BitPay

BitPay
Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia, USA, United States, Argentina, Netherlands
No. of locations 6
Area served Worldwide
Chairman Tony Gallippi
CEO Stephen Pair
Industry Payment Processor
Employees 80+[1]
Website Official website
Launched May 2011 (2011-05)

BitPay is a global bitcoin () payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.[2] It was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair. BitPay provides payment processing services for merchants, and is one of the largest bitcoin payment processors.[3] In 2014, BitPay started processing $1 million USD daily.[4]

In 2014, BitPay announced partnerships with merchants including Microsoft, NewEgg, TigerDirect, and Warner Bros. Records.[5][6][7][8] In the same year, BitPay also partnered with payment systems operator PayPal as well as merchant acquirers such as Global Payments and Alternet Systems.[9][10][11]

BitPay has developed open source bitcoin projects, including BitCore and Copay.[12][13]

History

2011 - 2012

BitPay was first founded in 2011 to provide mobile checkout services to companies that wanted to accept bitcoins. Following the foundation of the company, co-founder Gallippi visited a conference in Prague in November 2011 to discuss bitcoin. At the time he announced that the company had around 100 merchants actively using their service. Within the first year by October 2012, BitPay had grown to having 1,100 active merchants.[14]

One of the first major partnerships came in 2012, when BitPay became the official bitcoin merchant for WordPress.[15] The move came to make WordPress more accessible to bloggers in countries that frequently faced blocks for either financial or political reasons.[16] Bitcoin at the time had no central authority, meaning BitPay couldn't lock entire countries out.[17][18]

In September 2012, the company announced that it had reached the milestone of 1,000 merchants using BitPay to accept bitcoin payments. Around the same time a breakdown of BitPay's customer base was discussed with around 60% of their merchants based in the United States. Europe and the UK accounted for 25%, with the remaining merchants spread across a total of 98 countries.[19]

2013

BitPay announced in January 2013 that they would be relocating their headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia from their previous location, Orlando, Florida. The move came following the announcement the company had secured $510,000 in seed funding. According to the company's co-founder, the city of Atlanta was chosen due to the number of fintech companies located in Georgia. At the time the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) stated that the state of Georgia was home to more than 90 fintech companies.[20] Later that year, it was announced that the first bitcoin charity would be established, the BitGive Foundation. The charitable foundation was created by Connie Gallippi, the sister of BitPay's Chairman and co-founder, Gallippi.[21] The board of directors included the BitPay cofounder, Pair. Shortly after the launch of BitGive, it was announced that BitPay would be the merchants for the charitable organization.[21]

Gyft, who specialise in gift cards, partnered with BitPay in 2013.[22] Payments began to be processed initially via Gyft's Android app. During an interview with Tech Crunch Gallippi announced that BitPay was processing on average $5 million per month in Bitcoin transactions for its merchants.[22] In May 2013, BitPay announced that they had raised $2 million via Founders Fund.[23]

In September 2013, the company announced it had reached the milestone of 10,000 merchants. Gallippi stated that since the foundation of the company they had processed over $34m, which was the equivalent to 270,830 bitcoins at the time on the Bitcoin Price Index.[24]

BitPay developed a processing module in 2013 for WooCommerce, which allowed the company to process online orders made with Bitcoin. The move allowed orders fulfilled by Amazon.com to be placed with Bitcoin, but meant that Amazon and other e-commerce sites would receive the amount in their given currency.[25] In late 2013, BitPay was used for the purchase of a Tesla Motors car, the Model S in California.[26] Until that point, car purchases using Bitcoin had been rare. The partnership between the Lamborghini dealership and BitPay continued when news of the purchase featured in the media.[27] The media coverage led to other potential customers to contact the dealership, requesting to pay in Bitcoin.[27]

2014

In 2014 BitPay expanded its North American presence beyond its headquarters in Atlanta, opening offices in New York City, San Francisco and St. Petersburg, Florida.[28][29] BitPay's European headquarters opened in Amsterdam and their South American Headquarters were opened in Argentina.[30][31]

In January at CES 2014, BitPay announced that 12,000 merchants had signed up to their service.[32] The D Las Vegas and Golden Gate Hotel and Casino both announced that BitPay would be used as their chosen merchant for Bitcoin in Las Vegas. They were two of the first casinos in Las Vegas to accept Bitcoin.[33]

Shortly after CES 2014, the NBA basketball team the Sacramento Kings announced they would become the first major sports franchise in North America to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for tickets and merchandise. The transactions would be processed by BitPay, making them the first Bitcoin merchant to process sports tickets on such a large scale.[34] The implementation of the virtual currency would start from March 1, when fans and visitors to the Sacramento Kings games would be able to use Bitcoin to make the payment. In this instance, fans would pay in Bitcoin before BitPay converted the Bitcoin amount into dollars for the Sacramento Kings.[35] The move came after Adafruit began accepting Bitcoin in November, which enabled the Sacramento Kings to accept the cryptocurrency.[36] Limor Fried stated at the time one of the biggest obstacles that BitPay helped overcome was letting "clients stay out of the currency and exchange process".[37]

