Las Vegas, Nevada-based Paybits has today announced the launch of what they’re calling the first payroll service that allows employees of any company to convert a portion of their net pay into bitcoin directly for each pay period (be it weekly, bi-weekly, and so forth).
The service will be launched in beta in August 2014, and will launch publicly later in October.
The business was founded by Mr. Scott Nichols, whose idea was to make people more comfortable in using digital currency.
“Bitcoin shouldn’t require membership in the technocracy to acquire it. Bitcoin should be as easy to get as your paycheck,” he said in a press statement. “Paybits is an automated service, so the customer doesn’t have to think about the right time to buy bitcoin. Enabling individuals to be paid in bitcoin is another step in extending the bitcoin ecosystem into our economy.”
Users can elect to use the conversion as an investment, or they can spend it at any of the increasing amount of businesses that have started to embrace the digital currency.
Users sign up with the service, and then can specify how much of their paycheck should be converted to bitcoin (in dollars). From there, Paybits says they will provide the user with instructions to provide to the employer’s payroll department.
The payroll department at the employer will then be responsible for directing a portion of the paycheck into a new account. From that new account, Paybits will have access to the money and convert it to bitcoin.
When all is said and done, the user receives the specified amount in their own bitcoin wallet (which is great for security), so it’s not stored on Paybits servers.
Paybits, as of right now, says that the service won’t carry any transaction fees, though they will be charging a flat rate fee of $5 per month (which seems entirely reasonable).
Prospective users can sign up for a private invitation to the beta at Paybits.net.
This is an interesting concept in that instead of having to wait for one’s employer to sign up with a payroll service that supports bitcoin payouts, the employee can simply do it themselves.
We’ll keep following this project and will let you know when more information becomes available.