Bitcoin adoption has grown to mythic proportions in recent years, attracting large, medium, and small-sized businesses worldwide. The food industry is among the key beneficiaries, leading the Bitcoin campaign.
Today, many restaurant chains and independent cafes allow customers to use Bitcoin to pay for foods and drinks at their physical locations. Even food delivery companies now give customers the option of paying for their orders in Bitcoin.
Statistics show consumers are increasingly attracted to businesses that accept crypto payments because of their reliability and security. Besides, Bitcoin also enables restaurants to improve efficiency and cut costs because it facilitates faster and low-cost payment processing. Apart from consumers, restaurants also use Bitcoin to pay for deliveries from their suppliers, ensuring greater convenience.
However, Bitcoin is a virtual currency that only works over the internet. So, how can restaurants process Bitcoin payments? The following article describes how Bitcoin payment services work and how restaurant owners can use them to transact.
How Bitcoin payments work
Bitcoin payments work similarly to most standard electronic payment services such as credit or debit cards. However, they have some unique characteristics and requirements. The first requirement is that a restaurant must create a Bitcoin wallet to receive payments in crypto. The operator can acquire a personal wallet or use a third-party platform.
Nevertheless, a Bitcoin wallet is essential to accepting crypto payments since it serves as the account where users hold their funds. Creating a crypto wallet will generate a public key or user address unique to every user. The key is a combination of random numbers and letters, distinguishing one wallet from another. The restaurant must provide customers with its wallet address to transfer funds worth the purchased or ordered food and drinks value.
There are multiple Bitcoin payment services that restaurant owners can use to accept Bitcoin payments. Most of them require businesses to integrate with e-commerce platforms to process Bitcoin payments at the point of sale or directly. Nevertheless, signing up for Bitcoin merchant services enables any business to receive crypto payments from customers directly or through other mediums worldwide.
Accepting Bitcoin payments in your restaurant is a straightforward process because of the several crypto payment service providers available today, such as Bitcoin Era. Such platforms allow merchants to sign up for free to start receiving Bitcoin payments from their customers. Some even allow businesses to bill and invoice customers at their convenience, with options for e-commerce integration.
Steps for processing Bitcoin payments in a restaurant
Unlike credit or debit card payments, Bitcoin transactions are faster to process since they occur exclusively on the blockchain. Bitcoin payments usually take an average of 10 to 45 minutes to complete, offering merchants and customers greater convenience. The following are the main steps for processing Bitcoin payments.
- Customers opt to pay for their food and drinks in Bitcoin at the check-out.
- They authenticate the amount at the exchange rate applicable at the time of the transaction.
- The Bitcoin payment service processor immediately converts the received funds into the restaurant owner’s preferred currency, avoiding volatility risks.
- The service provider deposits the funds into your wallet or stores them on their platform, depending on your needs. The restaurant could also instruct the payment processor to transfer the funds into their bank account. However, most crypto exchanges impose limitations on the minimum amount that you can send daily.
Overall, accepting Bitcoin payments in your restaurant comes with numerous benefits. They are relatively cheaper than standard credit card payments due to the low-cost transactions. Most crypto payment processors charge a flat rate of a 1% settlement fee. Besides, Bitcoin also offers better transparency, validating all transactional records on a permanent shared ledger.