Atlanta-based “Gino’s Classic Barber Shoppe”, a raft of restaurants and businesses in Florida, businesses taking part in the “Bitcoin Boulevard” in the Passage du Grand Cerf in Paris, and a café located in Deloitte’s Toronto office.
That learning curve fed straight into this major new update of the BitPay Checkout app for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, making blockchain payments “simpler, smoother and safer” for both customers and merchants alike.
The blog announcement states: “This new version improves the app’s design and performance, adds Bitcoin Cash (BCH) acceptance, and adds BitPay’s changes for Payment Protocol-only payments and other invoice updates. Now brick-and-mortar businesses can accept error-free Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash payments in a flash from customers, with no risk of cryptocurrency price volatility.”
Cryptocurrency watchers had been anticipating the announcement, as it comes in the wake of an earlier announcement from last month declaring that the app has been upgraded to permit Bitcoin Cash payments online.
But this latest move could go a long way toward persuading more merchants to adopt BitPay’s blockchain offerings. BitPay Checkout provides merchants with a variety of attractive options, from multi-employee checkout to on-screen tipping to matching order IDs generated by other point-of-sale systems. And it supports more than 150 currencies, too, making it one of the most purchaser- and merchant-friendly cryptocurrency payment options out there right now.