Many struggle with exchanging cryptocurrency online. I know for myself this is true. Sure, sending Dogecoin to a wallet online isn't hard, but what about in the context of e-commerce? Traditional e-commerce is pretty strait forward concerning payment options. Credit cards, Pay-Pal, Amazon Pay and Apple Pay, these are relatively easy to offer customers online. The ease of these popular forms of payment come from tools, which have had the luxury of being around for much longer than blockchain technology. Online business owners need not know the inner workings of payment gateways or APIs, but only need to click and BANG! your now receiving credit card payments.
If only we could fast forward to a time when accepting crypto at checkout was just as easy. Don't give up yet! After all, cryptocurrencies were designed for peer to peer transfer. Providing customers with public keys and QR codes will work, but most likely not flow well with your current checkout process. The temporary solution I use here on CRYPTO-DECALS.COM is through Coinbase Commerce. After opening an account, which is different than a normal Coinbase account (important because of geographic restrictions) you will be able to send both a permalink and/or embed code into your site that will provide customers a way to pay with cryptocurrency. At the time of writing this, Coinbase Commerce is able to accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
I am eagerly waiting for the time when tooling for crypto in e-commerce catches up to old payment options, but no need to wait til then to take advantage of the benefits of trading peer to peer. Benefits? There are many, but that will have to wait til a later blog entry.
