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Are you planning to accept payments on your WordPress site? Then you've probably already considered the usual eCommerce payment gateway suspects. With 79% of Americans shopping online, it makes sense to turn to the most popular—and trusted—forms of payment to support your site's conversion process.

But what about cryptocurrency? Currently, only about 1.5% of Americans have ever actually owned or used bitcoins, but awareness of cryptocurrency is growing as nearly half of consumers have heard of it. As awareness grows, so too will adoption, which means it may be a good time to start thinking about adding Bitcoin payments or donations to your website.

Why Should Your WordPress Site Accept Bitcoin Payments?

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies haven't gained quite as much traction as supporters originally thought it would (at least not in the mainstream), but that doesn't mean it's not a viable form of payment. In fact, it may be a more attractive option when you compare it to the usual payment processors you work with.

Here are some reasons why your website could benefit from accepting Bitcoin:

Digital: Because Bitcoin is a digital cash system and doesn't require a third party banking entity to process the transaction, it is completely peer-to-peer. It's all organized through a digital network (also known as a blockchain), which is basically just a ledger that keeps a secure and (pseudo-)anonymous record of all transactions.

Security: Bitcoin is what's known as "pseudo-anonymous." Obviously, a bitcoin needs to be linked to an individual in order for them to make a payment in the first place. However, unlike with credit card and banking payments, no personal information needs to be given out in order to do so, which may ease consumers' concerns about making payments online.

Simplicity: Since it's totally peer-to-peer, you don't have to worry about consumers paying with a compatible financial solution. So long as they have a Bitcoin wallet, they're good to go.

Cost: For the most part, Bitcoin transactions come with much smaller processing fees (if any).

Convenience: There is no waiting period before you can gain access to your new funds. Once money is transferred from customers' wallets to your own, the money is yours to use. Just be aware that payments can't be reversed—on either end—which means that if you plan on issuing refunds, it's not as simple to do with Bitcoin.

Fraud: Each bitcoin has a hexadecimal code which is extremely difficult to crack. And because payments can't be reversed, you won't have to worry about fraudulent payments and the ensuing fees you have to pay for those chargebacks.

One thing to keep in mind here is that cryptocurrencies can be volatile, so you won't want to put all your eggs in one basket. Sure, there are clear benefits to accepting Bitcoin as a payment option, but the key word here is "option". Bitcoin should be offered in addition to the other payment types accepted through your WordPress site; not in place of them.

6 Bitcoin Plugins You Can Use to Accept Payments on Your WordPress Site

Because there isn't currently a huge demand for cryptocurrency payment compatibility in WordPress, you may be hard-pressed to find a plugin specifically built to accept Bitcoin payments. In all honesty, that's probably fine since offering a more diverse range of payment types is likely to net you more sales than going 100% crypto.

The following list of WordPress plugins covers a wide range of options for accepting Bitcoin payments:

This premium plugin for WordPress works solely for selling digital products. What it does is create a "paybox" where customers can select their payment portal of choice—BitPay (the one that accepts BitCoin) being one of them. They then submit their email address and order the digital product. This is a particularly great option if you're trying to monetize a non-profit website since you can set minimum prices. Customers can then choose to "donate" more as they see fit.

Easy Digital Downloads is another WordPress plugin that enables users to set up payment gateways for their digital products. While the plugin itself is available for free in the WordPress repository, if you want to include payment gateways other than PayPal or Amazon Payments (i.e. BitPay), you have to purchase the premium extension.

Now, for those of you who don't want to pay for a Bitcoin payment gateway and want more options for accepted cryptocurrencies, give this plugin a look. This one is 100% dedicated to allowing users to accept cryptocurrency payments. It also works well if you're trying to make money with WordPress. For example, you can sell physical and digital products, charge for access to gated content, offer paid memberships, and so on.

If you like how the GoUrl Bitcoin Payment Gateway plugin works and you've built your store using WooCommerce, then you'll probably want this plugin add-on. It does the same exact thing as the other plugin (i.e. add a cryptocurrency payment gateway to your site), but it was built specifically for the WooCommerce platform.

As you know, adding too many plugins to your website can have a detrimental effect on site performance and security. So, if you want to add Bitcoin payments to your site and still want more common options available as well, the Mollie payment gateway might be the right choice for you. It includes credit card, PayPal, Bitcoin, bank transfer, and more.

When reviewing the top e-commerce payment gateways for WordPress, we named Stripe as the most developer-friendly platform. If you get excited about plugins that are flexible and easy to use and that will work with your WooCommerce site, you may want to consider this Stripe Payment Gateway plugin. It accepts Bitcoin payments in addition to credit cards, too.

Wrapping Up

It's interesting. Despite the appeal of new technology that's supposed to make our travels through the world wide web more efficient and safer, it doesn't seem as though Bitcoin has caught on with too many consumers. That said, 1.5% of the U.S. population isn't a drop in the bucket. If there are roughly 323 million people in the U.S. right now, that means that nearly 5 million people pay with bitcoins.

If you really want to cater to your target audience and ensure that they're receiving the best experience with your website, empower them to pay by whichever means they prefer. And with the help of one a WordPress plugin, you won't have to install (or pay for) a variety of payment gateway plugins to do it. All you need is one really solid all-in-one plugin to take care of it for you.

Source: 6 Plugins for Accepting Bitcoin on Your WordPress Site