Okay, I give in. I’m finally getting on the Bitcoin train and we are now accepting Bitcoin payments.

Bitcoin – The Future?

As an internet entrepreneur (like many of our clients) I have known about Bitcoin almost since the beginning. I tried mining a few years back and I have small amounts of Bitcoin on a few exchanges and have made the grand total of one transaction over the years. It always seemed more hassle than it was worth to accept Bitcoin. But the exchanges make it pretty easy to withdraw in almost any currency now. I still have my reservations as to the longevity of Bitcoin but I also believe the blockchain is the foundation of whatever will become the defacto crypto-currency of the future. I also believe that as vendors on the internet we have a duty to support the blockchain and make it more powerful.

2017 has been a wild ride for Bitcoin. In November 2016 1BTC (one bitcoin) was around $500. Today it is $6500. Is it a bubble? Can it continue to rise in value? You need a crystal ball to answer these questions but it looks like it is here to stay (for the foreseeable future anyhow). It has some fundamental problems that have really been highlighted over the past few days. The processing power behind the Bitcoin abandoned it for another crypto-currency causing huge bottlenecks in the blockchain. This caused delays in transactions that are measured in days with huge fees. As a vendor this would make selling anything with Bitcoin pretty much impossible. But this drama is just the result of a power struggle in the Crypto world. These things will happen as crypto-currencies mature and fight for dominance but they should be temporary. Right now the transaction backlog is being worked through and should be back to normal soon.

How To Pay With Bitcoin

We use an exchange that specializes in Bitcoin payment processing called CoinGate. You can actually pay with Bitcoin or any other “Altcoin” like Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, LiteCoin etc. If you want to pay with Bitcoin I recommend only doing so with yearly payments. You should also familiarize yourself with the transaction fees at the time you make payment. We cover 3.5% (just a fraction more than PayPal) so if the transaction fees at the time of payment amounts to more than that your payment will be rejected. It’s very simple to pay with Bitcoin. In your Dashboard you can navigate to Account > My Details and change your payment method to Bitcoin:

Alternatively you can easily just switch the payment method to Bitcoin on the actual invoice:

For now I am happy and excited that HostNexus is now accepting Bitcoin as a payment method. Depending on market volatility that may change in the future. And of course if another crypto-currency eclipses Bitcoin that would become the default crypto-currency that we accept. There are some interesting days ahead if you follow the crypto space.  The CME announced the start of Bitcoin futures trading which could happen as soon as December. I believe this will be bullish in the short-term but could have severe consequences down the line. Bitcoin has been referred to as “Digital Gold” and paper gold (GLD) can be (and has been) used to manipulate the price of real gold. If I was a risk-taking investor I’d look to buy Bitcoin with both fists in the coming weeks and cash out when Bitcoin hits $10k. But alas, I’ll just watch on the sidelines and imagine the money I could have made. :)