Merchants and other stakeholders within the financial ecosystem are gradually realizing that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are an inevitable part of the payment landscape.
As the traditional world meets the crypto world, consumers will require interfaces between these two. These interfaces serve as the bridge connecting both ecosystems and consequently become a vital aspect in the maturity of the crypto world.
Crypto Is Growing Due to Demand
After several setbacks, the recovery rates of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies goes ahead to prove the inevitability of their continuous growth.
With novel blockchain products being developed on a daily basis, the demand for the original cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin continues to rise. This is primarily due to the fact that the more established cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum offer entry points into the bigger world of cryptocurrencies. However, to access these more established cryptocurrencies using the more traditional fiat currencies, interfaces provided by payment gateways must be applied.
Interfaces provided by Cryptopay
One of the oldest companies that have provided user interfaces to achieve a two-way interaction between crypto and fiat currencies is Cryptopay.
Some of the products provided by Cryptopay since its inception in 2013 are:
- Cryptopay Debit Card and soon to come credit card, linked to a CPay Wallet;
- Contactless payments (NFC) integrated with AndroidPay & ApplePay;
- Mobile wallet currently providing the ability to load with Bitcoin (BTC) and in the very near future other blockchain based assets like Ether (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and Litecoin (LTC) to name a few.
As online merchandise continues to expand, these products that improve the convenience of payment settlements are becoming more widely embraced, leading to significant growth of the entire crypto ecosystem as is reflected in the market capitalization and volume of trade within the markets.
Other products that are currently being developed by Cryptopay include:
- Current accounts and banking services, where Cryptopay will either partner or invest in its own banking license in order to provide more sophisticated banking services to its customers.
- Brokerage services that will enable Cryptopay to add the ability to buy and sell exchange-traded equities from all major exchanges, holding them in the user’s online flex accounts. Trading between equities and cryptocurrencies at the click of a button allows customers to diversify their holdings and of course, adds revenue streams to Cryptopay.
- Credit cards and loan/overdraft facilities will also become possible once Cryptopay achieves full banking status.
- Cryptopay is developing a P2P marketplace with full stack blockchain fundraising platform and financial services within a single Cryptopay account. It will include handcrafted ICO underwriting and bookrunning, fixed income instruments and variety of other options.
A Community Motivated ICO
The viability of Cryptopay’s existing products and the forecast of those under development has motivated users on its platform to demand an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). This move by the users is to provide them with an opportunity of buying into the Cryptopay asset as a profitable venture.
In response to this demand, the company is embarking on an ICO which is slated to kick off on October 2, 2017. However, the ICO being launched by Cryptopay goes beyond just demand from its users as the company elaborates its objectives for embarking on the token sales as:
- A publicity campaign and a great marketing opportunity for the company.
- Opportunity to create an active community of backers that will help drive adoption of the CPay platform.
- A cost-effective mechanism for raising funds for development and expansion.
- An opportunity to engage with the community and build products in consultation with token holders and the community – delivering products that are best-of-breed to customers.
With the already existing products and many more that will follow in the future, crypto users are bound to expect more flexibility and simplified avenues of application of their assets. Also, the convenience that cryptocurrencies offer to merchants in terms of cost, speed, options, and versatility in payment processes single them out as some of the highest beneficiaries of the novel technology.