If I wanted this to be the shortest bitcoin related article on the internets, this would be the one and only answer: Heck, YES!
But, we have a lot to tell and elaborate this precious little fact, so stick with us in the next couple of minutes.
So, you are here, and I am assuming you’ve already heard of Bitcoin somewhere. If not, do yourself a favor and read all about this amazing cryptocurrency established by mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, a preternaturally talented programer (or a group of them), eight years ago. Even basic Wikipedia knowledge will do the thing.
Maybe, by the end of this article, you’ll consider accepting bitcoins just as any other payment method like standard credit card transfer or PayPal.
AltusHost accepts bitcoin for years now. And don’t be fooled, it wasn’t always so nice and peachy. At the very early bitcoin stage, we’ve opened our Bitcoin wallet and every time a payment was placed, we were supposed to exchange bitcoins into currencies we operate with (euros and US dollars), withdraw them with companies that were in such “exchange business” back then.
It really sounds shady. To many risks to begin with. Only two of them include:
Currency exchange risk
Same like EUR/USD or USD/EUR exchange, there is a certain loss company must be willing to accept in order to do any sort of business. It simply isn’t avoidable. Exchange risk with bitcoin was higher than with standard and regular currencies. One part of this risk was because of bitcoin itself and one part because of exchanger and banking fees.
Bookkeeping problems
Booking bitcoin transfers wasn’t so easy. As a matter of fact, it was quite a nightmare our accounting team had to face in order to understand and book it properly. This could be avoided with an offshore company or maybe dealing like a private person. But, we are a Dutch company with very strict administrative and bookkeeping rules, so we just couldn’t play with it. Could we? No.
So, long story short, after working with bitcoin for couple of months, we were questioning ourselves: Should we continue to accept bitcoin in the first place? Should we really, if it takes so much to process it, with all this risk, and even certain loss, involved?
And then it happened. We removed bitcoin from our payment methods. For a month or so, we were a bitcoin-less company. This is not a thing we are most proud of, but hold on, we have a point.
Very soon after our initial decision, BitPay emerged.
We tried it. AltusHost opened a BP account, and ever since, our love for bitcoins revived. Today, we can even say that we prefer bitcoins more than any other currency! Sounds too much?
Not really, because it has been over four years now since we accept bitcoins via BitPay, and we are still in love with it like the very first day.
Why?
BitPay made our life so much easier.
For bunch of reasons really.
Here’s just some of them.
1. We no longer have to maintain own BitCoin wallet.
Let’s say we generate an invoice in EUR. But client wants to pay in bitcoins. Easy. BitPay does the exchange and voila – we get euros on our balance.
2. The next day – money is on our account!
With method previously mentioned, we’ve waited for weeks to get the money. And even then, we didn’t really know how much of it we would receive. With BitPay you get money in your bank account over SEPA transfer after 24 hours.
3. Processing fees are minimal.
At first, it was free. Now, there is some minimal fee for businesses that operate with higher number of transactions. For startups, BitPay still offers free package solution. *slow clap*
4. Chargeback risk – ZERO.
Like every mainly digital business in the world, we also struggle with credit card chargebacks, PayPal disputes and so – everyday. With BitPay we had 0 of those for over four years of usage. Imagine that, zero disputes, for four years of processing of thousands of transactions? Astonishing.
5. Refunds are simple.
Even chargeback risk is zero, so we have enough time to refund some money if client paid wrong invoice or if client asks for refund within guaranteed money back period. This is also possible with BitPay, simply and transparently.
Now, elephant in the room.
You might have a fear of infamous type of clients that pay with bitcoins nowadays. Especially if you are in Web Hosting / Cloud business or any other similar Internet Services business. You might also assume that web hosting industry is at high risk especially. Why? Network abuse, spam complaints and many other misuses.
However based on our own experience, I’ll have to disappoint you here.
Clients who paid for AltusHost services with bitcoins, were significantly less “problematic” clients than, let’s say, PayPal or Credit Card payers. Not that we generalize here. People are people, after all.
We hope that you now understand why your business should start accepting bitcoins.
Today.
And if you are looking for a Web Hosting company and people with who you can do business with bitcoins, welcome to AltusHost 🙂
