BitPay – Why you should not use BitPay as a Bitcoin payment provider.
BitPay is one of the first companies to specialize in accepting and processing Bitcoin payments and was founded back in 2011. It is certainly one of the oldest and most established companies in this field.
BitPay currently allows merchants to accept 16 different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Lightning.
Bitpay is based in Altlanta, USA, and operates worldwide.
BitPay was one of the dominant providers of Bitcoin payments for a long time, at times even the market leader.
However, some business decisions have led to BitPay becoming less important and no longer acceptable, especially for European merchants.
Below we explain why you should not use BitPay as a Bitcoin payment provider.
YouTube video: Why you shouldn’t use Bitpay
On the YouTube channel of Coincharge+Coinpages we have published a German-language video with the title: “BitPay – Why you shouldn’t use BitPay as a Bitcoin payment provider.” published.
Register your customers with BitPay
If you as a merchant want to accept Bitcoin payments from your customers via BitPay, your customers must first register with BitPay.
As part of the payment process, your customer’s e-mail address is transmitted to BitPay and created as a BitPay customer. As a merchant, you generate new BitPay customers for BitPay.
But that’s not all. Your customer must also go through an identification process in order to receive a so-called BitPay ID.
As part of this identity check, the customer must send a picture of their ID and also carry out a video check to ensure that the data on the ID matches the person on the video.
This regulation applies to all European customers. Originally, this check was required for every payment. From 2023, this identity check will only be required for payments over EUR 1,000.
Even though most merchants fall below this limit when paying out to their customers, this is an unacceptable demand on BitPay’s part.
For data protection reasons, customer data must not be passed on.
The customer’s registration with BitPay represents an interruption of the payment process and will lead to purchase cancellations. Every online merchant knows how important a smooth payment process is for a final order and payment to be made.
For reasons of a smooth ordering and payment process, this request should therefore be rejected.
Merchants who already process Bitcoin payments via BitPay should look for a better alternative.
Waiting list for merchants
Merchants who wish to accept Bitcoin payments via BitPay must open a corresponding business account.
However, BitPay does not accept new merchants.
Anyone wishing to open such a merchant account will be informed that no new merchant accounts can currently be opened.
However, it is possible to be placed on a waiting list.
Registration fee for merchants
However, if you already have a business account, you will have to go through the registration process again.
The identity of the company, the shareholders and the persons involved are verified.
The business model is also scrutinized.
However, a registration fee of $ 75 must be paid before this test can be started.
This fee is not a guarantee of successful registration and will not be refunded or offset.
If you are not accepted as a merchant by Bitpay, the amount will also not be refunded.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a Bitcoin payment provider that accepts Lightning payments as well as Bitcoin, you will probably come across BitPay. BitPay is also still integrated as a payment provider in many online stores and e-commerce applications from the past.
In the meantime, however, BitPay has maneuvered itself offside with an incomprehensible business policy. There are now a large number of Bitcoin payment providers that represent a better alternative.
An overview of these alternatives can be found at: Bitcoin payment providers.
