One of the hottest trends recently has been to streamline payments at the checkout, making the process quicker and easier than before for customers at brick and mortar locations. Certainly Bitcoin has been one of the main drivers of this as more and more businesses are using QR-codes. But other options to accelerate payments such as Visa paywave and now newcomers such as Apply Pay and CurrentC are all vying to grab their share of this burgeoning market.
BitPay, one of the global leaders in Bitcoin payment processing, is making the process of paying with Bitcoin much simpler, for both merchants and consumers, while at the same time they are also integrating SumUp, a leading European Point-of-Sale (POS) company into its system to allow that company to accept Bitcoin as well.
The announcements were made at Money2020 in Las Vegas yesterday. The new app will be available in 40 different languages and includes a number of features that make business much easier for merchants, including multi-employee checkout, tipping, and tip reporting.
It will also be available for tablets and Android phones and soon for IOS as well. But the one-tap payments by NFC, currently available for Android is possibly the most exciting because it allows the consumer to simply place their phone near the merchants POS tablet to receive the secure Bitcoin payment instructions.
This makes it a much easier process, for both consumer and merchant, than scanning a QR code. The new app will be demonstrated at the Money2020 all week in Las Vegas at Booth #909.
Tony Gallippi, Co-founder and Executive Director at BitPay said about the new app:
“For retailers, accepting mobile payments is a growing trend, but none of today’s industry offerings can provide a lower risk or lower cost than swiping a credit card. Accepting bitcoin can offer tremendous savings to merchants, especially merchants with a large international customer base, and BitPay’s service combined with the new mobile app is a fantastic value for merchants.”
Cointelegraph spoke with Tony Gallippi yesterday about both announcements and we asked when the product should be available. He told us that the official launch had been today to the global market for both Android and iOS and that they had had a huge response from social media about the release, especially from small to medium sized merchants who were looking for an easier way to conduct POS sales with Bitcoin. He explained:
“This is a major step toward standardizing NFC payments in the Bitcoin space. A number of Bitcoin wallets have already implemented support, and the release of Bitcoin Checkout will certainly motivate further development throughout the Bitcoin ecosystem. Bitcoin’s transition to more seamless tactile and near-range payment methods will be an ongoing process, and we’re excited to be working with wallet vendors to perfect that experience"
Gallippi also noted that BitPay was excited about joining with SumUp, which is a mobile payment app similar to Square, but one that supports EMV and other European payment methods. He said that they decided to add Bitcoin so that they could offer a one-stop-shop with as many payment methods available to their clients as possible. SumUp will offer BitPay’s full functionality, including next-day bank settlements, zero volatility risk, and QuickBooks import to report and reconcile Bitcoin sales with ease.
Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones: