The introduction of cryptocurrencies has added a whole new dimension to the way merchants can interact with their customers and conduct business. Many merchants have discovered that they can exponentially increase their customer base by integrating crypto payments on their website. At 8Pay, we want to help these merchants by providing them with a decentralized payment protocol for their crypto transactions. 8Pay’s protocol has been designed specifically to give the merchants as much flexibility as possible in the way that they want to conduct their business
One of the biggest problems that merchants are facing, especially when it comes to crypto payments, is the lack of flexibility in the modes of payment. Most payment processors in the space only allow for a one-time payment. Using 8Pay, merchants will be able to tap into the subscription market by enabling fixed and variable price subscriptions. For fixed subscription, they’ll be able to set the amount that will be deducted every given timeframe while for variable price subscription the amount is to be intended as a maximum amount per timeframe. Other custom parameters are available as well.
Along with the mode of payment, 8PAY also gives businesses the flexibility to accept a wide variety of ERC20 tokens including the 8PAY token, wrapped ether (WETH), and selected stablecoins for both one-time and recurring payments.
A massive issue with protocols like Bitpay is that they are centralized. The problem with this is that they can pick and choose who they want to play with, so to speak. Bitpay recently updated its Terms of Use agreement to state that the use of the company’s services is subject to several important restrictions, including the sale of explicit sexual content.
Having so much control over who they want to serve gives them the power to censor anyone who doesn’t fit their ideology. In the fiat world, the perfect example is the medical marijuana company. Despite its known benefits, many payment processors like PayPal, Stripe, and Square, still don’t allow merchants to use their platforms to sell CBD, cannabis, or any related products. This forces businesses to use high-risk processors who take a larger-than-normal cut of the transaction.
Along with censorship, there is another major problem with centralized protocols. Traditional payment processors act as a glorified middleman between the merchant and the customer. During the transaction process, the processor handles the money before sending it over to the merchant. This automatically makes them the target of hack attacks since they are dealing with so much sensitive data.
In 8Pay, each aspect of our payment process is controlled by a smart contract. A smart contract is an automated and well-defined agreement which will allow the customer and the merchant to directly interact with each other without the need for a middleman. In other words, you are in complete control of your funds.
A major factor that prevents merchants from incorporating crypto payment protocols is just pure intimidation. Since it is such a new piece of technology, merchants prefer to stick with the methods that they already know. Fortunately, we made sure that 8Pay integration is as simple and straightforward as possible and requires no familiarity with smart contracts or coding ability. Merchants can create and manage payments through the 8Pay app, share links and buttons with ease. If they want more advanced features, they can connect via API or 8Pay’s JavaScript library.
Our main aim behind creating 8Pay was to build a decentralized system which will be extremely easy for merchants to integrate into their system. We believe that decentralized payment protocols are the need of the hour and 8Pay has the features necessary to leave a positive impact in the crypto ecosystem.
