Accepting Bitcoin for car customisations

Payment gateways are not popular yet in car customisation, with the majority of services being paid in cash from detailing shops or car wrap studios, with only some featuring credit card processing due to the maintenance, fees and sometimes the acceptability of their businesses based on services and revenue.

This can often leave customisation merchants at a loss on how to process payments that are not cash and with digital and IT not necessarily second nature to most motor heads, they can face challenges other businesses do not face.

At 3Dom Wraps we have been exploring alternative finance options for both the consumer and the merchant, starting with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency payments for car customisation

Cryptocurrencies are complicated to get started using, but they do come with some significant benefits for those willing to explore what is possible. Crypto works wallet to wallet, meaning your customers can pay you for your car wrap or detailing services from their wallet to yours, all digitally but without a bank or central institution sitting between the payment.

This comes with multiple benefits:

• independence from expensive, corporate solutions such as payment gateways
• cheaper processing fees
• in some cases, instant transfer of funds
• highly secure, decentralised processing of payments

There’s no charge backs or refund processing possible with cryptocurrencies, so every payment is set in stone and can never be changed, while the transaction is forever store on what is called the Blockchain. 

What cryptocurrency should you use for payments?

This is where things become more complicated for merchants. Bitcoin is the most popular and most valuable currency, but it comes with highly volatile valuations vs the pound or USD, while it is also quite slow to process once it has been sent. It’s slow because it’s secure and decentralised, but this means it’s often the wrong solution for payments.

Bitcoin can often be considered as digital gold. Would you accept a piece of gold for your services or money?

Alternative options could be considered any of the 2000 currencies that exist, but in reality that is not the case. The vast majority of tokens available are developed on a network called Ethereum and are what’s called Utility tokens. These tokens provide a specific function on a certain piece of technology, many of which are totally unrelated to the process of transferring value – ie making a payment.

The types of cryptocurrencies you should be looking at are Bitcoin via Lightening Network, Nano or Stella. These types of crypto coins are far more suitable for a transfer of value. For online stores such as detailing product merchants, you may need to integrate with a crypto payment gateway in order to properly receive and account for payments.

Be sure to speak with an experienced cryptocurrency accountant before exploring if crypto is right for your business.