Bitcoin E-Commerce Services for Merchants
von Satoshi Nakamoto
A large part of any currency's function is to serve as a way to buy and sell goods, and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are especially suited for spending money over the Internet – with low fees and speedy transactions. Now a growing number of businesses are accepting digital currencies, as the available options for payments increase in number and function.
In this guide, CoinDesk takes a look at the e-commerce systems that can help you accept digital currencies as payment on your website or in your real-world store.
Getting noticed
Whether you have an online store or a bricks-and-mortar one, if you are accepting bitcoin, you need to publicize that fact with a sign. You can, of course, make your own, or grab the 'bitcoin accepted here' sign from the bitcoin wiki.
DIY payments
If you like to have full control of your website and you have some coding skills, you could accept bitcoins simply by posting your wallet address or QR codes for customers to scan with their smartphone cameras. However, this not only looks very basic, but also accomplishes only half the job, as you should ideally have a checkout procedure that will complete the transaction and accept delivery details.
If programming your own payments interface, bear in mind it should continually create new wallet addresses to defend against "taint analysis", which could invade your privacy, as well as that of your customers. An open-source software library that can help with this is Pywallet. You can also use off-chain transactions to help prevent taint analysis snooping, with the added benefit of faster transactions.
Third-party payment processors
Fortunately for the non-coders among us, there are now many cryptocurrency payment processors that offer tools to integrate bitcoin e-commerce into your website. The following are some of the more established companies in bitcoin payment processing.
CoinBase
Coinbase is another popular bitcoin payment processor with 0% fees (up to the first $1m in transactions and then 1% thereafter). The company provides an HTML widget for easily inserting payment buttons into your website, and plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce, Megento and ZenCart. However, it currently only supports US bank accounts as a funding source. Notable merchants using Coinbase are Dell, Expedia, Overstock and dish.
For bricks-and-mortar businesses, CoinBase also provides a point of sale app.
BitPay
BitPay is an international payment processor for businesses and charities. As with other payment processors, it has plugins for a large range of e-commerce systems, including WooCommerce and Magento, as well as SaaS-hosted shopping carts like Shopify. Furthermore, BitPay works with Amazon's Fulfilment service, which allows merchants to sell and ship items via the e-commerce giant.
BitPay offers various tariffs that merchants can subscribe to – from a 1% fee for a 'starter' service up to $3000 monthly for the 'enterprise' solution with a dedicated account manager – enabling features such as deployment on custom domains, VPN access, exporting transactions to QuickBooks, and so on.
BIPS
Short for the Bitcoin Internet Payment System, BIPS is a payment processor that allows merchants from all over the world to buy and sell bitcoin, as well as accept payments in the digital currency. Fees are a more than reasonable 0% for standard payments processing.
BIPS gives you the ability to store and archive invoices, and supplies plugins to interface with BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Shopify, and others. There is also API access for those coding their own solutions. BIPS offers an easy way to provide a mobile-friendly checkout for your website too.
For merchants with bricks-and-mortar retail stores, BIPS offers a point of sale app .
Blockchain Merchant
Blockchain merchant is an application for retail merchants as a simple POS system to accept bitcoin payments. This is only available for Android devices.
Top stores which accept bitcoin
Service/Store
About
Purse.io is a platform which allows you to purchase goods on Amazon using bitcoin by using a third party. It is possible to get a discount for doing this.
SIGN UP
Overstock's CEO Patrick Byrne is one of the most vocal supporters of bitcoin technology.
GO TO STORE
Newegg is an electronics retailer and accepts bitcoin in the US and Canada using Bitpay.
GO TO STORE
Cheapair is an online travel booking website, and accepts bitcoinusing Coinbase.
VISIT MERCHANT
Namecheap is domain registrar and web hosting company.
USE SERVICE
Tigerdirect is an electronics retailer that accepts bitcoin.
GO TO STORE
Computing powerhouse Dell became the largest retailer to accept bitcoin in 2014, and accepts bitcoin in the US, the UK and Canada.
GO TO STORE
Takeaway.com allows you to select local restaurants to deliver food.
USE SERVICE
E-commerce and shopping cart images via Shutterstock. Text via coindesk
NEXT: WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY?
INDEX: A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BITCOIN AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
What is Bitcoin?
It’s a decentralized digital currency
Why Use Bitcoin?
It’s fast, cheap to use, and secure
How Can I Buy Bitcoin?
From an exchange or an individual
How to Buy Bitcoin in the UK
Buying bitcoin in the UK
How to Store Your Bitcoin
Use a digital or paper wallet
What Can You Buy with Bitcoin?
Spend your bitcoins
How to Sell Bitcoin
A guide on how to sell your bitcoins
How to Accept Bitcoin Payments for Your Store
Learn about bitcoin POS systems
How do Bitcoin Transactions Work?
Bitcoin addresses and private keys
Is Bitcoin Legal?
The current regulation around bitcoin
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
The founder of bitcoin
How Bitcoin Mining Works
By confirming transactions
How to Set Up a Bitcoin Miner
Generate bitcoins yourself
What are Bitcoin Mining Pools?
What are pools how and how to join them?
