TrustRadius Insights
BitPay has proven to be a valuable tool for businesses looking to expand their payment options and tap into the cryptocurrency market. …
Overview
What is BitPay?
BitPay is a payment gateway software solution offered by BitPay.
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Product Demos
BitPay for BookingCore - Customer Demo
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BitPay for Bookly - Customer Demo
YouTube
Demo Sessions: BitPay with Tony Gallippi at Distributed: Markets 2017
YouTube
BitPay for LatePoint - Customer Demo
YouTube
#BitPay Card - Living the #CryptoLife with a Real Demo!
YouTube
BitPay at CES 2015: Copay Bitcoin Wallet - Multi-Signature Demo
YouTube
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
What is BitPay?
TrustRadius Research Team Analysis
BitPay is a cryptocurrency payment processor that enables businesses to accept a variety of cryptocurrency payments. BitPay enables worldwide payments in a variety of cryptocurrencies from a wide variety of wallets. Additionally, BitPay avoids risk to merchants by allowing instant settlement of crypto payments in fiat, meaning that a merchant never has to hold crypto if they don’t want to.Payment Acceptance
One of the greatest challenges of accepting cryptocurrency payments is the staggering variety of coins out there. While certain coins,such as Bitcoin and Ethereum dominate, there are a significant number of potential customers who use other coins. As such, accepting a variety of coins is important. Below is a table of acceptance among BitPay and its competitors for 20 of the top coins in terms of the daily trading volume measured in dollar value. In addition to the coins shown, BitPay accepts ApeCoin, Euro Coin, Gemini Dollar (GUSD), and Pax Dollar (USDP).
BitPay is pretty middle of the pack in terms of coin acceptance. On the whole, it probably covers enough of the important coins to enable most of your transactions.
Additionally, BitPay supports Bitcoin Lightning Network transactions. This does require the user to have a Lightning-supported wallet. However, high transaction fees are one of the biggest impediments to using Bitcoin specifically. The relatively cheap ability to use the Lightning Network is something that sets it apart from most of its competitors. The only other major competitor that supports the Bitcoin Lightning Network is CoinGate, which also supports the Lightning Network for Litecoin.
Fraud Detection
BitPay’s fraud protection relies on a combination of proprietary analyses and the nature of blockchain networks. More specifically, BitPay provides three risk levels when accepting transactions: low, medium, and high. The lower the risk level, the more blocks have to be confirmed on the blockchain to confirm the transaction.
For low, medium, and high, the number of blocks is six, one, and zero, respectively. Needing a large number of blocks to confirm slows down the transaction speed. Depending on the specific nature of the transaction, including the specific blockchain, the traffic, and the associated fee, a six-block confirmation could take hours to actually confirm. In contrast, zero block confirmation enables instant transactions but also means that anybody with a little know-how could commit a fraudulent transaction.
This is where BitPay’s proprietary analysis algorithm comes into play. The algorithm is used when a merchant enables zero-block confirmations. The algorithm analyzes incoming transactions, and if it determines the transaction is more likely than normal to be fraudulent, switches to a one-block confirmation. This allows for both rapid transactions and the safety conferred by the blockchain.
Many competitors rely only on the security of the blockchain to prevent fraud, which typically require a delay in the completion of transactions. Others, such as Crypto.com Pay, leverage their wide user base to speed transactions while maintaining security. Specifically, Crypto.com allows for instant settlement of transactions from Crypto.com accounts. However, BitPay is unique in its combination of speed, security, and generality in accepting payments.
The BitPay Protocol
In addition to general to the above protections, BitPay also has the BitPay Payment Protocol. This protocol helps to prevent payment discrepancies by sending the payment information to BitPay servers for verification and waiting for confirmation before broadcasting to the blockchain. The Protocol is currency agnostic and works for each cryptocurrency supported by BitPay.
While this won’t necessarily prevent fraudulent behavior, it significantly reduces common problems with crypto payments. These include underpayment, overpayments, and unconfirmed payments. The latter is typically a result of not including enough fees to get the transaction processed promptly. In addition to confirming the correct payment amount, the Payment Protocol checks to make sure the included fee is high enough to get the transaction confirmed quickly.
Use of the Payment Protocol requires support from the payee's wallet. However, the BitPay Protocol is supported by over 100 wallets. Some of these include the most commonly used wallets such as Blockchain, Electrum, BRD, Metamask, and Ledger.
The BitPay Payment Protocol is a definite differentiating feature for BitPay, as its combination of breadth of acceptance and accuracy sets it apart from its competitors. Some, such as Crypto.com, can guarantee the same level of accuracy for transactions occurring within their ecosystem. Others can utilize blockchain-specific protocols, such as the Bitcoin Payment Protocol, to significantly improve accuracy and experience. However, neither of these matches the smoothness and generality of the BitPay Payment Protocol.
API
BitPay provides an API that follows a RESTful convention for accessing BitPay functionality from other applications or sites. While calls to the API can be made directly over HTTPS, BitPay also provides libraries in Java, C# .Net, Python, Ruby, PHP, and Node.js
These permission levels are broken into “facades” of which there are four: public, pos, merchant, and payout. Each of these provides access to a certain set of capabilities for calls to the API. Further information on the precise capabilities of the API can be found here.
The API has quite a number of security features. The basic security measure is authorization, which is implemented using a public-private key pair generated using elliptic curve scep256k1, the same algorithm used to generate the keys for signing Bitcoin transactions. The public key is used both for identification and as a way to see if the user has the appropriate permissions to access the resource.
Billing, Invoicing, and Subscriptions
BitPay has two methods for sending bills or invoices to customers. This can be done manually or through the use of the API. The setup for the manual billing is shown below.
