Should Your Business Accept Cryptocurrency Payments?

Cryptocurrencies have been heavily promoted as being the future of business. This is mainly because they are capable of cutting out middlemen and letting transactions be directly handled by buyers and sellers. Money is not stored anywhere so this does seem beneficial. However, there are countless stories that talk about hackers and data breaches, with cryptocurrencies being targeted.

So, is it a good idea to accept cryptocurrency payments? Your answer should be given based on associated benefits and risks.

Benefits

The use of cryptocurrencies offers some interesting primary benefits. The most important ones are the following:

  • Low transaction fees – Because of the lack of a central intermediary, transaction fees are drastically reduced. As an example, the small business that accepts payments with credit cards usually needs to pay 25 cents for every single card swipe. Also, a percentage of the value of the transaction has to be paid. Such costs quickly add up.
  • Merchant protection – The decentralized setup of cryptocurrencies protects merchants from possible fraudulent chargebacks. All transactions are final since there is no third party capable of reversing charges.
  • Increased sales – With crypto payments, the small business can easily expand and accept payments from international buyers. As an example, when you are a small electronics shop, you can sell all around the world in seconds with crypto.
  • Adaptability – When you accept cryptocurrencies, customers gain access to a brand new way to make a payment. Also, there is increased information protection included.

Risks

Some risks of accepting cryptocurrency payments are obvious. For instance, you cannot accept silly cryptocurrencies. However, other risks are not that obvious. The most important ones that should be mentioned practically refer to technical barriers.

When you accept crypto payments, you need a digital wallet and you need to use the services of digital currency exchanges. This is often technically prohibitive for small businesses, especially when owners are unfamiliar with the blockchain and the associated technology. The crypto world is information-dense. It requires going through a pretty high learning curve. This is a huge obstacle for business management in several industries.

Right now, a small business will definitely find it quite difficult to accept payments in cryptocurrency. Even if technical obstacles are not a problem, the business still needs to deal with crypto value volatility. In fact, this is the biggest disincentive even for established entrepreneurs when it comes to holding digital currencies.

Should The Business Accept Cryptocurrency Payments?

At the end of the day, this is a very subjective decision but it is one that has to be considered as cryptocurrencies keep evolving. Generally speaking, when the business is selling digital products, like eBooks or memberships, the use of cryptocurrencies is highly beneficial. However, when manufacturing products that are then sold or shipped, the volatility of cryptocurrencies can be a problem.

Make sure that you carefully analyze your business plan and the various advantages and disadvantages of using cryptocurrency payments. After you do this, it should be a lot easier to figure out whether or not this is a very good option for your business or not.