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Author Topic: taking crypto payments  (Read 1783 times)

littleman

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taking crypto payments
« on: February 21, 2024, 10:15:09 PM »
I may be leaving a little cash on the table by not taking crypto contributions.   What's a simple way receive payments and convert them to USD?  I am not really interested in holding crypto currency.
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ergophobe

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Re: taking crypto payments
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2024, 08:20:48 PM »
Honestly, I quit paying attention once I understood the carbon footprint of individual BTC transactions.

But supposedly, since The Merge, ETH has reduced consumption by 99.99%, though that has been called into question.

- https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/10/11/one-year-after-the-merge-sustainability-of-ethereums-proof-of-stake-is-uncertain/?sh=20ce5f94308e

In any case, if you want to accept, but not hold, crypto, you'll need some payment gateway, just like a CC, but they'll only take 1% instead of 3%.

I only looked into it. I have never actually used any, so this is not an endorsement or anything, just a direction.

I think the easiest is just Paypal - "Let customers check out with crypto while you get paid in cash."
https://www.paypal.com/us/business/accept-payments/checkout

Paypal is not a bad option for e-comm in general if you're selling direct for relatively low-dollar items. In one store I ran, a lot of people opt for it (maybe because of convenience, but I think it's because of trust). It was our main payment gateway for years (that store is on Shopify since 2018 and uses ShopPay, so I'm a bit out of the loop on Paypal).

There are others of course but my complete experience for these is this guide that I just googled for, so not a personal recommendation in any way.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-cryptocurrency-payment-gateway
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/accept-bitcoin-business/
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ergophobe

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Re: taking crypto payments
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2024, 08:23:21 PM »
>>our main payment gateway

meaning it was our CC processor, which was transparent to most people, but also gave the option for people to pay from their Paypal account. Since I didn't do the books, I have no idea whether people used the crypto option or whether it was even available then.
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littleman

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Re: taking crypto payments
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2024, 07:40:09 AM »
PayPal makes sense from convenience standpoint.  It's a little embarrassing how little I actually know about cryptocurrency.  I have seen people post QR codes that allow some type of automatic crypto payment.  That's pretty nifty.
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ergophobe

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Re: taking crypto payments
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2024, 09:28:29 PM »
I had a neighbor who was bombarding me with stuff to get me to buy BTC "before it's too late." He went so far as to give me $100 in BTC so that I would have to get a wallet and figure all that stuff out.

He was pressuring me to put a lot of money in to "secure your financial future." The $100 he gave me dropped to $44 and then, for reasons I do not understand, dropped to $0, either because my wallet was hacked or one of the big bankruptcies affected it. So that's how much I know about crypto, I successfully turned a $100 gift into $0 in BTC. That's about as deep into it as I want to get.
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