NCR and Diebold Nixdorf Join Crypto Movement | Payments Source

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Cryptocurrency has always been difficult to adapt to traditional payments, largely because most point-of-sale providers didn’t need to support it.

That is changing as major computer hardware makers like NCR and Diebold Nixdorf are finally hearing and responding to merchant demand.

“Crypto payments are rare, but we are quickly getting more and more incoming inquiries from retail, restaurant and banking customers,” said Tim Vanderham, chief technology officer at NCR. “This is happening because there is consumer demand for crypto payments.”

Even in the bubbling and shattered world of cryptocurrency, the past year has seen a huge increase in public awareness among consumers, financial institutions, and payment companies. For NCR and Diebold Nixdorf, crypto has become an inevitable part of their product strategies.

Atlanta-based NCR struck a deal this month to acquire LibertyX, a Boston-based company that operates bitcoin ATMs and kiosks, with a network of around 20,000 retail stores and 9,500 ATMs on field. LibertyX’s digital currency technology also works on point-of-sale terminals and will fuel NCR’s plan to support cryptocurrency in digital and physical settings.

Traders who accept cryptocurrency at the point of sale typically serve a customer base that lends itself to alternative currencies, such as a wine store that serves investment bankers and tech executives. But even AMC, a major movie chain that plans to serve 200 million consumers this year, has announced that it will accept bitcoin for tickets and concessions in U.S. theaters by the end of 2021. AMC did not. not said how she would accept bitcoin, and did not. respond to a request for comment.

This new surge in demand has come from the recent and rapid adoption of bitcoin, as well as the central bank’s focus on stablecoins and digital currencies, Vanderham said. Bitcoin has around 130 million current users and is expected to grow to one billion over the next four years, according to a Nasdaq study. In contrast, it took nearly eight years for the Internet to grow from 130 million users to 1 billion in the 1990s.

Thirteen percent of Americans bought or traded cryptocurrency between July 2020 and July 2021, with two-thirds of that number investing for the first time, according to the University of Chicago. The cryptocurrency’s value topped $ 1,000 billion in early 2021 and has been well above that level for most of the year, surpassing $ 2,000 billion this week. This is far more than the $ 250 billion of crypto in circulation at the start of 2020.

This growth will lead consumers to want ways to withdraw cash, for example by spending their cryptocurrency directly, according to Vanderham.

Traders “will need this capability now, but even more in six months and even more in 18 months,” Vanderham said.

NCR is working on a cryptocurrency payment system that allows consumers to scan a QR code or use a mobile wallet, similar to contactless mobile payments. The trader will have the choice of settling in either traditional currency or cryptocurrency, with NCR relying on near real-time processing to smooth out fluctuations in the cryptocurrency’s valuation. The process is similar to any other type of bidding, and NCR provides consistency in the processing of payments for stablecoins or digital currencies from the central bank.

Unlike many current systems, which exchange funds before the trader receives them, “there will be no exchange between crypto and pre-buy fiat,” Vanderham said.

NCR’s main rival Diebold Nixdorf is preparing to launch its own pilots with customers and expects to have a cryptocurrency payment product on the market later in 2021, said Manish Choudhary, senior vice president software for Diebold Nixdorf, in an e-mail.

Diebold Nixdord ATMs can be configured through software and application programming interfaces to connect to a customer’s preferred cryptocurrency exchange and complete the purchase or sale of cryptocurrencies, a declared Choudhary.

If NCR and Diebold Nixdorf don’t move fast enough, smaller rivals are ready to take their place.

To get crypto accepted to retailers, promoters need to clearly communicate the benefits of accepting crypto as a payment method and facilitate the integration of crypto payments, said Sun Choi, vice president of business development and marketing. business for CoinMe, a decentralized Seattle-based company. financial services company.

CoinMe recently partnered with MoneyGram to power a service that converts digital currency into cash at MoneyGram outlets. The service will expand to international markets later this year, with MoneyGram and CoinMe hoping to bring acceptance of bitcoin to thousands of outlets. CoinMe has also added to its network of cash-to-bitcoin kiosks in partnership with Carrs and Safeway Supermarkets.

The crypto industry will need to make it easier for retail customers to make payments directly from their crypto wallets and incentivize such use to encourage adoption, Choi said.

“Payment processing costs are a very important part of retail businesses, and crypto can drastically reduce those costs and improve the bottom line,” Choi said, adding that the technology needs to remove as much friction as possible. “We can’t expect retailers to receive bitcoin for payment using standard consumer wallets. We need to deliver integrations that mimic the currently popular and widely adopted payment infrastructure, such as Payments. NFC like Apple and Google Pay. “

BitPay, which supports cryptocurrency payments for e-commerce sites, has integrated with Poynt’s Smart Terminal point-of-sale terminals to power in-store payments. Consumers use a QR code and BitPay’s blockchain to access cryptocurrency and stablecoins for use at the point of sale.

BitPay last week launched a service that allows US users of its prepaid Mastercard to add cards to Google Wallet and use Google Pay in the app, online and in person using Android devices. BitPay has a similar agreement with Apple Pay and says support for Samsung Pay will be added soon.

Supporting crypto payments across multiple channels is important because the option is used more for online purchases, with short-term in-store uses likely being limited to commodities, according to research by BitPay, which has revealed that 44% of crypto currency purchases are for gift cards. , around 15% for Internet purchases, with other purchases such as food representing a lower share. The addition of mobile wallets enables more crypto-friendly online shopping while creating habits for more forward-looking payment types.

“Currently, the majority of businesses that accept crypto are online e-commerce sites, so Google Pay support allows crypto holders to use crypto for everyday purchases like gasoline and groceries. “said Bill Zielke, marketing director for Atlanta-based BitPay.

Fiserv, which operates the Clover point of sale system, said it does not currently support cryptocurrency payments. Stripe has also stated that it does not support crypto payments. Square and PayPal, both of which earn income from crypto trading, did not return requests for comment.

At Square, bitcoin trading accounts for over 70% of the company’s overall revenue. This windfall has helped Square fund new services for Square Cash, a peer-to-peer payment app that has served as a launching point for many types of consumer services.

“Mass adoption of distributed ledger technology is much closer than people think. “Central bank digital currencies” has been one of the hottest buzzwords in 2021 and we’ve already seen several pilot and scale-up projects in Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Said Nithin Palavalli, CEO of RubiX, a Zug, Switzerland-based company that develops technology used to validate transactions in a blockchain.

A decentralized payment system, a strong internet connection and a dedicated smartphone or tablet can directly support direct cryptocurrency payments similar to mobile payments, minimizing or eliminating the need for software or hardware upgrades for a terminal. point of sale. This can reduce the costs of managing and processing terminals, Palavalli said. “It is possible that there will be a zero transaction cost for cryptocurrency settlements in the near future.”

While cryptocurrency is “the future of banking,” there are improvements that can be made to make merchants and consumers more comfortable, said Shamsh Hadi, CEO of ZorroSign, a technology company. blockchain based in Phoenix. Private or public blockchains can ensure trust is built in payments, and government credentials can verify that users are complying with “know your customer,” Hadi said.

The growth of these two trends can push for a wider acceptance of mobile apps and crypto wallets for direct payments, and improve the authenticity of transactions, which is a challenge even for digital payments made with traditional currency, a Hadi said. “The timeline for these advances is near, based on my discussions and analysis of how the market is going,” said Hadi, who predicted that there would be a strong push towards the end of the year with an increasingly wide adoption. Next year.

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