Yet Another Blockchain Takeover: Crypto Payment Gateways!

The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying social distancing norms led to a massive shift in sales dynamics. Modes of payments for peer-to-peer (P2P) and consumer-to-business transactions (C2B) went from cash to all forms of digital transactions. 

This transition can also be attributed to the increased e-commerce initiatives and the ease and convenience for consumers and merchants to transact digitally. As a result, the global digital payments industry is said to grow from USD 89.4 billion to USD 180.4 billion by 2026 at a CAGR of 15.2%.

One among the many payment solutions that boomed more than ever is online payment gateways. Payment gateways are SaaS products that connect the buyers, merchants, and the banks. They act as intermediaries between the e-commerce site and bank’s payment processing systems to accept a customer’s digital payment.

These payment gateways help with secure payment processing and bring down the incidences of credit/debit card frauds. Further, they guarantee real-time payments from anywhere, at any time.

Crypto Payment Gateways

Blockchain has embedded itself into important sectors such as healthcare, retail, entertainment, supply chain, and it is swiftly entering the online payment industry as well. Payment methods have increasingly broadened and evolved to encompass fiat currencies and digital modes of payment and now, they are on the cusp of the new revolution: cryptocurrencies. 

Despite their successes, conventional payment systems have significant limitations ranging from cross-border transaction delays, involvement of intermediaries, and delays caused by lack of automation. With the business need for efficiency being more important than ever, a robust payment system is the need of the hour to enhance key areas such as supply chain and retail. 

Moreover, there has been an increasing acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a mode of payment for B2B and C2B transactions. Over one-third of small businesses based in the US already accept crypto as a mode of payment along with a number of large corporations like Microsoft, Tesla, PayPal, Twitch allowing some form of crypto payments from its users.

To power this new shift, crypto payment gateways powered by blockchain have emerged as a ready alternative with features of transparency and traceability to enable and facilitate payment and acceptance of cryptocurrencies. The crypto payments industry makes use of blockchain’s inherent attributes to simplify the process of crypto payment.

The value additions of a crypto payment gateway include seamless P2P transactions while avoiding high transaction costs of traditional processing. Moreover, cross-border fiat transactions that usually involve processing delays can be done over crypto payment gateways in a matter of minutes (or even seconds depending on the chain). 

Advanced crypto payment solution providers such as Coinovy, Coinbase, and Ledger have unveiled crypto debit cards to allow for linking of your crypto holdings to the payment infrastructure and purchase products with the equivalent crypto from your wallet.These cards work by swiftly converting crypto to fiat and sending it to the merchant. Coinovy, in particular, links traditional finance to digital assets and allows both to interact and operate impeccably. Coinovy is a multicurrency wallet meaning it acts as a one-stop solution for holding and making use of several cryptocurrencies at once.