Trying to meet your expectations, in November 2016 our on-line tack shop equishop.com introduced a new payment method, namely the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Probably, many of you have already heard about this currency, but not everybody knows how easy it is to use it. In this article we will try to accustom you with the crucial matters.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a transnational virtual currency that functions only in the Internet. The owned Bitcoins are saved either on the computer or server, which act as a virtual wallet. The gathered funds in the wallet can be sent to a receiver through a generated address. It works similarly to e-mails. One Bitcoin (BTC) can be divided into 100 000 000 units called Satoshi. Due to such division of the currency, any amount of money can be sent.
Bitcoin, as mentioned before, functions only in the Internet. Each transaction is carried out based on cryptography and mathematics, which means that it is independent from national governments and various types of financial institutions, it also does not have any central issuing agency. Due to decentralization and advanced algorithms, which processing is divided into a huge number of users, all the transactions made in Bitcoin are a 100% safe, they are also somewhat stable considering fluctuations on the international political and economic arena. The total of all available Bitcoin units is predicted to amount 21 mln, which guarantees that the currency would not be endangered by inflation, on the opposite, it constantly puts a deflationary pressure. All this provides a constant increase of the currency value.
History of Bitcoin
The currency was invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. It is not known whether there is only one person or more people under this name, because it was never revealed and the project was freed and released as open source for the Internet users. Bitcoin entered general use in 2009 along with generating and introducing the first block of the currency, which was worth 50 bitcoins (BTC). At that time also the first exchange rate was established and 1$ was worth 1,309.03 BTC. At first the future of this cryptocurrency was not promising. Its markings were very low, trustful consumers were very scarce, but the situation quickly changed. For some time the rankings were increasing by 1500% per year. Now, the rate is ca. 600$ (for October 27, 2016). Today this currency is very popular in the whole world and its exchange rate is stable. More and more companies accept bitcoin payments and consumers are more keen to use it.
Advantages of Bitcoin
Without going into technical details, it is worth mentioning what advantages you, as consumers, will get from using Bitcoin payments. Most of all safety of transactions, because of the immediate nature of the exchange (without agents) and multistage verification. What is more, the costs of transactions are almost zero. This kind of payment is realised within max. 10 minutes from its performing. The mechanism of the payment is very simple and it consists of scanning a QR code or entering an address of the receiver’s wallet.
Where to buy Bitcoins?
You can purchase the Bitcoin currency in the Internet exchange offices and stock markets. It is also possible to buy it from other users. To buy the currency or purchase items with Bitcoins you need a virtual wallet on a server or installed on your computer, smartphone or tablet in form of a proper application. While exchanging currencies, the fiduciary money is converted to Bitcoin units, taking into consideration the exchange value for a given day. In most cases there is also a small commission for the operations taken from the gathered funds. As mentioned before, the transfer of ownership is immediate, the only operation that needs time is transfer of the funds when you are buying Bitcoins from an institution that sells them. Below this article you will find links to the most popular websites, where you can purchase Bitcoins.
How are Bitcoin payments realised in equishop.com
In equishop.com the Bitcoin payments are realised through BitPay. It is an international network handling operations in this currency. The money paid for an order in Bitcoins is converted to a currency in which you purchased the given item(s) and it is transferred to our shop account. The whole operation happens immediately, due to which we can tend to realising your order even faster.
Instructions
In order to pay in Bitcoins for your order, you need to own a virtual wallet with funds that would be sufficient. The following instructions were made for a BitPay wallet for tablets. However, remember that you can purchase products using any other Bitcoin wallet.
Create a basket with products that you are interested in and proceed. In the last step of the basket – “payment” – choose BitPay payment.
Then you will be redirected to the operator website. You will see a QR code on your screen.
All you have to do is to run the BitPay application, go to “Scan” tab and scan the QR code. In case of making order on a phone or tablet you should click the “Open in wallet,” which is right next to the QR code.
Then you will be asked to confirm the payment. In order to do so all you need to do is to slide you finger along the caption “Slide to Pay.”
When confirming transaction, a proper amount of Bitcoins will be taken from your wallet and the payment will immediately be noted in our system. You will be informed about a successful payment on the BitPay website. From this moment, we will be able to start executing your order.
Useful links
Bitcoin exchange offices and stock markets:
Bitcoin wallets for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Android, iOS
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