31. Cryptocurrency’s Impact on Fintech and E-Commerce, CEO of CoinPayments

Jason Butcher of CoinPayments joins this episode of E-Commerce with Coffee?! to talk about everything crypto and Fintech related. Jason and the rest of the team at CoinPayments help brands easily integrate crypto processing into their platforms, which opens the doors for many benefits that are touched on in this conversation.

Joined by our host Nate Svodoba, Jason talks about consumer adoption, choosing specific coins, payment processing as a business strategy, the future of Fintech, and so much more. Grab yourself your own favorite brew and join us for this installment of E-Commerce with Coffee?!

What to listen for:

• After sharing his coffee habits, Jason gives us a quick intro to crypto gateways. Just like integrated card payments, having the ability to also accept crypto payments on your platform is just another option for customers, and it’s a simple integration.
• Alongside the boom for e-commerce, there has been quite the boom in consumer adoption of crypto as well. Jason talks about how on Shopify alone, business has increased some 15 times in large part due to crypto integration alone. So, while fees and transaction times aren’t quite at the “pay for your coffee with bitcoin” level yet, adoption is certainly visible and growing.
• While adoption is growing, it certainly isn’t at the level of credit cards (for example), so why should merchants bother? Jason explains that there are multiple benefits to accepting crypto, the biggest and most obvious being that having the option is just another chance to catch the buyer before they abandon their cart. Other benefits include financial and personal security on either side of the transaction.
• There’s a lot of press about crypto’s effect on the environment. Jason argues that, when put into perspective, there are a lot of other environmental issues like shipping and personal vehicles that might very well eclipse the effects of crypto. Plus, much of crypto is processed with alternative energy resources. Not to say that crypto doesn’t have an effect on the environment, but Jason explains that the press seems to center crypto disproportionately.
• Jason calls himself “payment agnostic,” explaining that his excitement for crypto lies in its ability to empower global economies and communities with shared value concepts, which isn’t truly particular to any one coin or asset today. In the same vein, Jason says that crypto still has plenty of room to grow.
• When it comes to which crypto to accept, Jason explains that it ultimately depends on what the merchant wants to do with that value. However, if using a service like CoinPayments, brands can auto-convert whatever coin they’ve accepted into whatever coin they prefer to manage.
• When it comes to security concerns in crypto, Jason explains that often a security breach has more to do with the technical literacy than with the crypto itself. Keeping your software up to date and not giving away your keys solve a lot of the security risks that are often reported.