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businesses: no card or personal financial information gets collected when cus-
tomers pay by cryptocurrency. To protect against market volatility (the value
Increasing Revenue of a single Bitcoin fell by nearly 50 percent between April and mid-September
2018), processors like Aliant lock in the crypto-to-dollar exchange rate at the
for ISVs, ISOs point of payment, typically for 15 minutes.
and Resellers Enthusiasm over cryptocurrency acceptance is strong among ecommerce and
other card-not-present merchants. "That's where most of the interest is right
now," Brown said. "We've seen this happen before." In the early days of online
commerce most of the transactions involved high-risk activities, like adult en-
tertainment and gambling, he noted. A few years later, Amazon was born, and
mainstream retailers soon followed with ecommerce plays.

Today, ecommerce is a thriving market. The website eMarketer expects retail
ecommerce sales in the United States to total nearly $253 billion this year; For-
rester Research expects ecommerce to account for 17 percent of all U.S. retail
sales by 2022. Brown pointed to several merchant verticals where Aliant's sales
team and partners have made inroads, including high-end automobile dealers
Semi-integrated Healthcare
Solutions Solutions (think Lamborghinis) and travel services firms. Aliant already sells payment
ECR All-in-one services in both, as well as other high-risk verticals.
Solutions
"Cryptocurrency is an ideal payment method for ecommerce and industries like
technology, electronics and jewelry, where the risks of chargebacks, fraud and
identity theft are high," said Jan Jahosky, a spokesman for the cryptocurrency
Improve Retention pure play BitPay. "Gold bullion, travel, philanthropy and gaming are part of the
next group of early adopters of cryptocurrency."

Offer More Features BitPay works directly with businesses; it has no ISO or MLS relationships. The
company charges businesses 1 percent of the transaction amount for processing
cryptocurrency payments. Businesses can choose to accept the net proceeds in
Expand into Healthcare Bitcoins, as U.S. dollars deposited to their bank accounts, or a combination of the
two. BitPay processed $1.2 billion in payments last year, and $591 million during
the first six months of 2018, Jahosky said. He added that BitPay has signed "hun-
dreds of thousands" of businesses worldwide for cryptocurrency acceptance.

Cannabis dispensaries, which due to a combination of federal laws and card-
Contact Us!
844-319-5635 brand prohibitions are primarily cash-only businesses, represent another po-
info@SoundPayments.com tential market for cryptocurrencies. Israel-based Virtual Crypto Technologies
SoundPayments.com Ltd. said it is preparing to roll out a cryptocurrency POS solution later this year
designed specifically for U.S. cannabis dispensaries.
®
"We believe our technology can ultimately reduce the amount of cash moving
through the cannabis ecosystem, which will help foster a safer work environ-
ment and ensure industry participants pay their taxes using an alternative pay-
ment method," stated Alon Dayan, the firm's CEO. Virtual Crypto also deploys
crypto-ATMs, which can be used to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Presently,
there are fewer than 4,000 crypto-ATMs worldwide, according to Coin ATM
Radar, a website that keeps tabs on the market.

Today, according to published reports and processors, more than a dozen big-
name companies are accepting Bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrency as payment
for goods and services. These include travel websites Expedia and CheapAir,
Overstock.com, gift-card platform Gyft, Microsoft, Shopify, satellite TV and In-
ternet services provider Dish, and online food delivery marketplace Takeaway.
In addition, Intuit supports cryptocurrency payments as part of its QuickBooks
Online electronic invoicing service.

One local government, Seminole County, Fla., began accepting cryptocurrency
tax payments, using BitPay this year. The county accepts Bitcoin and Bitcoin
Cash for a variety of services, including property taxes, driver license and ID

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