Why accept Bitcoin at your business?

Why offer Bitcoin payments?

• Potentially lower payment costs. Bitcoin payments can offer an alternative to percentage-based card processing fees, helping you keep more of each sale.
• Payments that suit the purchase. Receive Bitcoin on-chain or through Lightning, depending on your setup and your customer's wallet. Lightning typically completes in seconds, while on-chain payments need time for confirmations. A provider's payout in pounds is a separate process.
• More customer choice and reach. Welcome people who prefer spending Bitcoin, whether they are local regulars, visitors or online shoppers elsewhere. Offering their preferred payment method gives them another reason to choose you, without replacing familiar ways to pay or guaranteeing extra sales.
• Direct control over your money. A self-custody setup lets you receive Bitcoin directly into a wallet you control, rather than leaving funds with a payment provider. That independence comes with responsibility for keeping access and recovery information secure.
• No card-style chargebacks. Bitcoin payments cannot be reversed through a card-network dispute process, reducing exposure to that kind of payment reversal. This does not eliminate fraud or scams, and refunds and consumer rights still apply.
• New possibilities for agentic commerce. Depending on your business, Bitcoin payments could let AI agents buy products, digital services or API access from your store on a customer's behalf. A compatible checkout or API, with clear spending permissions, is needed alongside payment acceptance to support these automated purchases.

How customers can pay

In person: a Bitcoin wallet or point-of-sale app turns a price in pounds into a payment request. The customer scans its QR code and pays using a method your setup supports, with payment status shown in your app.

Online: add Bitcoin payments to your checkout. BTCPay Server is an open-source, self-hosted option supporting on-chain and Lightning payments, with integrations for online shops. Hosting and payment infrastructure still have costs.