A Bitcoin payment gateway overview
After explaining how bitcoins work and how to pay using this cryptocurrency, we will see how to get paid in bitcoin.
Below you will find explained in detail how to do it.
Many people find the concept of BitCoin virtual currency confusing. We could simply explain that BitCoin is a peer-to-peer financial network that is used to send payments from one person to another, in addition to being a digital currency.
BitCoin does not require any centralized entity (such as a central bank or federal reserve) to authorize its existence. The value is given by the public through supply and demand.
Today, accepting all types of payment at a website or online store is one way to attract more and more buyers.
Accepting payments in digital currencies is no longer a complex or difficult issue to implement. In this article I'll show you a simple step-by-step approach that will allow anyone to include BitCoin and over 50 other crypto-currencies as a payment method on their own website. And best of all, it's free!
I'll now discuss two alternatives for receiving payments on a website, whether it's a blog or an online store.
The CoinGate Payment Gateway
The site that we will take into consideration in order to obtain the deposits in crypto-currencies is called CoinGate, and it allows to integrate the payments with all kind of websites, from PrestaShop, through Shopify and up to WordPress.
What we need first is to register on the CoinGate page.
Once we register and confirm our email what we do is access the control panel of CoinGate.
In this Board we go to the API section. Within the options displayed in API, we chose Apps. There we click on New App and we must incorporate all the information related to the App that will work as a link between our website and CoinGate.
We must specify the URL of the page in Integration URL or Description and also how long the money request will remain open once the customer starts the payment process in Invoice Time. This is usually defined as 20 minutes, but we could leave it at 24 hours.
We can also define a percentage of slack that we can afford to lose in case the customer does not cover the total cost defined in the product. Usually we leave it at 0%. We configure all this in Underpaid Cover %.
After creating the App, we will be able to visualize the token that we will use in our website. Save it so you don't lose it.
CoinGate and WooCommerce
If we have a blog in WordPress then it is very easy to integrate a payment platform like CoinGate. We simply need to install the WooCommerce plugin from the WordPress administrative panel:
Once WooCommerce is installed, we go back to the plugin management and install an additional plugin called WooCommerce Payment Gateway - CoinGate that will allow us to make the link in the Payments section of our website.
Once this plugin is installed go to WooCommerce / Settings and there in the Payments tab enable CoinGate, click on Settings (or Manage).
To be able to enable payment in BitCoin and 50 other crypto currencies we click on Enable Cryptocurrency payments via CoinGate we add a Title, a Description and the API code we previously scheduled in API Auth Token.
Once the previous steps have been completed, the visitor will be able to see the BitCoin section in their payment options.
The CoinBase Payment Gateway
Before going on to explain how to receive payments in crypto-currencies through an online store made in Shopify I will go on to explain another alternative payment gateway to CoinGate with a similar name: CoinBase.
We can quickly and easily create a CoinBase account here.
Within CoinBase we go to Settings, API Access and +New API Key to be able to generate a token to connect Shopify to the payment platform.
In the API configuration we select the currencies in which we want to charge.
And then we give the merchant permissions to be able to receive payment.
Then we simply have to save the API Key.
How to accept crypto on Shopify with Coinbase
Shopify is one of the most popular online stores in the industry. It allows you to create a store in a few steps and without the need for technical programming or hosting knowledge.
It is a typical example of software sold as a service. You rent its services monthly (but you can also have a limited free trial version).
Shopify can be integrated with CoinBase in the following short steps:
1. You need to access the Shopify administrative panel and there go to Settings / Payment Providers.
2. Then we go to the bottom where it says Alternative Payments, and there we click on Select an additional payment method.
3. Here we enter the email we use for our CoinGate account and the API Key we generate there.
4. Click on Save and you're done. You can now get paid in BitCoin, BitCoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, LiteCoin, and 0x.
Conclusion
These have been just some of the many alternatives presented by the world of crypto-currencies to integrate them with existing websites.
The more payment alternatives you can allow, the more customers you can have.
Silvia Mazzetta
Web Developer, Blogger, Creative Thinker, Social media enthusiast, Italian expat in Spain, mom of little 9 years old geek, founder of @manoweb. A strong conceptual and creative thinker who has a keen interest in all things relate to the Internet. A technically savvy web developer, who has multiple years of website design expertise behind her. She turns conceptual ideas into highly creative visual digital products.
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