Backed by Awesome Motive.
Learn more on our Seahawk Blog.

How To Add Bitcoin Payment To A WordPress Site? 

How To Add Bitcoin Payment To A WordPress Site- 

Bitcoin is the new hype. It’s also the old hype. In short, it’s the hype, and if you’re not already riding the cryptocurrency wave, there may never have been a better time to get started. Although virtual currencies experience large movements up or down in the short term, their long-term value increases exponentially.

Some people assimilate this phenomenon into a bubble, but this one does not have the same aspects as the internet bubble of the 90s or that of the subprimes of the 2000s. The “cryptos” respond to actual demand, which should stabilize in theory. However, bitcoin is currently experiencing a low, so this is potentially a good time to get started if you feel like it.

Either way, if you are selling something on your site, be aware that there are great reasons to accept Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.

In theory, if you sell a product or service for $ 20 in Bitcoin, that cash inflow might turn into $ 30 tomorrow and $ 300 within a few weeks. (Or the trend might be against you, and that income might only be worth $ 15 within a few hours – all because of the “bubble” effect mentioned earlier.)

So, either you believe in Bitcoin, and you want to try your luck, or you decide to add a string to your bow and consider Bitcoin a bit like Paypal: an additional payment facility, which takes a small fee before you get to your account but will help convince some people to buy from you. In this case, you limit the risks by regularly converting your Bitcoin into dollars, for example.

With all of that in mind, if you want to get started and accept payments on your WordPress site, it’s essential to know a bit more about cryptocurrencies before proceeding.

Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, and Blockchain

First of all, what is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency based on Blockchain technology. We know that phrase might sound a bit cryptic to you – yes, ideally- but actually, it’s not that complicated. Or it shouldn’t be anymore.

In detailed terms, Bitcoin is a virtual currency, or rather a digital currency. We could even clarify by saying that it is the first non-reproducible digital asset to be used as a means of payment. When you have a photo on your computer and email it to someone, you have successfully sent your photo, the recipient has received it, but you still have it on your computer. On the other hand, when you send a Bitcoin to someone, it is transferred, and you no longer have it on your computer. Bitcoin is based on blockchain technology.

What is cryptocurrency? 

Technically, it’s a currency with no physical medium in the real world – no coins, no bills or checks, nothing. It’s all data. It can be scary, said like that. But there is no reason.

We use money in many different ways every day. And one of the most popular is to manage or exchange virtual amounts. Concretely, you probably pay your rent or your invoices via transfers or direct debits. All this is done on computer servers and goes through the internet.

However, suppose you abstract all the fuss made around cryptocurrencies and focus on their definition alone. In that case, you realize that it is just a series of rows in a database that no one cannot modify without meeting specific conditions. It may sound very ordinary, but believe it or not: this is precisely how we define a cryptocurrency.

Now back to your bank account: what is more than a series of entries in a database that can only be changed under specific conditions? You can even take your coins and bills. One can very well reduce this finite amount of money to a list of entries in an extensive public database, which can only be modified if one physically owns these coins and these notes.

All currency revolves around this principle. Certified entries in all kinds of databases – accounts, balance sheets, transactions. This brings us to the Blockchain. It’s a new, high-performance way of keeping those accounts, balance sheets, and transactions up to date – much better than most people and businesses currently use the database structure.

So, what exactly is Blockchain?

To put it simply, the Blockchain is a sizeable encrypted database shared between many computers connected via the net. All the computers that work on the Blockchain, the “miners,” update this database. (In theory, anyone can participate in the Blockchain: you can, if you wish, get started in cryptocurrency mining tomorrow – it is better, however, to buy a machine optimized for this.)

In the Bitcoin case, the Blockchain is the system that records all transactions. In other words, it houses and maintains the “general ledger” where all the trades and balances of each account appear. It is, therefore, this cryptography and sharing system that plays the role of “trusted third party” usually held by banks in the case of “physical” currencies.

Since Bitcoin relies on a Blockchain to function, it is a “pseudo-anonymous” currency. (Indeed, some crypto-currencies go even further in anonymity). Information on your transactions is recorded in digital wallets – virtual or physical. And thanks to the way the Blockchain works and the way the Bitcoin “ledger” is kept up to date, these transactions are very secure and pretty much safe from fraudsters.

Of course, Bitcoin does not only have positive aspects, and there is no point in veiling your face. If you decide to use it, it may also be good to know its criticisms before participating in the success of this cryptocurrency by using it yourself.

But here, no value judgment: cryptocurrencies remain an exciting topic and offer many possibilities. So it’s up to you to decide whether or not you integrate Bitcoin (or other cryptos, some of which are very different in their principles) as a means of payment for your services.

Well! Are things more straightforward now? Perfect!

Top Plugins for Accepting Bitcoin Payments on the WordPress Site

  • CoinBase Commerce
  • GoURL Bitcoin Payment
  • Digital Paybox
  • GoURL WooCommerce
  • BitPay

How to accept Bitcoin payments on my WordPress site?

Well, with the WordPress case, there are plugins for this. But you will need to create an account on a platform to receive your bitcoins. We opted for Commerce Coinbase, which is published by Coinbase (a benchmark company in the field of cryptocurrencies that is somewhat reassuring). Surprisingly, it does not charge any commission. 

Note: Before you add Bitcoin payments to a WordPress site, you must check if Bitcoins are legal in your country. Indeed, the popularity of Bitcoins is rising day by day, they’re still not a permitted (legal) tender in many countries.

Getting paid in Bitcoin with Coinbase Commerce Payment Gateway 

Start by creating an account on Coinbase Commerce and add your website address to the Whitelist; select the different cryptocurrencies you accept (among Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin).

Then install the Coinbase plugin on your WordPress site, either through your FTP client after downloading it or directly from your WordPress dashboard in Extensions – Add extension, search for Coinbase and install the Coinbase Commerce plugin.

Activate the plugin, then in the Woocommerce – Settings – Payments – Coinbase payment methods: 1. click on Manage. 2. Choose your different display options (Title, messages to display, icons, etc.), then enter your API key and your Webhook key. This will allow Coinbase to resend a payment received a notification to your site. You will find these two keys in the Settings of your Coinbase Commerce account.

Bitcoin wordpress plugin: The Coinbase commerce plugin is configured in minutes!

Don’t forget to add the return address for payment notifications in your Coinbase Commerce account. The address is just under the field where you need to fill in your Webhook key, and you need to add it in the Settings section, Webhook Subscriptions, Add an endpoint.

Register, then activate the Coinbase payment method in the settings of your WooCommerce payments. And, here you go!

If you want to add Bitcoin payment to your WordPress site, get in touch with us! We’d love to serve you!

Related Posts

In our interconnected world, the ability to communicate effectively across different languages is more crucial

Running a usability test on WordPress sites is essential because it provides invaluable insights into

WordPress advanced fields are helpful for site owners as they allow storing extra data and

Komal Bothra March 21, 2024

Best Sites to Hire WordPress Developers & Designers in 2024

If you are looking to hire the best WordPress developer or an expert WordPress website

WordPress
Komal Bothra March 21, 2024

Elementor Stuck on Loading Screen? Here’s 25+ Methods to Fix it!

Elementor simplifies the process of developing website pages in WordPress. However, you may occasionally encounter

WordPress
Komal Bothra March 19, 2024

How to Setup Your GoDaddy Business Email to Gmail? (Simple Steps)

Juggling multiple email accounts at once can be overwhelming. If you are drowning in the

Tech

Get started with Seahawk

Sign up in our app to view our pricing and get discounts.