CoinPayments is the number one payment processing platform for online businesses or anyone wishing to adopt cryptocurrencies for their ease of access and worldwide flexibility.
Although getting started with CoinPayments is easy, many users aren’t quite sure how they can quickly start receiving Bitcoin and altcoin payments. Below, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of how to receive Bitcoin and altcoin payments by connecting your eCommerce site to the CoinPayments platform.
Create a CoinPayments Account
The first step is to create a CoinPayments account, which any business owner can do by visiting the CoinPayments website. The account creation process is fairly straightforward.
Sign Up for CoinPayments
First, click the “Sign Up” button, which is located in the top right-hand corner of the CoinPayments website.
Then fill out all the necessary details on the resulting account creation form. New account holders will need a few pieces of information, including a username, email address, and password. Users will also be required to provide their time zones and agree to the terms of service.
After verifying the account, new account holders will be able to tweak their settings and decide which types of cryptocurrencies they want to accept for their business.
Tweak Your Account Settings
Account settings will allow business owners to establish important information about their enterprises, which is important for integrating the CoinPayments payment processor with their businesses.
To do this, click on:
- “Account”, then “Account Settings”
- Click on “Basic Settings”. Here, business owners can find their Merchant ID. Save this information for later use, as it will be required for the integration step.
- Click on “Public Info”. Merchants can enter their name, email address, and the URL displayed to any customers that send coin payments.
- Click on “Login & Security”. Here, merchants can decide on the security authentication method or factor they want to use, including two-factor authentication or Google Authenticator.
- Click on “Merchant Settings”. Business owners should set their IPN Secret, then copy and store the IPN somewhere secure.
- Business owners should then set their base currency (i.e., dollars, euros, etc.)
Choose Bitcoin and Altcoin
Next, business owners can finally choose to receive Bitcoin and altcoins.
- Click on “Account”, then “Coin Acceptance Settings”
- On the resulting page, merchants will be able to choose which coins they want to accept as payment options. Just check the box in front of each coin.
- Once Bitcoin and altcoins have been accepted, business owners can scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Update Coin Preferences”. This will save their preferences in CoinPayments’s databases.
Before moving on to the next step, merchants should click on “Account”, then “API Keys”. The API keys connect business stores to CoinPayments’s digital system.
Each new account comes with an API Key already generated. However, users can click on “Generate New Key” and create a new API key if necessary.
Regardless, all users should store their public and private API Keys in a secure location so they can use them later.
Integrate CoinPayments with Your eCommerce Shop or Website
At this point, all merchants should have their Merchant ID, public and private API Keys, and IPN Secret. Users can now link their eCommerce or online stores to their CoinPayments accounts.
Luckily, CoinPayments provides several different integration methods depending on personal preferences or what your eCommerce platform has available.
Use a Plugin
Many commercially available or public plugins can integrate the CoinPayments platform with standard eCommerce stores. CoinPayments’s list of merchant tools and plugins includes a list of all the prebuilt plugins that major eCommerce platforms can utilize; you can see it in our Integration Guide. If you find a plugin that works for your business, simply download it, then install the plugin and edit the settings accordingly. You’ll need to enter both your IPN Secret and Merchant ID for the integration to go through.
Although every prebuilt plugin has slightly different integration steps, this method is straightforward and easy to use if you don’t want to spend a lot of time fiddling with APIs.
Use CoinPayments’s APIs
However, your business might have a custom eCommerce platform. In that case, CoinPayments offers a well-documented collection of APIs you can use to facilitate a stable integration.
CoinPayments’s APIs provide more functionality compared to the prebuilt plugins described above. These are ideal integration tools if your eCommerce platform has unique features or functions, such as membership tiers or online gaming portals.
To use our APIs, you’ll need both your API Public and Private Keys. You can check out our documentation regarding API use and IPN Secret integration using several documents we have compiled for yourself or your IT team.
- An overview of our IPN or Instant Payment Notification system
- A breakdown of the two transaction types we use to accept payments
- An overview of our APIs
- A testing page so you can make sure the integration went through smoothly
Use Payment Buttons or Invoices
If API integration is too technical or unnecessary, you can also use CoinPayments’ simple payment buttons. These payment buttons allow you to quickly incorporate crypto payments on your website. Because they are so simple, payment buttons are great if you only offer one or two products or if your business is accepting coins for other purposes, such as donations.
You can get started with a simple payment button by clicking this link.
Or you can use an advanced payment button. These allow users to modify the quantities of their transactions.
If your organization is a charity, we offer a specialized donation button. This comes with preset and adjustable amounts.
No matter which payment button you choose, you’ll need your Merchant ID. If you are already logged into CoinPayments, the ID will already be filled in. Afterward, fill in any other appropriate information and choose an image to use for your button.
Then click “Generate Button.” CoinPayments will automatically send you to an HTML code page so you can copy the code and insert it into your website’s code lines.
Testing Your Crypto Integration
As you can see, there are multiple ways to integrate your CoinPayments account with your eCommerce site. But it’s a good idea to test the integration to ensure that you can accept Bitcoin and altcoin payments from your customers or donors.
To do this:
- Login to your CoinPayments account
- Click on “Coin Settings”
- Go to the bottom of the page and check the Litecoin Testnet box
- Click on “Update Coin Preferences”
- Click on “Your Wallet”
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Get LTCT”
- Refresh your wallet page. Scroll to the bottom and make sure that you have received 10 LTCT, which is the CoinPayments’s test currency
- Next, log out of your CoinPayments account and navigate through to your store
- Send an invoice to yourself and click the payment button, so you check out with CoinPayments
- Pay with LTCT or Litecoin Testnet and enter any other required information
- Then click on “Complete Checkout”
- At this point, you should be able to compare the information from both CoinPayments and your own website to make sure the transaction went through securely.
- If it did, you’ll be able to accept both Bitcoin and altcoins from your customers.
Be sure to disable Litecoin Testnet payments after you are done. Go to “Coin Settings” as before, then uncheck the Litecoin Testnet box and click “Update Coin Preferences”.
Additionally, you may wish to navigate through your account and tweak any other settings that are important for your business operations or accounting. CoinPayments offers a variety of settings that can be changed. These include:
- The auto-sweep feature, which lets you automatically withdraw or convert the entire balance of a certain coin every night. This can be very beneficial for small businesses that receive many payments in Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency but then need to pay their bills or for supplies with a fiat currency.
- Fiat Settlement settings, which allow merchants to convert incoming crypto payments into fiat currencies in real-time.
- Secured Vaulting, which adds additional security to your account and places time-released locks on specified coin wallets.
- And more
Summary
Ultimately, CoinPayments is one of the easiest ways to ensure your business can accept and spend decentralized and international currencies like Bitcoin and different altcoins. CoinPayments also allows your business to accept hundreds of cryptocurrencies as it expands.
Sources
Altcoin Definition | Investopedia
What are the benefits of cryptocurrency? | Fox Business
Fiat Money Definition: How Is Currency Valued? | Investopedia
