Why You Should Accept Bitcoin At Your Storage Facility
Should You Accept Bitcoin With Your Self Storage Facility?
Yes.
That's it. That's the blog post.
Thanks!
Well, I guess I should explain more. Let’s start with an introduction to Bitcoin. What exactly is it? Why is it so popular and is it safe?
What is Bitcoin?
Simply put, Bitcoin is a digital currency. You use digital currencies everyday. Every time you buy something without using cash, you are using a digital form of currency. So, why then, is Bitcoin so unique? Well, it does something that no other digital currency has done so successfully in the past.
It allows you to safely spend (send) digital money without a third party. This may not seem like a major intervention at first but stay with me till the end - you will see how revolutionary Bitcoin really is.
You see, every time that you use digital US Dollar with a credit card, bank transfer or Venmo transfer, you are trusting in a third party (the bank) to verify the transaction. While this may seem like a minor inconvenience, it’s actually a big deal.
On average, every time you use a credit card the credit card companies are making a 1%-3% transaction fee. That fee is passed on directly back to you, the consumer. On every singe transaction you make. No wonder credit cards can give you “Cash Back” … it’s your cash! This also affects you if you are a self storage owner that accepts credit cards. You could simply pass along any processing fees to your
But it's not just the fees that make traditional payment methods troublesome. You see, you have no actual control of the money. Banks can freeze your accounts, credit cards frequently get charge backs and payment processors can deny you their services for even the most minor of infractions.
How is Bitcoin different?
Instead of using a central bank to "verify" that you have money in your account, Bitcoin uses the blockchain.
The blockchain is a relatively simple concept but powerful in its use. The core of the bitcoin network is a series of blocks of data. This data contains all the transactions on the bitcoin network. So every time a transaction happens it gets saved in a new block. This long chain of blocks of data is known as the blockchain.
So instead of a bank verifying your transaction, each transaction is stored in this long blockchain. And the transactions are verified by about 1 million people throughout the world that function as 'miners'. These miners must simultaneously "agree" that a transaction is legitimate by referencing the blockchain to determine if the accounts have the proper amount of bitcoin in them. In this way, you have millions of individuals verifying the transaction, instead of one central bank.
Finally, the entire blockchain is also stored in thousands of computers across the world. Anyone who wants to download the verify the entire blockchain can do so. In that way, you can't modify the bitcoin blockchain without affecting those thousands of computers. A task that would be impossible to perform.
Okay so I get how it works, but why should I accept it as a form of payment in my self storage facility?
There are several reasons who accepting cryptocurrency is a good idea for your self-storage business.
You can talk about it! This is one of the least talked about but more important reasons to accept cryptocurrency at your self-storage company Competition in the self-storage arena is increasing. Some areas are becoming oversaturated and only high quality facilities with strong word of mouth AND digital presence will survive. This means digital marketing and doing things that customers will remember. Having a customer walk into your facility and be offered "cash, card or CRYPTO" is sure to keep them talking. Bitcoin is also a huge talking point online. Accepting crypto is an awesome announcement that you can plaster all over your Facebook and Google Business Profile. Now... if you don't know why posting regular content to your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is important than I suggest you do a quick review of local business SEO.
It's safe, fast and reliable Crypto is starting to reach the mainstream and with that comes easy safe ways of accepting it as a form of payment. There are several major methods which I will go over later: Bitpay, Coinbase Commerce, All of these methods will allow you to accept Bitcoin at your self storage facility. They also feature other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, Ethereum, Doge, Bitcoin Cash and more.
Many customers prefer this method of payment -aka crypto is a movement! Many customers that will want to pay with crypto are also involved in crypto culture. This is a long topic but simply put crypto can be considered as much of a movement as a form of payment. Folks that want to pay with crypto will see your business as 'one of them' and may be loyal to you in the future. Don't underestimate this aspect of customer loyalty. It may prevent move outs when you increase prices!
You will learn about crypto by undergoing this process This is a rather straightforward benefit. Are you scared of crypto? Are you worried if it is safe? Do you want some exposure to Bitcoin but don't know how to do it? Well, as with many things, the best way to learn is by doing.
How do I actually accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment?
There are hundreds of ways to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment. In general however, here are some of the more popular.
Coinbase offers an entire platform dedicated to merchants that want to accept cryptocurrency from customers. They offer a competitive 1% transaction fee for both their "self managed" and their "Coinbase managed" accounts.
Their self managed account allows you to manage your cryptocurrency 100% yourself. Many self storage owners will prefer this. This can be setup within minutes.
The Coinbase Managed account does require an approval process which can take several weeks. However, this option allows Coinbase to immediately change your Crypto payments to US Dollar. This is incredibly useful for avoiding the volatility that Cryptocurrency is known for.
They also have a lovely dashboard for managing and tracking transaction.
Similar to Coinbase, biypay also offers a 1% transaction fee. It should be noted that current credit card transactions fees average about 1.5% for Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
Bitpay also supports plenty of different cryptocurrencies. Bitpay also allows you to automatically settle your transactions in US dollars. Settlement is available via ACH to banks within two days. Bitpay ensures that the exchange rate when converting crypto to USD is correct as well. They do this by comparing multiple exchanges and not charging any markup.
PayPal is more of a cryptocurrency workaround than an actual way to pay with crypto. Instead of actual transacting with cryptocurrency. Customers can store cryptocurrency in their PayPal account The customer pays using cryptocurrency that is in their PayPal account and you have to accept the payment through PayPal. So, if someone has Bitcoin in their standard Bitcoin wallet and want to pay you with it, PayPal will not allow them.
Simply put, customers with crypto CANT ACTUALLY PAY YOU IN CRYPTO.
Feel safe crossing PayPal off your list of cryptocurrency payment methods right now.
Of course, you can still always choose to accept PayPal as a way of payment overall, just not a a true way to accept crypto.
| BitPay | Coinbase Commerce | PayPal | Direct Peer-to-Peer |
Transaction Cost | 1% | 1% | 1.9% to 3.5% | Variable but <$0.005 for Bitcoin Cash |
Accepts Multiple Cryptocurrencies? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Autoconvert to USD? | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Difficulty to Setup? | Easy | Easy | Easy | Moderate |
Actually Able to Accent Crypto? | Yes | Yes | NO! | Or Course! |