Should New Online Startups Accept Cryptocurrencies?

There are so many things to deal with when you start an online business, that possibly whether you should accept cryptocurrencies as payments is one of the last things on your mind. You have marketing to get started, getting your website set up and making sure your products or services are ready to sell. You will need bank accounts and to be able to accept payments online. Putting all this in place takes a lot of hard work, but there’s one more thing for you to decide: In 2018, you may want to consider accepting cryptocurrencies. It helps with publicity, reduces fees and ensures customers have more options.

As more major online as well as offline businesses start to accept them, you need to know if you should be too.

bank-account

‘bank account’ – Mike Cohen via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Better Charges

Traditional methods of payments often charge a fee of anything up top 3%. Currently, most cryptocurrency processors charge less than 1%, and with some it is free. There is not a doubt that at some time in the future these two will meet at a fee that is somewhere in the middle, and then they will all charge the same. For the time being though cryptocurrencies will cost you less in charges.

Additional Sales

When you accept cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum that are well known and trusted you open your sales to the whole world.  They are not constrained by fluctuations in currencies or regulated to stop sales over certain amounts. This could result in you amassing quite a few of these coins, which might make you wonder what the next step is.

ethereum-wallet

‘Ethereum Classic (ETC) Wallet’ – Descryptive.com via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Finding a secure online platform is the next thing you need to do. It should be one that makes buying and selling cryptocurrencies simple and lets you transfer funds between the wallets of friends and merchants. One of the biggest is Coinbase, and people who know very little about the crypto world sometimes ask the question, “is Coinbase safe to buy and sell cryptocurrency?” The answer is yes, if you are in one of the three currency zones it accepts – USD, EUR or GBP.

They Could Make You Extra Money

Cryptocurrencies are volatile. If someone pays you with coins one day, they could be worth a lot more a few days later. They can also drop in value, but overall, they are more likely to make your business some extra money. If the value does drop you can just sit on them a while, and wait for the price to climb again.

They Are Less Prone to Fraud

No one can ever guarantee that you will not be the victim of fraud, even with cryptocurrencies. It is far less likely to happen though as they are almost impossible to hack, and chargebacks are not allowed.

If you are seriously considering accepting them as payment you first need to properly understand how they work, and the technology behind them. There is no end of online resources to help you with this.

Then you need to look at which ones you are going to accept. You should not just say that you would accept them all. Start with the most trusted ones, as you will possibly find that just accepting two or three of the oldest and most relied on ones is enough.