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Education

processing volume on which the ISO usually earns residuals. Certain bitcoin Companies that are not properly
payment processors, such as BitPay, allow merchants to accept bitcoin and licensed can see their assets frozen
receive it as either bitcoin or U.S. dollars. Sooner or later, these new processors and their principals go to prison.
will command some market space.
Is this the beginning of the end
The challenge for ISOs is to apply their best talents – selling and technology – for conventional processing?
to the new possibilities in virtual currency. There are likely opportunities for
ISOs to resell virtual currency processing services to merchants. Conventional processing of credit
cards and debit cards is the backbone
ISOs that decide to resell virtual currency services should first verify that of U.S. retail and is not going away
the service they are selling is properly licensed at the federal and state level. anytime soon. There is simply too
much invested in the real currency
economy to see it vanish. As the vir-
tual currency economy grows, how-
ever, adding processing, lending,
accounting and other attributes of
real currency, there is a possibility of
seeing a real portion of the economy
shift from real to virtual currency.

To be clear, most payments are al-
ready electronic. The shift from one
form of electronic payment (card) to
another (virtual currency) is, in some
ways, a semantic change. In other
ways, however, the change involves
huge issues of macroeconomics and
even the ability of nations to con-
trol their economies. Consequently,
a shift from real to virtual currency
would require changes on many lev-
els that could not happen rapidly.

What should I do?
Perhaps the best thing ISOs and
merchant level salespeople (MLSs)
can do is learn about virtual cur-
rency and educate their merchant
customers who want to know about
it. Merchants see ISOs and MLSs as
their connection to payments; these
payment professionals add value by
being out in front and leading on all
new topics, including virtual cur-
rency.

I also recommend getting a bitcoin
wallet at a place like Coinbase and
acquiring some bitcoin – just for fun.

In publishing The Green Sheet, neither the
author nor the publisher is engaged in ren-
dering legal, accounting or other professional
services. If you require legal advice or other
expert assistance, seek the services of a com-
petent professional. For further information
on this article, email Adam Atlas, Attorney at
Law, at atlas@adamatlas.com or call him at
514-842-0886.
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