Cryptocurrency is the quick, accessible cash of the future. As adoption rates for crypto tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum increase, people need to know how to pay for goods and services using crypto payments.
Luckily, paying with crypto is quick and easy, and it’s becoming easier all the time. Let’s break down how you can pay using crypto tokens step-by-step.
How To Use Crypto as Payment
At its core, you can use crypto as a payment medium in the same way that you use cash or digital currency stored on your credit or debit card via electronic bank connections.
The process is straightforward:
- You find a vendor that accepts crypto tokens as currency.
- You fill up your crypto wallet with at least one type of crypto token that the vendor accepts.
- You then load up your shopping cart with the products and services to purchase.
- When the time comes to make the purchase, the eCommerce vendor or site should have a dedicated crypto payment button. This will open a separate window or tab to input your crypto wallet address.
- The vendor’s crypto payment processing system connects with the wallet address and verifies that you have the currency needed to facilitate the transaction.
- When everything is confirmed, the transaction commences, the crypto tokens are transferred, and a transaction is recorded on the cryptocurrency’s native blockchain.
- In this way, transactions are not vulnerable to fraud compared to other types of traditional fiat currencies.
- You should receive confirmation for your transaction, and the vendor should send you your products or services based on their shipping policies.
These days, you can also use crypto at in-person retail locations, especially if they accept payments through PayPal. PayPal now allows you to store Bitcoin for payments, then lets you use a physical card or app to pay using those tokens.
In in-person transaction cases, the Bitcoin or other crypto tokens are quickly exchanged for a fiat currency; then, the fiat currency is sent to the vendor.
This all happens in less than a second, so there’s no delay when using crypto tokens compared to using a regular credit or debit card.
Different Methods of Payment
When paying with cryptocurrencies, you have several options available. Some of these are best for quick transactions for your personal funds.
Others may be best for ongoing crypto transactions or setting up your eCommerce site for crypto payments.
PayPal
PayPal launched Checkout with Crypto in early 2021. This unique payment method has significantly streamlined the payment process with cryptocurrency worldwide.
With the launch of this system, you can now use digital currency to purchase at over 29 million merchants – all because the system translates your cryptocurrency to a fiat currency at the same time as the checkout process commences.
When you purchase with PayPal using crypto, PayPal shows you the conversion spread simultaneously.
Even better, you aren’t charged any additional transaction fees, so paying with crypto can even be budget-friendly in some cases.
To spend crypto using PayPal:
- Pick a store or online shop that accepts PayPal Checkout. You read that right – any store that accepts PayPal for payments should also take your crypto tokens
- Add items to your cart like you normally would.
- Then, provided you have enough of one type of cryptocurrency to pay for the total price of the goods, PayPal will display “crypto” as a payment option when you go to check out.
- Suppose your crypto wallet for PayPal has several types of crypto that meet the requirement. In that case, you’ll be able to choose from Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, or Ethereum, depending on your preferences. Note that you cannot mix your cryptocurrencies when you buy something, nor can you partially make a purchase with crypto and parsley with a fiat currency.
- Once you pick your cryptocurrency, PayPal will automatically convert it into a fiat currency and complete the transaction for you, all in less than a couple of seconds.
This method of purchasing with crypto makes Bitcoin and other crypto tokens even more accepted throughout the world. It’s a great step toward evolving the economy toward a digital, totally cashless model.
Direct Payments
Of course, you can always pay with crypto using the old-fashioned way: providing a vendor with your crypto wallet address and receiving their address in turn.
You can facilitate a transaction either manually or through using a crypto exchange, which often allows buyers and sellers to meet and send coins to one another.
The downside to this method is that you can’t guarantee that the seller gives you your goods or purchases immediately. Because of this, you may need to know the seller directly before you’ll feel safe sending them crypto without receiving anything in return.
On the other hand, direct payments can be great for sending money quickly internationally, especially if you need the transaction to be untraceable for one reason or another.
CoinPayments $PayByName
CoinPayments also allows you to send crypto for purchases through $PayByName: a unique feature you can’t find on any other crypto platform. This, like PayPal’s solution, streamlines the process of both sending and receiving payments.
Here’s how it works:
- Log into your CoinPayments account.
- Get a $PayByName tag by clicking the $PayByName tab near the top of your account home page inside our platform. You can purchase tags individually for $1.99 or in bundles of five for $6.99 or 10 for $14.99.
- Next, open up your CoinPayments wallet and choose the cryptocurrency of your choice.
- Click on the green button on the right side of the screen and pick “Send/Withdraw.” This will take you to a secure page where you can set up a transaction and see any applicable transaction fees.
- Then all you need to do is input a wallet address or another $PayByName address you already know.
- This is similar to sending cryptocurrencies directly or manually by exchanging crypto addresses. But with CoinPayments, you have the extra peace of mind of knowing that the platform is secure and that the other party with a verified $PayByName address is legit.
$PayByName by CoinPayments is an excellent way to purchase goods or materials for your online business if the other party also accepts crypto tokens.
Furthermore, you can sometimes use $PayByName to send payments to customers to refund them if necessary or for other business purposes.
