How to accept bitcoin payments as a business


How to accept bitcoin payments as a business is cryptocurrency right for small businesses? There are how to accept bitcoin payments as a business serious considerations to take into account — both technical and pragmatic — before announcing you'll accept cryptocurrency.

Business News Daily looked at what small businesses need to know about cryptocurrency and how some blockchain startups are trying to push the space forward. Cryptocurrency relies on peer-to-peer P2P technology, and as such, it is decentralized in nature. In other words, no central bank or government regulates or backs it. Buyers transfer funds directly to sellers, without a third party to process payments.

As we hear more stories of data breaches and hackers becoming more sophisticated, cryptocurrencies sound more appealing to consumers looking for a safer way to do business. Small businesses might choose to accept cryptocurrency for many reasons, such as being at the forefront of technology, attracting customers who use crypto or eliminating certain kinds of fraud. But is it right for your business? Accepting cryptocurrency means setting up a digital wallet on a digital currency exchange, which could be technically prohibitive for small business owners unfamiliar with the technology.

Cryptocurrency is an information-dense field with how to accept bitcoin payments as a business relatively high learning curve, which can present a significant obstacle when you're also trying to run a business. Optherium, which will be launching its initial coin offering ICO in June, has already built a platform that mitigates those problems. The Optherium B2C platform, as it is called, enables buyers to pay in their preferred cryptocurrency while sellers accept any currency they choose, whether digital or fiat.

Optherium maintains its own token, but it's not a requirement to use the platform. Instead, holders of Optherium's own token will enjoy even lower fees when transacting on the platform. The highest risk of digital currencies is price volatility, which makes value extremely unpredictable.

Using a merchant service company such as BitPay or Coinbase helps insulate how to accept bitcoin payments as a business businesses against that volatility by immediately exchanging digital currency for its cash value. Through these services, cryptocurrency payments are made in real time for the currency's current value. The only reason for a business to hold on to cryptocurrency would be as a speculative investment, said Wolanow, but doing so essentially amounts to gambling with your revenue stream.

Although cryptocurrency transactions eliminate cyberthreats like stolen credit card numbers, the currency still isn't percent safe. So far, there is no way to completely prevent cybercriminals how to accept bitcoin payments as a business getting their hands on users' wallets. This is particularly dangerous because, unlike fiat currencies like the U.

However, some cryptocurrency companies are working to change that. Coinbase, for example, holds less than 2 percent of customers' digital currency online, and in the event of a breach, the company fully insures losses. However, these protections don't apply if your personal wallet is hacked; it is still your responsibility to secure your personal account, but you can rest easy how to accept bitcoin payments as a business that if the company suffers an attack, your funds are safe.

To better protect your accountsyou can enable multifactor authentication on your accounts, secure and maintain your private keys, and regularly back up your data. And companies are also working on solutions to address wallet security as well. According to Beck, Optherium employs a biometric verification method that identifies a user based on their facial structure to grant wallet access, greatly reducing a thief's ability to successfully steal someone's assets.

This method also helps users reconstitute their wallet when access is lost. Another issue with accepting cryptocurrency is that the regulatory landscape is subject to changes in the near future. Lawmakers are still crafting regulations to govern it. Once regulations are in place, they are likely to evolve further, meaning business owners will have to be adaptable.

Any entrepreneur who chooses to accept cryptocurrency should be prepared to pivot and adapt to periodic changes in the law as a result. These changes could continue into the foreseeable future as cryptocurrency adoption expands and new problems and difficulties arise.

He worked for a local newspaper and freelanced for several publications after graduating college. He can be reached by emailor follow him on Twitter. Product and service reviews are conducted independently by our editorial team, but we sometimes make money when you click on links.

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