In late 2017 the bitcoin payment processor Bitpay revealed it would add the ability to process payments for multiple blockchains — starting first with the bitcoin cash (BCH) chain. Now on Thursday, the Atlanta-based company announced that BCH transfers can be applied to the firm’s Visa card invoice loads.
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Bitpay Enables Bitcoin Cash Visa Loads
The payment company Bitpay has begun its initial rollout to support bitcoin cash payments. News.Bitcoin.com reported on Bitpay announcing last December it would begin working with multiple blockchains for payment processing. The company founded in 2011 only served bitcoin core (BTC) payments for years. However, Bitpay explained that they had received multiple requests over the years to support more than one digital asset. The company detailed at the time that offering a choice to customers would enable them to choose the best “confirmation times, and miner fee levels that work for them.”
Now starting March 1, 2018, Bitpay Visa cardholders will be the first to test out the bitcoin cash integration. When accessing the cryptocurrency debit card’s user interface the screen gives an option to load a certain amount of funds to the card. After choosing an amount the user is welcomed with a screen that asks whether they want to pay in BTC or BCH. At the moment network fees for the BTC chain is roughly 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, BCH network fees according to Bitpay’s load screen are 0 percent. After choosing BCH the cardholder is greeted with an invoice that details the approximate payment terms and the user has 14 minutes to pay.
“These two blockchains have differing exchange rates, network fees, and confirmation times. You can do a side by side comparison whenever you are making a payment so you can decide which payment method works best for you,” explains Bitpay’s announcement.
You and Bitpay card users like you will be the first Bitpay platform users to get access to our bitcoin cash payment processing.
After Months of Shelving the Card, BCH Proponents Begin Using the Debit Card Again
Following the announcement, the price of bitcoin cash spiked a touch surpassing $1,300 per BCH and saw over $600Mn in trade volume during the overnight trading sessions. The value has retreated back to levels prior, and the price of BCH today is hovering around $1270. Bitcoin cash supporters across social media and forums were elated with Bitpay’s BCH card integration and can’t wait for the full implementation for all of the company’s merchant invoices. One BCH proponent said the decision had prompted him to start using the Visa card again after not using it for quite some time.
“I just showed them support by loading my card again for the first time in 9 months, will go spend some today,” explains a BCH supporter.
What do you think about Bitpay adding bitcoin cash to its services? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, Bitpay, and the Visa card UI.
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