Developers, entrepreneurs and more who are selling software and other virtual goods via the Internet and payment platform Digital River now have another option for customers to use while paying.
The Minneapolis based company today announced that they have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment option.
Bitcoin will now be available along with other international payment options, such as credit and debit cards, wire transfers, bank transfers and third-party wallets.
“Bitcoin continues to attract more mainstream attention,” said Tom Peterson, executive vice president and general manager of commerce at Digital River. “We’re excited to be among the first pure play ecommerce providers to make the cryptocurrency available for small to mid-sized businesses interested in providing their online shoppers more payment choices and added convenience.
“Because Digital River acts as the merchant- and seller-of-record, our international base of customers can accept and process bitcoin payments in their U.S. online stores with less risk than they could on their own,” added Peterson. “In addition, this business model creates an opportunity for our customers to offer payment solutions that may be in earlier stages of adoption in their domestic markets.”
Digital River partnered with San Francisco-based Coinbase, a bitcoin wallet and platform provider, to handle the conversion of bitcoin into U.S. dollars and process the payments. “The payments world is energized by talks of digital currencies,” said Souheil Badran, Digital River World Payments’ senior vice president and general manager. “One of the bigger risks faced by merchants is dealing with the volatility of the digital currency market. Partnering with Coinbase allows Digital River to help mitigate that risk for our customers.”
“With Digital River’s expertise in the global commerce and payments industry, we’re proud to support the extension of their payment options for small to mid-sized businesses,” said Adam White, director of business development and sales at Coinbase. “This partnership is another positive step forward in bringing bitcoin payments to the everyday consumer.”
Interestingly enough Digital River was the first payments platform I ever used on the Internet many years back so to see them still not only chugging along but doing something so forward thinking is awesome!
