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The drive to build merchant acceptance of cryptocurrency continues to gain momentum with RocketFuel Blockchain Inc.’s announcement on Wednesday that it is rolling out a one-click, blockchain-based payments solution for e-commerce transactions.
RocketFuel’s service supports payments or direct bank transfers in 43 cryptocurrencies. The first two merchants to adopt the platform are Sky-tours, an online travel portal, and BearTax, a cryptocurrency-based tax-accounting firm. The Las Vegas-based processor is initially targeting merchants with customers that own cryptocurrency.
Transactions will be settled in U.S. dollars to remove the risk of volatility in cryptocurrency values. RocketFuel will charge merchants 1% to 2% of the transaction total. In addition to enabling consumers to pay for purchases from their cryptocurrency wallets, RocketFuel will support payments from cryptocurrency-exchange accounts.
“It’s natural for a merchant such as BearTax, whose customers use cryptocurrency, to allow its customers to pay with cryptocurrency,” says Ben Yankowitz, chief financial officer for RocketFuel, which focuses on developing blockchain-based technologies to enable one-click checkout for e-commerce merchants.
Yankowitz adds that RocketFuel is seeing growing demand from merchants and consumers for cryptocurrency acceptance.
“In the wake of Covid, the war on cash became a very real thing, and RocketFuel’s universal payment method empowered us to continue doing business regardless of the type of currency being used,” Sky-tours chief executive Randy Alleyne said in a prepared statement.
RocketFuel’s support of cryptocurrency acceptance is the latest in a series of moves to make the digital currency a mainstream payment option. In recent months key players in the payments world such as PayPal Holdings Inc., the OLB Group Inc., Visa Inc., and Mastercard Inc. have announced support for cryptocurrency transactions. Mastercard, for example, announced in February its intention to launch later this year the ability to send and receive crypto transactions natively on the company’s network. Earlier this week, PayPal launched support for cryptocurrency acceptance by merchants.
“E-commerce has become mainstream, but the payment technologies available to merchants are old-fashioned, based on technologies which are not in-line with the needs and demands of modern consumers who prefer digital and contactless payments over cards or cash,” Peter Jensen, chief executive of RocketFuel, said in a prepared statement. “Cryptocurrency represents the future of payments and is already disrupting the status quo by offering merchants a better, more economical option for their businesses and customers.”
