Accept Ethereum payments to your wallet
The most straightforward way to accept Ethereum payments for your business is direct to your Ethereum wallet. You can display your Ethereum wallet address on your website, or even have it on a sign in your brick-and-mortar store. You can also display the QR code to make life easier for your customers.
There is a problem with this method, however. If you receive a lot of payments, it can become difficult to keep track of who sent each payment. The problem can be remedied by asking customers to supply you with their address, so you can link the payment to their purchase.
Accept Ethereum payments with a POS terminal
There are plenty of options when it comes to Bitcoin POS terminals (Read: “Top 10 Bitcoin POS Terminals“). There is not the same abundance when it comes to Ethereum POS terminals, however. The lack of Ethereum POS machines is due to the fact that Ethereum is still not as popular as Bitcoin when it comes to in-store purchases. We’ll keep this article updated as more developments happen in the POS space.
Accept Ethereum payments with a payment gateway
There are a number of payment gateways that will allow you to accept Ethereum payments for your business. These payment gateways are straightforward and easy to implement on your website. Once a customer makes a purchase, the Ethereum payment is converted into fiat money. You can decide whether you’d like to have them converted to USD, EUR, or GBP. Here are a few examples of payment gateways you can use:
Accept Ethereum payments with WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the go-to plugin for WordPress sites that want to sell items or services online. The plug-in can facilitate credit and debit card payments, PayPal payments, and yes, Ethereum payments. Check out the Pay With Ether For WooCommerce plug-in and install it for your e-commerce website.
Build an Ethereum payment system from scratch
Although there are plenty of third-party payment processors you can use, there is also the option of building your own system. The obvious disadvantage of this is that you need to know a bit about coding. However, the benefits of building your own payment system are also clear: you pay no fees.
What do you need?
To build your own Ethereum payment system, you will need a web server running PHP. You will also need an RPC-enabled Parity node in your private network with RPC enabled. You’ll also need a vanity address generator like Vanity-ETH.
How does it work?
You will need to consult the Coinbase API to determine the right price of Ethereum. Once you’ve done that, you can pair your address with the Vanity-ETH vanity generator. You can then encrypt your private key for safety purposes. Finally, you’ll need to display your Ethereum address on your website so customers know where to send the money.
How to cash in your Ethereum payments
Once you’ve received Ethereum payments from your customers you can convert them to fiat money. If you’ve made use of a payment gateway, this part will also have been handled. Otherwise, you can read our guide on How To Sell Ether.