As time goes on, we may see additional payment methods for using crypto crop up, especially as the broader market starts to adopt cryptocurrencies for their myriad benefits.
Where Can You Use Crypto as Payment?
Good news – it’s no longer tough to find places that accept cryptocurrencies as payment for their products. These days, you can find both in-person and online vendors and retailers that accept cryptocurrencies as payment mediums.
That means you can use crypto as a payment medium for online goods and services and in-person goods depending on the business in question, leveraging blockchain technology for security. In most cases, in-person vendors will accept crypto via PayPal and other trusted crypto payment gateways or processors.
If you’re ever unsure about whether a given business will accept crypto as a payment medium, take a look at their website and see what they accept there. The odds are that any website that accepts crypto tokens online will also do so in person.
What if the vendor doesn’t accept the cryptocurrency you have in your wallet? In that case, simply visit another crypto exchange and switch out those crypto tokens for the ones your vendor accepts.
Get a Cryptocurrency Wallet
The first thing you need to start paying and accepting cryptocurrencies is a crypto wallet. In a nutshell, a cryptocurrency wallet is a secure repository that stores various types of crypto tokens and serves as a receiving and sending location when making transactions.
Every crypto wallet features a unique address that cannot be shared or copied across wallets or networks. Think of it as your crypto ID that you can use for all future crypto transactions.
Even better, crypto wallets are designed to be very secure and almost impervious to digital breaches. Some of the best crypto wallets can even be stored “cold,” meaning they are physically disconnected from the Internet and stored on thumb drive-like devices.
Regardless, crypto wallets are absolutely necessary for any type of crypto transaction, whether you are an individual shopper, a business owner, or anyone else. Luckily, crypto wallets are easy to access or purchase.
In fact, when you purchase crypto tokens from a given network, like Bitcoin, you may automatically receive a crypto wallet, so you can store your coins. However, you can also get crypto wallets from providers like PayPal (which now facilitates crypto transactions) or CoinPayments, which offers merchants dedicated crypto gateways and payment solutions.
Before going any further, get CoinPayments crypto wallet and make sure it is set up properly. Then, It might also be wise to make a small crypto purchase yourself and put something in your wallet, so you can familiarize yourself with the process and how everything works before you try to buy a product with your tokens.
Get Your Cryptocurrency
Next, you need to have cryptocurrency in your crypto wallet before making a transaction. After all, you wouldn’t show up to a retail vendor with a wallet empty of cash or credit and debit cards, right?
Purchasing cryptocurrency means exchanging fiat currency, such as US dollars or euros, for a specific crypto token. The majority of eCommerce transactions involving crypto coins takes place with:
- Bitcoin
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- USDC and similar tokens
These are often considered to be the most reliable or valuable cryptocurrencies, given their widespread adoption (relative to other crypto tokens, at least).
CoinPayments supports these and more. You need to sign up for a crypto exchange (and a crypto payment processor) to get cryptocurrency. There are different types of cryptocurrency exchanges, depending on your goals.
These include:
- Online brokers or payment platforms. These include platforms like PayPal or stock trading platforms such as SoFi, Webull, and Robinhood.
- Crypto-specific exchanges only deal in cryptocurrency transactions and exchanges. These pure crypto exchanges are excellent for switching your coins from token to token or for purchasing multiple types of cryptocurrencies simultaneously, so you have a nice spread of available tokens in your wallet. They also typically have low fees
Most crypto exchanges make signing up quick and easy, and you don’t normally need to fund your account until you are ready to make an exchange/purchase.
One thing to note is the current exchange rate for your chosen crypto token. The exchange rates (and applicable cryptocurrency fees) will vary heavily from day to day, especially because the crypto market is still highly speculative and susceptible to volatility.
Because of this, you might decide to purchase crypto tokens based on their current exchange rate. Some crypto tokens may net you a better exchange rate for your available purchasing budget than others.
Alternatively, you can look at what you plan to purchase with your crypto tokens and find out what types of crypto coins that vendor accepts. Again, most eCommerce vendors have come around to accepting cryptocurrency payments in core tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and so on. Fewer will accept “meme” tokens like Dogecoin.
If you’re in doubt or just want to keep things simple, try to purchase Bitcoin and go on from there.
(Note that Bitcoin’s value is so high at this writing that you likely won’t be able to purchase a Bitcoin. Instead, you will buy a fractional token; but don’t worry, as anyone selling goods or services for Bitcoin will also be selling those for fractional tokens.)
Conclusion
As you can see, you can pay using cryptocurrencies through several distinct methods. But rest assured, if you wish to use your crypto tokens as legal tender to buy goods and services online, you certainly can with a minimum of effort and set up.
Even better, you can sign up for CoinPayments if you’re a merchant and want to start accepting payments in crypto as well as pay crypto when needed.
CoinPayments offers a secure wallet for storing your crypto tokens and provides a great way to quickly exchange crypto tokens for different currencies and merchant tools, so you can get your site set up for cryptocurrency acceptance ASAP.
Check out our merchant tools and sign up page today.
