Do you remember the moment you came up with the idea to accept bitcoin on your eCommerce website — and the next moment when you realized you had no idea how to do it? BTCPay Server is our knight in shining armour.

Starting from an angry tweet, a Bitcoin believer has inspired an open-source champion that integrates with WooCommerce, Shopify, and more. And did I mention it’s free? If you’re an eCommerce business owner, freelancer, crowdfunder, charity, or STO provider like ourselves, the future of payments starts here.

What Is BTCPay Server?

BTCPay Server allows any website to receive payments or donations in the form of bitcoin. In other words, it is payment processing software for Bitcoin.

BTCPay Server is free and open-source. You can even host your own BTCPay server. 

It can be used independently or with a range of eCommerce integrations such as WooCommerce, Drupal, Magneto, and many more. You can even develop your custom integration. 

The Origin Story

Like many things in this new digital age, BTCPay began life as an angry tweet. Back in 2017, software developer and Bitcoin believer Nicolas Dorier was outraged when he believed that Bitcoin payment processor BitPay misled its users. 

Bitpay had provided an update to changes to its service because of the SegWit fork to Bitcoin. But according to Dorier, it did not tell its users that it was using a slightly different version of Segwit and was replacing Bitcoin for a new version of Bitcoin called “B2X.” There were also security concerns — a big red flag. In response, Dorier vowed to create an open-source alternative to BitPay.

Dorier started coding by himself, but he was soon joined by a community of developers and merchants who believed in his mission. It was modelled on the BitPay API.

Today, BTCPay is used throughout the internet.

8 Reasons to use BTCPay

Not convinced? Well, here are eight practical reasons why we at STOKR use BTCPay, and why we think you might want to as well:

1. No Middleman

Anyone can deploy their own BTCPay server. This means payments go from your website directly to your crypto wallet. No third-party service providers are involved. You are in direct control of the whole process. 

2. It’s Secure

No middleman means fewer opportunities for security compromises. 

Further, BTCPay has no access to your private keys, nor does it need a custodial wallet to work. It also supports hardware wallets. 

A self-hosted server also runs on a full node, which provides full verification certainty of Bitcoin transactions as well as operational resilience.

BTCPay also supports Payjoin and Tor. Payjoin makes it more difficult to identify who owns the bitcoin involved in a transaction. Tor is an open-source router for anonymous communication.

Being open-source means BTCPay’s code can be audited by security experts and is improved by the community over time.

3. It’s Free

And isn’t that what we all care about? BTCPay is free to use, and because there are no middlemen, there are no third-party service fees or merchant fees from banks or credit card companies.

4. It Values Privacy

No customer data is shared during BTCPay transactions. It’s just software! That’s the beauty of it.

5. It’s Open-Source and Supported By a Community of Developers

While setting up your own BTCPay server is technical, it is not difficult. But if you do get stuck or have any problems, there is a whole community of developers and publicly available documentation on GitHub to help you. The community also continues to improve the service including adding new integrations. Not to mention that BTCPay Server’s developers are some of the nicest out there and always ready to help you out!

6. It’s Scalable

One BTCPay server can theoretically support an infinite number of online stores or crowdfunding sites. The only bottleneck is the hardware that you use. You can also let other stores or friends use the server.

7. It Has All the Usual Payment Service Features

BTCPay supports invoicing: users can generate and manage invoices with their BTCPay server.

It also supports refunds, tipping, patronage, automatic selling, and pull payments such as time-based billing and subscription payments.

8. Supports Integration and Automation Via Its API

As with any API, functions can be customized, controlled, and automated using BTCPay’s API. It also allows for the integration with a range of payment apps like WooCommerce, the Lightning Network, Shopify, and more. It’s modelled on the BitPay API and is BitPay-compatible.

A Disadvantage?

Although it depends on whether you think it really is one; BTCPay does not support fiat currency or the automatic conversion between crypto and fiat. Customers wanting to pay using bitcoin must already have them. 

This can be seen as a disadvantage but is deliberate on the part of the BTCPay community as it makes them a smaller regulatory target.

Final Thoughts

BTCPay shows you the strength of open-source solutions: all of the features with none of the compromises, and a whole community of support. Dorier has helped create a service to the benefit of eCommerce and crowdfunding sites everywhere. With a little tinkering, you too can enable your customers to pay with bitcoin with just the click of a button. 

SURYA VAJJHALA