Merchant crypto payment processor BitPay has announced that it is now supporting Payments in Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Previously, BitPay only supported payments in Bitcoin (BTC).
Merchants who choose to allow customers to pay in either BTC or BCH using BitPay can receive their funds in the form of direct bank deposits on the next business day. The service charges a one percent transaction fee, in addition to fees charged by both blockchain networks.
The addition of Bitcoin Cash support is reportedly a small part of a larger effort to begin to support payment processing on multiple chains that will be chosen based on “network hashing power, security, usefulness for payments, adoption, and market value as key factors in our decisions on which Blockchain payments our platform will support.”
We are now able to accept Bitcoin Cash payments using @BitPay invoices. If you'd prefer to pay via $BCH, drop us an email first. pic.twitter.com/7SEPEXHRkf
— Lamassu (@LamassuBTC) March 27, 2018
According to a blog post, BitPay’s inclusion of Bitcoin Cash onto its platform also means that BCH users will have access to “the same tools and integrations” that BTC users already have. This includes the ability to use BCH tokens to purchase gift cards in-app from Amazon and Brazilian e-commerce marketplace Mercado Livre.
CoinGeek reported that the announcement comes several weeks after Bitpay “quietly” began integrating BCH support with almost all of its partner merchants, which include NewEgg, Namecheap, and Vultr. However, until now, Bitcoin Cash tokens were converted into USD or BTC before they reached their final destination.
Bitcoin Cash Brings Faster Transaction Times and Lower Payments, but Some Skepticism Remains
The decision to support Bitcoin Cash comes amid increasing demand from the Bitcoin Cash community, who proclaim the benefits of BCH over BTC.
Indeed, fees on the Bitcoin Cash network have historically been considerably lower than those on the Bitcoin network. For example, data from Bitinfocharts.com showed that the average Bitcoin transaction fee on March 28 was $1.078; Bitcoin Cash’s average transaction fee from the same day was $0.0118.
In times of high network traffic, transaction confirmation times on the Bitcoin Cash network have also been shown to be faster than those on the Bitcoin network.
Because of its lower fees and faster transaction times, some voices in the crypto community have claimed that Bitcoin Cash is the ‘real Bitcoin.’ However, allegations of insider trading and pump-and-dump schemes directed toward the Bitcoin Cash network and its developers have raised skeptical sentiments when it comes to the coin.
