Crypto payments are a very promising but underutilised use case in the crypto industry says OLB CEO Yaklov
New York-based e-commerce merchant service provider OLB Group has enabled more than 8,500 merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments, marking another crucial step towards mass adoption of crypto as a facilitator of transactions.
OLB is making it easier for traditional and upcoming businesses to transact in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), USDC and DAI at the point-of-sale through the company’s OmniSoft business management platform. Customers can choose to pay by cryptocurrency both in-store and through their mobile phone directly through their crypto wallets. SecurePay, a payment gateway, processes the transactions by first authenticating it and then converting the crypto into USD before approving the final sale.
The COVID-19 global pandemic and its effects on the growth and popularity of crypto payment options has partly driven the desire to provide this option for most merchants. Not only did the pandemic increase the preference for contactless and online orders, but also led to the market crash last March, showing cryptocurrency as a more reliable hedge against inflation in the current climate. Thus, with the OmniSoft platform already integrating businesses with several payment options, introducing crypto was the next logical step.
Ronny Yakov, OLB Group’s CEO, explained that since the payment gateways and point-of-sale architecture are “familiar territory for merchants,” they were more open to integrating cryptocurrency through those channels. Stating that we are in still very early stages of adoption, Yakov called crypto payments as a promising but underutilized use case for the industry.
“It’s very early in crypto-as-a-payment adoption, but we see increasing interest from merchants exploring this payment option as a means to meet their customers however and wherever they prefer,” Yakov said.
The executive further added that certain industries will be more likely to adopt and integrate cryptocurrency payments than others.
“We anticipate that adoption will happen more quickly in higher-ticket transactions such as jewelry, B2B billing and real estate because the transaction fees for cryptocurrency processing are lower – often half of typical credit card fees,” the CEO explained.
Despite the reports of developments on scaling and sidechains, it remains to be seen whether cryptocurrencies will be able function as an efficient mode of payment, especially with the growing criticism about its utility. Charlie Munger, the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, recently criticised Bitcoin for being too volatile for a medium of exchange.
