Lithuania-based blockchain payment gateway CoinGate has teamed up with open-source, e-commerce platform PrestaShop, based in Paris, France to enable at least 80,000 EU-based online merchants to start accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment method, the company said in a bloc post.
“Encouraging adoption among people beyond the tech-savvy early-adopters is one of the biggest priorities for us. PrestaShop has an ideal base of small to medium stores that may well utilize cryptocurrencies not only as an innovative and increasingly popular payment method,” CoinGate CEO Dmitrijus Borisenka explained.
He said “paying with cryptocurrencies is much cheaper than traditional card payments, including the promotional benefits that the Bitcoin (TIKER: BTC.EXANTE) tag carries.”
The merchant only needs to set up an account with CoinGate to start accepting payments.
The payment processor supports Bitcoin and over 50 other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (TIKER: ETH/USD.BITFINEX) and Litecoin (TIKER: LTC/USD.BITFINEX), among others.
“It is absolutely safe to accept cryptocurrencies as a way of payment. We protect our merchants from exchange rate volatility risk by locking the price of Bitcoin at the moment of the purchase. Merchants who opt to receive Euro payouts from us, essentially, do not have to touch cryptocurrencies at all – we handle every stage of the process,” Mr. Borisenka said.
Coingate has 1,500 accounts around the globe, 50,000 users, and monthly revenue around €10 million.