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Craft Brewery
integrate with their Shopify. Like StillFire, Threes same-day funding, and no credit check.
Brewing uses CoinBase as their payment processor.
• You’ll get your money faster. Tired of waiting
Cryptocurrency is a digital medium of exchange several working days for a bank transfer to
that relies on peer-to-peer blockchain technology. clear? Crypto is much faster and can be pro-
It’s decentralized, meaning no central bank or gov- cessed almost immediately. Small businesses
ernment regulates or backs crypto. Buyers transfer that need and want their money faster will
funds directly to sellers without the third parties appreciate this perk.
traditionally used to process payments. And people
store their crypto through an encrypted wallet and • It’s more secure than credit cards. Crypto-
are the only ones with a key to unlock it. currency is considered more secure than credit
and debit card payments since crypto doesn’t
Part of the appeal of crypto stems from the surge need third-party verification, as these other
in credit card fraud that was accelerated by the payment types do. When someone pays with
pandemic. In 2020, the dollar volume of attempted cryptocurrency, their data isn’t stored in a cen-
fraudulent transactions rose 35% in April 2020 vs. tralized hub, where breaches commonly occur.
April 2019, and, sadly, small businesses are often Instead, their information is stored in their own
the targets. In contrast, crypto is considered to be a secure crypto wallet – and they’re the only one
secure form of payment, with merchant protection, with the key to unlock it.
lower transaction fees, and other benefits.
• Crypto offers some merchant protection.
Increasingly, small businesses are accepting cryp- Crypto, with its decentralized set up, pro-
tocurrency. It’s innovative and trendy, attracts cus- tects merchants from fraudulent chargebacks.
tomers and prospects who use crypto, offers more Transactions are final because no third party
e-commerce opportunities for beer retailers, and can reverse charges, as is the case with credit
can reduce fraud. And companies like Shopify and card purchases. As crypto regulation continues
Square make it easy to accept crypto. Square even to evolve, there may be more merchant pro-
has a crypto team to support development. But is tections introduced in the future, especially as
crypto right for your business? crypto becomes more mainstream and accept-
ed by more small businesses.
When determining whether to go crypto,
consider the following pros and cons. • It opens up more e-commerce opportunities.
As Threes discovered, customers want a fast,
Pros: easy, secure way to shop online. Now, they
are selling to people in more than 30 states,
• It offers lower transaction fees than credit accepting crypto as well as PayPal to give their
cards. As StillFire and Threes discovered, there’s customers purchasing options. Threes was able
a lower transaction fee when using crypto vs. to expand their audience, moving beyond their
credit cards. While each credit card transaction New York customer base to sell beer and merch
costs a company 2-4% of the total transaction, on a bigger, more national, scale.
crypto reduces these costs to less than 1% of
each transaction. Over time, these seemingly • It’s another option for customers. Accepting
small fees can amount to a substantial savings. cryptocurrency offers customers additional
ways to pay and provides them with extra pro-
• It provides another loan option for businesses. tection and security for their transactions.
Small businesses often need to take out loans,
especially during these disruptive post-pandem- While cryptocurrency offers a
ic times. Some business owners – especially variety of benefits, there are also some
those with large amounts of cryptocurrency – risks associated with it, and small
are opting for a crypto loan, where you pledge businesses should be aware.
an asset (in this case, your cryptocurrency) to
secure financing. Crypto loans often come with Cons:
a host of benefits, including low interest rates,
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