How Does Cloud Mining Bitcoin Work?
Alternative bitcoin mining solutions
How to Calculate Mining Profitability
Can you make a ROI?
How to Make a Paper Bitcoin Wallet
Creating an unhackable bitcoin wallet
Can Bitcoin Scale?
A look at the debate and the tech
What is SegWit?
A new way of storing transaction data
What is the Lightning Network?
Off-chain transaction channels
What is Bitcoin Cash?
Same blockchain, different characteristics.
Hard Fork vs Soft Fork
Why and how do blockchains split?
What is the Difference Between Litecoin and Bitcoin?
It’s the silver to bitcoin’s gold
How to Buy Litecoin
How to buy the bitcoin alternative litecoin
How to Mine Litecoin and other Altcoins
How to generate your own altcoins
Understanding Bitcoin Price Charts
A primer on bitcoin price charts
Bitcoin E-Commerce Services for Merchants
How to accept bitcoin at your business
What is Blockchain Technology?
A system of distributed data and logic
How Does Blockchain Technology Work?
Cryptographic keys, distributed networks and network servicing protocols
What Can a Blockchain Do?
Identity, recordkeeping, smart contracts and more
What is a Distributed Ledger?
A dynamic, independently maintained database
What is the Difference Between Public and Permissioned Blockchains?
Can anyone read or write to the ledger?
What is the Difference Between a Blockchain and a Database?
It begins with architectural and administrative decisions
What Are the Applications and Use Cases of Blockchains?
Tokenization, auditing, governance, settlement and more
How Could Blockchain Technology Change Finance?
Cross-border payments, new asset classes, regulatory compliance and more
What are Blockchain’s Issues and Limitations?
Complexity, size, costs, speed, security, politics and more
Why Use a Blockchain?
To manage and secure digital relationships as part of a system of record
What is Ethereum?
A blockchain application platform and ‘world computer’
What is Ether?
The ‘fuel’ of the ethereum network
How to Use Ethereum
Wallets, trading and ‘dapps’
Who Created Ethereum?
Vitalik Buterin
How Ethereum Mining Works
‘Proof of Work’ and ‘Proof of Stake’
How to Mine Ethereum
GPUs, mining software and pools
How Ethereum Works
‘Turing-complete’ programming, ‘state’ and the ‘EVM’
What is a Decentralized Application?
A distributed ‘smart contract’ system
What is a DAO?
A ‘decentralized autonomous organization’
How Do Ethereum Smart Contracts Work?
Code, transaction fees and ‘gas’
How Will Ethereum Scale?
‘Sharding’ and ‘off-chain’ transactions
What is an ICO?
Initial Coin Offerings refer to the distribution of digital tokens.
Read the full article
In this guide, CoinDesk takes a look at the e-commerce systems that can help you accept digital currencies as payment on your website or in your real-world store.
Getting noticed
Whether you have an online store or a bricks-and-mortar one, if you are accepting bitcoin, you need to publicize that fact with a sign. You can, of course, make your own, or grab the 'bitcoin accepted here' sign from the bitcoin wiki.
DIY payments
If you like to have full control of your website and you have some coding skills, you could accept bitcoins simply by posting your wallet address or QR codes for customers to scan with their smartphone cameras. However, this not only looks very basic, but also accomplishes only half the job, as you should ideally have a checkout procedure that will complete the transaction and accept delivery details.If programming your own payments interface, bear in mind it should continually create new wallet addresses to defend against "taint analysis", which could invade your privacy, as well as that of your customers. An open-source software library that can help with this is Pywallet. You can also use off-chain transactions to help prevent taint analysis snooping, with the added benefit of faster transactions.
Third-party payment processors
Fortunately for the non-coders among us, there are now many cryptocurrency payment processors that offer tools to integrate bitcoin e-commerce into your website. The following are some of the more established companies in bitcoin payment processing.
CoinBase
Coinbase is another popular bitcoin payment processor with 0% fees (up to the first $1m in transactions and then 1% thereafter). The company provides an HTML widget for easily inserting payment buttons into your website, and plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce, Megento and ZenCart. However, it currently only supports US bank accounts as a funding source. Notable merchants using Coinbase are Dell, Expedia, Overstock and dish.
For bricks-and-mortar businesses, CoinBase also provides a point of sale app.
BitPay
BitPay is an international payment processor for businesses and charities. As with other payment processors, it has plugins for a large range of e-commerce systems, including WooCommerce and Magento, as well as SaaS-hosted shopping carts like Shopify. Furthermore, BitPay works with Amazon's Fulfilment service, which allows merchants to sell and ship items via the e-commerce giant.
BitPay offers various tariffs that merchants can subscribe to – from a 1% fee for a 'starter' service up to $3000 monthly for the 'enterprise' solution with a dedicated account manager – enabling features such as deployment on custom domains, VPN access, exporting transactions to QuickBooks, and so on.
BIPS
Short for the Bitcoin Internet Payment System, BIPS is a payment processor that allows merchants from all over the world to buy and sell bitcoin, as well as accept payments in the digital currency. Fees are a more than reasonable 0% for standard payments processing.
