In this world’s constantly evolving financial landscape, cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly popular as a business payment method. This digital currency exists on a decentralized system that encrypts and secures transactions using cryptography, and its number of users grows rapidly daily.
Accepting crypto payments can benefit small businesses and help them compete in today’s markets in multiple ways. Not only is it a highly secure and transparent payment method, but the risk of fraud is also greatly minimized. Along with that, the transactions are also highly time-efficient and cost-effective and can help you attract a global audience.
If you are a small business owner thinking about accepting crypto payments but are still hesitant about the process and benefits of doing so, read on to learn more about how to start and the associated benefits to your small business.
How to Start Accepting Crypto Payments
You will have to set up a crypto wallet to send and receive funds before you do anything else. Every customer’s individual preference for currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, etc., varies. It will help you to choose a multi-cryptocurrency wallet to hold various currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, all in one place as this will save you the hassle of managing separate wallets for each type of coin.
After that, you will have to integrate these payments into your system and if you have a website, you can easily do this by using plugins or APIs to integrate crypto payments into your existing e-commerce platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.). Another option is registering with a crypto gateway, like BitPay, which can help integrate the payment methods on your site in multiple ways.
If you’re ready to join the growing number of businesses benefiting from this digital currency, take the first step today. Click here to buy Bitcoin and start your journey towards a more transparent, secure, efficient, and globally accessible payment system.
Benefits of Accepting Crypto Payments
The four significant benefits of accepting crypto payments as a small business are:
1. Secure Transactions
The underlying technology behind cryptocurrency, blockchain, is known for its strong security. Blockchain technology utilizes a technique called cryptography to secure transactions.
Cryptographic techniques like hashing functions ensure the authenticity and integrity of data and these techniques make it highly resistant to hacking attempts or unauthorized modifications.
Transactions are encrypted and recorded on a public ledger and encryption ensures no one can access your crypto assets and data without a private key. This protects your data from hackers or other unauthorized individuals, ensuring no one can hijack it.
Since the blockchain ledger is public, anyone can trace the movement of funds between addresses, making the data very difficult to tamper with. Also, businesses can independently verify account balances and transaction history to ensure that a lender or customer is trustworthy, making these transactions highly transparent.
2. Reduced Risk of Fraud
Consumers often don’t track their transactions properly, mistakenly reporting fraudulent activity and making companies suffer fraudulent chargebacks.
In cryptocurrency, the system doesn’t allow anyone to spend more than their wallet’s balance by verifying the funds in it, and it also ensures that both parties approve and consent to the transaction before making any payments.
Alongside this, unlike credit cards, where chargebacks can occur, all crypto transactions are irreversible once confirmed on the blockchain. This further helps protect businesses from false claims of fraud by the purchaser, saving time and money.
Traditional financial institutions rely on centralized institutions like banks. Fraudsters might target these institutions to manipulate accounts or initiate unauthorized transactions. In a decentralized system, there’s no single point of control.
Cryptocurrencies operate on decentralized networks. This means that there’s no central authority like a bank to manipulate or control transactions. This distributed ledger system makes it more difficult for fraudsters to exploit a single point of weakness.
3. Cost-Effective Transactions
One of the most significant benefits of using this digital currency is the cost savings you entail due to transaction fees. Generally, traditional payment providers charge 2.9% or higher fees alongside an extra $0.30 for every incoming transaction. On the other hand, crypto payments have low (typically 1%) or no fees associated with them, helping businesses maintain higher profit margins.
Crypto transactions also have significantly lower international fees. Traditional cross-border transactions also involve significant currency conversion fees and intermediary banks, which take several days to process. In contrast, crypto transactions are decentralized, operate globally without borders, and allow for the bypass of many intermediaries. This results in quicker and potentially more cost-effective international transfers.
4. Attracting New Customers
Due to currency conversion fees and international restrictions, traditional payment methods can limit customer reach. Cryptocurrency, however, transcends geographical borders.
This payment option allows you to easily accept payments from anywhere worldwide, opening your doors to a global audience. Giving your customers the option to pay in this digital currency can help you widen your reach to a new demographic.
These transactions also take significantly less time than traditional payment methods as they involve multiple intermediaries and approvals. The time taken for the transaction also remains unaffected by the customer’s location. This can improve your customer’s checkout experience and potentially lead to higher sales.
5. Builds Brand Image
Cryptocurrency use is often associated with innovation. By embracing it, you showcase your business as one that keeps up with times and is at the forefront of financial technology. This positions you as a fearless company that explores new possibilities and adapts to evolving trends.
Accepting it demonstrates your understanding of and comfort with emerging technologies, potentially attracting a tech-savvy customer base who appreciates your progressive approach. Introducing this payment option will also help you stand out from the crowd.
If your competitors haven’t started using this digital currency yet, you can gain a competitive edge. You will be able to attract customers looking for businesses that offer innovative and convenient payment options.
Endnote
Small businesses can benefit significantly from allowing their customers to pay with cryptocurrency as these transactions are highly transparent and secure, and they also protect from fraudulent chargebacks as they’re irreversible. Giving customers the option to pay with this digital currency will also help widen a business’s reach and attract a global audience. Additionally, the transactions take seconds and incur very low transaction fees.
