Stripe is the backbone of many of the best eCommerce platforms and online services, offering a wide range of tools for quick and easy payments.
Not content to rest on its laurels, Stripe has now announced a number of updates and new services at its recent developer conference, including the ability for merchants to convert fiat currency, i.e. dollars and pounds, into bitcoin and vice versa.
The ability to do so comes from a partnership with bitcoin payments startup OpenNote, with an app appearing in Stripe's new Stripe Apps section to facilitate transactions.
Convert incoming payments to #Bitcoin in real time, automatically, or on demand with the new @OpenNode app being featured in the upcoming @Stripe App Marketplace. Learn more here 👇🏾 https://t.co/n8tS5JWvcS pic.twitter.com/xHlHHgbhXg May 24, 2022
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The app marketplace, detailed by Stripe in a blog post (opens in a new tab), means third-party developers can now build tools directly in Stripe, starting with more than 50 companies, including Dropbox and Mailchimp.
Stripe's APIs are already the backbone of everything on the web, at least in terms of payments, and these updates will only add to that.
To bitcoin and beyond
Using the OpenNote app, merchants at Stripe can now quickly and easily convert fiat currency to bitcoin in near real time, with the ability to convert a given amount into cryptocurrency.
There's a dashboard that offers a view of your bitcoin holdings and conversion rates, along with other information, and OpenNote will allow merchants to directly link their bank accounts for withdrawals.
Given that cryptocurrencies are crashing, the timing of this announcement is interesting and shows that Stripe management believes that Bitcoin is at least here to stay.
Whether this prediction works remains to be seen, but in the meantime, merchants in the digital world can now add an additional payment option and store their funds in bitcoin.
Via Bitcoin Magazine (Opens in a new tab)