On Tuesday payments solution giant Verifone announced it will enable consumer Bitcoin payments on in-store and eCommerce Cloud Services platforms in the United States.
The new Bitcoin payment solution emerged out of Verifone’s partnership with BitPay, the world’s largest provider of Bitcoin payment services.
The new features will roll out to U.S. Verifone merchants later this year. The company has over 600,000 merchants worldwide and handles over 10.4 billion online and in-store transactions annually.
Notably, merchants who use the new services will be able to accept Bitcoin without having an account with BitPay. Customers will be able to pay with their preferred payment wallet to make purchases.
It is still unclear whether BitPay will enable lightning wallet transactions, or why only certain Bitcoin wallets are approved for transactions.
“The solution supports major wallets like Blockchain.com, BRD, Metamask, BitPay, and more,” Verifone said in a press release. BitPay’s Verifone payment solution will enable customers to use those wallets to pay with many alternative cryptocurrencies as well.
“Verifone’s merchant base includes many of the world’s largest and most well-known brands looking to tap into the growing crypto market,” said Stephen Pair, CEO of BitPay.
“This partnership allows these businesses to easily and securely accept crypto payments, and benefit from pent up consumer demand to spend crypto.”
The CEO of Verifone, Mike Pulli spoke to the new partnership and his company’s strategic investment in BitPay, “This partnership, solution and investment highlight Verifone’s commitment to enabling revolutionary and meaningful payment experiences for merchants.”
Pulli concluded, “Our Advanced Payment Method platform is robust, and this crypto solution with BitPay adds tremendous value for Verifone and our customers.”
The news comes at a time when whole nations are beginning to turn to the Bitcoin Lightning Network for payments, subverting Bitpay’s traditional model. The Lightning Network has propelled Bitcoin adoption and usage in El Salvador. The nation’s embrace of Bitcoin has driven the total Lightning Network capacity up 1,000 Bitcoin, to nearly 3,000 Bitcoin this month alone.