BIPS gives you the ability to store and archive invoices, and supplies plugins to interface with BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Shopify, and others. There is also API access for those coding their own solutions. BIPS offers an easy way to provide a mobile-friendly checkout for your website too.
For merchants with bricks-and-mortar retail stores, BIPS offers a point of sale app .
Blockchain Merchant
Blockchain merchant is an application for retail merchants as a simple POS system to accept bitcoin payments. This is only available for Android devices.
Top stores which accept bitcoin
Service/Store
About
Purse.io is a platform which allows you to purchase goods on Amazon using bitcoin by using a third party. It is possible to get a discount for doing this.
SIGN UP
Overstock's CEO Patrick Byrne is one of the most vocal supporters of bitcoin technology.
GO TO STORE
Newegg is an electronics retailer and accepts bitcoin in the US and Canada using Bitpay.
GO TO STORE
Cheapair is an online travel booking website, and accepts bitcoinusing Coinbase.
VISIT MERCHANT
Namecheap is domain registrar and web hosting company.
USE SERVICE
Tigerdirect is an electronics retailer that accepts bitcoin.
GO TO STORE
Computing powerhouse Dell became the largest retailer to accept bitcoin in 2014, and accepts bitcoin in the US, the UK and Canada.
GO TO STORE
Takeaway.com allows you to select local restaurants to deliver food.
USE SERVICE
E-commerce and shopping cart images via Shutterstock. Text via coindesk
NEXT: WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY?
INDEX: A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BITCOIN AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
What is Bitcoin?
It’s a decentralized digital currency
Why Use Bitcoin?
It’s fast, cheap to use, and secure
How Can I Buy Bitcoin?
From an exchange or an individual
How to Buy Bitcoin in the UK
Buying bitcoin in the UK
How to Store Your Bitcoin
Use a digital or paper wallet
What Can You Buy with Bitcoin?
Spend your bitcoins
How to Sell Bitcoin
A guide on how to sell your bitcoins
How to Accept Bitcoin Payments for Your Store
Learn about bitcoin POS systems
How do Bitcoin Transactions Work?
Bitcoin addresses and private keys
Is Bitcoin Legal?
The current regulation around bitcoin
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
The founder of bitcoin
How Bitcoin Mining Works
By confirming transactions
How to Set Up a Bitcoin Miner
Generate bitcoins yourself
What are Bitcoin Mining Pools?
What are pools how and how to join them?
How Does Cloud Mining Bitcoin Work?
Alternative bitcoin mining solutions
How to Calculate Mining Profitability
Can you make a ROI?
How to Make a Paper Bitcoin Wallet
Creating an unhackable bitcoin wallet
Can Bitcoin Scale?
A look at the debate and the tech
What is SegWit?
A new way of storing transaction data
What is the Lightning Network?
Off-chain transaction channels
What is Bitcoin Cash?
Same blockchain, different characteristics.
Hard Fork vs Soft Fork
Why and how do blockchains split?
What is the Difference Between Litecoin and Bitcoin?
It’s the silver to bitcoin’s gold
How to Buy Litecoin
How to buy the bitcoin alternative litecoin
How to Mine Litecoin and other Altcoins
How to generate your own altcoins
Understanding Bitcoin Price Charts
A primer on bitcoin price charts
Bitcoin E-Commerce Services for Merchants
How to accept bitcoin at your business
What is Blockchain Technology?
A system of distributed data and logic
How Does Blockchain Technology Work?
Cryptographic keys, distributed networks and network servicing protocols
What Can a Blockchain Do?
Identity, recordkeeping, smart contracts and more
What is a Distributed Ledger?
A dynamic, independently maintained database
What is the Difference Between Public and Permissioned Blockchains?
Can anyone read or write to the ledger?
What is the Difference Between a Blockchain and a Database?
It begins with architectural and administrative decisions
What Are the Applications and Use Cases of Blockchains?
Tokenization, auditing, governance, settlement and more
How Could Blockchain Technology Change Finance?
Cross-border payments, new asset classes, regulatory compliance and more
What are Blockchain’s Issues and Limitations?
Complexity, size, costs, speed, security, politics and more
Why Use a Blockchain?
To manage and secure digital relationships as part of a system of record
What is Ethereum?
A blockchain application platform and ‘world computer’
What is Ether?
The ‘fuel’ of the ethereum network
How to Use Ethereum
Wallets, trading and ‘dapps’
Who Created Ethereum?
Vitalik Buterin
How Ethereum Mining Works
‘Proof of Work’ and ‘Proof of Stake’
How to Mine Ethereum
GPUs, mining software and pools
How Ethereum Works
‘Turing-complete’ programming, ‘state’ and the ‘EVM’
What is a Decentralized Application?
A distributed ‘smart contract’ system
What is a DAO?
A ‘decentralized autonomous organization’
How Do Ethereum Smart Contracts Work?
Code, transaction fees and ‘gas’
How Will Ethereum Scale?
‘Sharding’ and ‘off-chain’ transactions
What is an ICO?
Initial Coin Offerings refer to the distribution of digital tokens.
Read the full article
Satoshi Nakamoto
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