Shopify is an online e-commerce platform that allows users to sell their goods online. The platform was founded in the year 2004 by Tobias Lütke and is home to over 600,000 merchants as of 2017 with a gross merchandise volume that exceeds $55 billion. Shopify has its headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario and launched its IPO on the NYSE and TSE in the year 2015.
According to a blog post published by Kamari Labs Staff, the e-commerce platform is now going to be accepting payments via Bitcoin. Joining the league of its competitors Dish Network and Expedia, Shopify is finally catching up with the rest of the herd.
This offers a host of benefits to merchants and customers alike on the Shopify platform, as with this decision Shopify has opened itself up to a fast-rising group of users that transact using Bitcoin. This should in turn add value to the cryptocurrency as its potential use case will be expanded thanks to Shopify.
From a merchants perspective, if a good will be listed for a few dollars, its equivalent in BTC could rise in value or decrease in a very short time span. The higher risk associated with BTC could be one worth taking for many merchants and users alike. Holding (or HODL’ing) the BTC payments in an account and waiting for the right moment to make the most of the earnings by trading it for fiat money could prove as a profitable venture for many.
The whole process of integrating payments using Bitcoin on the Shopify platform is being made possible through the Bitpay application. Bitpay is a payment service provider much like PayPal that processes payments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, and was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair. Bitpay is currently amongst the largest processors of payments in Bitcoin and has also partnered with corporate behemoths such as Microsoft, Warner Bros. Records and NewEgg amongst others.
