Not only is Bitcoin (BTC) the very first cryptocurrency to gain notoriety but it’s also the best known of the more than 19 000 cryptocurrencies in existence at the moment. Financial media outlets enthusiastically covers each new dramatic high and stomach-churning decline so making Bitcoin an unavoidable part of the landscape.
While the wild volatility may produce great headlines, Bitcoin is not the best choice for novice investors or people who are looking for a stable store of value. Understanding the ins and outs can be tricky so let’s have a closer look at how Bitcoin works and, in particular, how challenging it is to make a Bitcoin payment.
How To Make Bitcoin Payments
Bitcoin payments are far simpler to make as opposed to debit or credit card purchases. These can be received with no merchant account. Payments are executed from a wallet application, either on your computer or smartphone, via entering the recipient’s address, the payment amount, and then pressing send. In order to make it easier to enter a recipient’s address, many wallets are able to get the address by scanning a QR code or touching two phones together that have NFC technology.
Where Can You Pay with Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is still in its infancy. However, the list of places where you can use it to pay for goods and services is steadily growing. Most businesses which accept cryptocurrency as payment do so via cryptocurrency payment gateways, which are payment service providers which usually guarantee cryptocurrency to fiat conversion at the time of the transaction so that there is no price slippage.
Some prominent businesses that accept crypto outright allow you to add it to an app for payment, or accept it via a service provider are:
- Microsoft
- PayPal
- Overstock
- Starbucks
- Newegg
- AMC Theaters
- AT&T
A number of brick-and-mortar retailers and stores are starting to accept cryptocurrency as well. Those who do will usually use point-of-sale hardware that are linked to one of the payment service providers. You’ll frequently see signs on the doors, windows, or at the cash register announcing which cryptocurrency is accepted.
What Are The Advantages Of Bitcoin?
Payment freedom – It is very possible to send and receive Bitcoins at any location in the world at any time. No bank holidays. No borders. No bureaucracy. Bitcoin allows its users to be in complete control of their money and to access the best crypto exchanges whenever and wherever they choose.
Select your own fees – There is no fee associated with receiving bitcoins and many wallets let you control how high a fee to pay when spending. Heftier fees may encourage faster confirmation of your transactions. Fees are not related to the amount transferred so quite it’s possible to send 100 000 bitcoins for exactly the same fee it costs to send 1 bitcoin. In addition, merchant processors exist to assist merchants in processing transactions as well as converting bitcoins to fiat currency and then depositing funds directly into merchants’ bank accounts on a daily basis. (Thenewspocket.com)
Lower risks for merchants – Bitcoin transactions are quite secure, irreversible, and do not contain customers’ sensitive or personal information. As a result this protects merchants from losses that are caused by fraud or fraudulent chargebacks, and there is no requirement for PCI compliance.