The resend option effectively allows merchants to choose between one-time bills and subscriptions. The available periods for recurrence are weekly, monthly, and yearly. Bills generated this way are sent to a customer's email with a link. The link will direct them to a unique URL where they can complete the transaction.
BitPay also supports invoices, which are typically used to implement on-site checkout. The checkout functionality is implemented using a prebuilt JavaScript library, and invoices are generated using the API. This provides a straightforward method for implementing on-site checkout. The screens the consumer will navigate to pay are shown below.
BitPay is fairly similar to its competitors in this area. Most of its competitors have the same or similar tools to produce bills and invoices (although, for most, invoices refer to what you send by email, and bills are what you get at checkout).
Integrations
BitPay works with the following eCommerce solutions
BitPay leads its competition in eCommerce integrations. Many of its competitors are limited to only major players like Shopify and WooCommerce. The competitor who comes closest in terms of the number of integrations, Coingate, is missing Shopify. Of course, the only eCommerce integration that matters for a business is the platform it is using, and there are some integrations that BitPay doesn’t have.
Pricing and Settlement
BitPay takes a 1% fee on every transaction. However, this is only the vendor's share. Nearly every transaction on a blockchain requires a payment to miners, the individuals or groups who actually validate the transaction. This payment is also known as a gas fee. Gas fees vary widely depending on a number of factors. The most important are typically the type of coin and the current volume of transactions. Higher transaction volumes lead to higher fees. Bitcoin typically has one of the highest fees, with blockchain transaction fees averaging about a dollar as of October 2022. Other blockchains may only have gas fees of a few cents per transaction.
The transaction fees of top competitors can be seen below. Settlement fees refer to the cost of converting cryptocurrencies into fiat. Some vendors do not charge settlement fees. In addition to settlement fees, there is also conversion risk. Conversion risk is the risk that the exchange rate between currencies changes between the time of your transaction and when you settle. This could result in you getting underpaid. BitPay prevents this by offering a guaranteed settlement in fiat with the conversion rate locked at the time of transaction.
Use Case
BitPay is an excellent cryptocurrency payment processor for businesses of all sizes looking to provide a smooth, error-free payment experience to both crypto beginners and experts. What really sets BitPay apart is its features that create an excellent user experience while maintaining security. Specifically, its anti-fraud measures and the BitPay Payment Protocol help ensure that transactions are processed quickly and accurately. Additionally, BitPay beats every one of its direct competitors on the number of ecommerce integrations, making it more likely that it will integrate with your platform of choice.
That said, BitPay doesn’t have the lowest fees of competing vendors, but it isn’t out of line with the norm. BitPay doesn’t accept the most coins, and this may actually be its biggest weakness. While the coins that are accepted are more than enough for most people, businesses looking to cater to crypto-enthusiasts may prefer a processor with the ability to accept a wider range of coins.
BitPay Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
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Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
BitPay has proven to be a valuable tool for businesses looking to expand their payment options and tap into the cryptocurrency market. Users have found BitPay to be convenient and time-saving, making transactions easier and consuming less effort. With its integration with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, businesses can seamlessly add cryptocurrency payments to their existing checkout systems. Despite occasional issues with customer support, BitPay is highly praised for simplifying the acceptance of crypto payments on websites and applications. Its easy integration allows users to set up payment gateways quickly, providing a worry-free solution for businesses to accept bitcoin on their websites and attract new customers.
BitPay solves various business problems, such as opening up to more customers, accepting payments securely, and simplifying payment tracking and financial management. For businesses that want to accept crypto payments without actually holding bitcoin, BitPay is particularly helpful as it allows them to tap into a new customer base. The platform's Visa payment gateway enables users to perform transactions on ATMs connected to the network using a BitPay card. Additionally, BitPay guarantees the exchange rate during checkout, which is especially beneficial for businesses dealing with the volatile Bitcoin market. Users appreciate that BitPay provides payment instructions in multiple languages, making it accessible to international customers.
Overall, BitPay offers a secure and easy-to-use method for businesses to accept bitcoin payments, simplifying processes such as Valve trading, gambling, and selling digital content. By accepting bitcoin payments, businesses can tap into a new customer base and gain support from the bitcoin community while avoiding the complexities of managing cryptocurrency themselves.
Wide range of cryptocurrencies accepted: Many users appreciate that BitPay allows businesses to accept payments in a wide range of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stablecoins. This flexibility provides customers with various options, making it easier for them to use the platform.
Hassle-free transactions: Users find BitPay to be a hassle-free platform for quick transactions. They can make a lot of quick transactions easily without any complications or delays.
Convenient payment features: Users find several payment features offered by BitPay to be convenient. They appreciate the automatic clearing of crypto payments to bank or wallet daily, as well as the option to convert every payment to their preferred currency immediately. The availability of a Visa debit card for accessing funds from any Visa supported ATM around the world is also seen as a valuable feature.
Limited Currency Support: Some users have expressed disappointment with BitPay's limited currency support, as popular cryptocurrencies like Litecoin and Ripple are not supported. This has been a significant drawback for these users who were hoping to transact with a wider range of cryptocurrencies.
Poor Customer Support: Several reviewers have described BitPay's customer support as very poor. They have experienced long wait times for both calls and emails, and some users have even mentioned that it can take several days to receive a response. This lack of efficient customer support has been frustrating for these users.
Lack of Plugin Market: A number of users have expressed dissatisfaction with the limited plugin market available on BitPay. They feel that there is a lack of options when it comes to integrating BitPay into their existing business systems. This limitation has made it difficult for these users to fully utilize the platform's features and adapt it to their specific needs.