Your input is needed. In an open letter to customers, CheapAir’s CEO, Jeff Klee, wants to know what people think about moving away from Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) for a different option such as BitPay. Now is the perfect time to let your voice be heard.
Since 2013, customers have been able to pay for flight and hotel bookings using BTC coin; however, Klee points out that Coinbase’s decision to suspend “custodial” solutions for merchants could be a deterrent to the practice. In lieu of Coinbase’s Merchant Tools, all merchants will have to switch to Coinbase Commerce by the end of May. With that transition, merchants will have to be in charge of their own cryptocurrency payment solutions.
Klee suggests BitPay as a viable alternative, although he notes that BitPay is limited to a degree since it only works with certain protocol-compliant wallets.
“We understand what BitPay is trying to accomplish,” Klee wrote. “The issues they are trying to address—delayed or incorrect payments—are real and were especially rampant back in December and January when transaction volumes spiked. On the other hand, I am not keen on the idea of asking our customers to, in many cases, do more work or change wallets just to be able to transact with us.”
There are several ways for customers to leave their feedback: by commenting on the post on the website; by responding to the @cheapair handle on Twitter; or by sending Klee an email directly to [email protected]. All feedbacks are welcome, whether they be in favor or against the move, or even general comments on the idea. No deadline to leave comments was given.
Litecoin’s Charlie Lee has already spoken up on the subject. In a tweet, Lee suggested using AliantPayment, which currently only accepted SegWit-Coin BTC, Ethereum and Litecoin.
The jury is still out on whether or not the Coinbase move is a smart one. Already, Reddit has removed BTC coin as a payment option for its Gold premium membership program due to the switch, and many other companies may follow suit.
Atlanta, Georgia-based BitPay has been around since 2011. It accepts BTC coin and Bitcoin Cash, and is currently one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency payment processors. It has partnered with NewEgg, Microsoft, TigerDirect and Warner Bros. Records. It reportedly processes more than $1 million in payments daily.
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