Within the same month, it was announced that Zynga would also begin to accept Bitcoin, with BitPay as its merchant.[38] The deal would be for in-game purchases for the games FarmVille 2, CastleVille, ChefVille, CoasterVille, Hidden Chronicles, Hidden Shadows, and CityVille, which was confirmed by CNET following the initial announcement on Reddit.[39] The news of the partnership between BitPay and Zynga prompted a sharp rise in the Cryptocurrency. This was following the fall in December 2013 after the Chinese government took steps to enact a crackdown on the currency.[40]

In June 2014, it was announced that the rapper 50 Cent would be accepting Bitcoin for his new album release, Animal Ambition. According to USA Today,[41] all the Bitcoin purchases for the album would be processed by BitPay.[42] At the time of the album release, many independent artists had accepted Bitcoin as a form of payment before 50 Cent. He was however seen at the time as one of the best-known musicians to accept the digital currency as a form of payment.[43] BitPay in August 2014 was the merchant for one of the largest home purchases to be made using the Bitcoin currency. The property was located near Lake Tahoe at a value of $1.6 million or 2,739 bitcoins.[44] Around the same time of the transaction for the property on Lake Tahoe, the Wall Street Journal announced an American-based company would become one of the first nationally to stop receiving dollars and only accept payments through BitPay.[45] From 2016 onwards Euro Pacific Precious Metals would only receive payments in Bitcoin, with BitPay acting as the merchant for all the transactions.[46] In September, BitPay announced that they were partnering with processing giant PayPal for bitcoin acceptance in their Payment Hub.[9]

In 2014, BitPay merchant BitGive became the first bitcoin charity to be recognized as a charitable organization by the IRS and was granted 501(c)(3) status.[47] The 2014 FEC ruling that bitcoin donations can be accepted by political campaigns and organizations led to BitPay partnering with CoinVox[48] and other fundraising organizations.[49] In June, BitPay became the first Bitcoin company to sponsor a North American sports event. They sponsored the St. Petersburg Bowl, a college bowl game. Following the announcement, over 100 companies in the St. Petersburg area took steps so that they could accept the digital currency before the first event.[50]

2015

In September 2015, the company sued its insurance provider in regards to non-coverage of a 5000 BTC theft that occurred in December 2014[51][52]

In May 2016, BitPay launched the BitPay Visa Prepaid Debit Card, the first prepaid Visa debit card available for bitcoin users in all 50 US states.[53] At Money2020 in October 2016, company CEO Stephen Pair introduced the BitPay app, a secure bitcoin wallet built on the company's open source Copay wallet platform.[54]

The company also added new bitcoin-accepting firms including gaming platform Steam,[55] nonprofit Heifer International,[56] and precious metals provider JM Bullion.[57] New collaborations and releases with Intel[58] and Microsoft's Azure Cloud platform[59] brought new features and capabilities to BitPay's Copay and Bitcore open source platforms.

Services

BitPay's merchant processing offerings mitigate the risk of bitcoin price volatility by allowing the merchant to accept bitcoin and immediately converting it to US Dollars, Euros, or the currency of the merchant's choice.[60] Bitpay works across 30 currencies and because it is non-reversible, it makes it valuable for merchants who are working internationally. In 2013 it was announced that merchants could accept Bitcoin and receive fiat currency the next day for a 0.99% fee.[61]

In July 2014, BitPay announced that it would offer free and unlimited payment processing, forever.[60] This announcement resulted in TechCrunch declaring that bitcoin is a catalyst for the commoditization of payment processing.[62] Merchants have the ability to accept bitcoin with open source plugins and hosted software.[63]

The service for Bitcoin payments, fulfilled by Amazon was first introduced in 2013 and was seen as a positive move for the Bitcoin currency. The module was developed with WooCommerce and has meant that web stores using Amazon.com for fulfillment could from that point forward accept Bitcoin currency. Following the integration it was explained that the module worked closely with the fulfilment API and that the process would be completed automatically. When compared to other processors such as PayPal, many of them have to go through and enter information manually in order to complete the purchase, which isn't the case with BitPay.[25]

In addition to their eCommerce offerings, BitPay also has point-of-sale integration with SoftTouch, VisualTouch and DC POS as well as a Web-App and Android app.[64] The company also provides a payroll API whereby American employees can elect to have all or part of their salary paid in bitcoin.[65] 2014 also brought the introduction of Get Bits, an easy to use Facebook app designed for Bitcoin beginners that searches a user's network to find someone who has Bitcoin available.[66][67]

BitPay employs members of staff to work on open source projects to benefit the Bitcoin currency. In 2013, one of their new developers who had moved from Red Hat stated that he had been employed by BitPay to simply work on open source projects to aid the development of Bitcoin.[68]

Funding

Initial funding came from a variety of sources including Shakil Khan, Barry Silbert, Jimmy Furland, Roger Ver[23] and Trace Mayer.[69]

In January 2013 the company announced US $510,000 in angel investment, its first external capital after being internally bootstrapped.[70] The investment coincided with the company relocating their headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia. It was stated at the time that the funding would be used to help advance Bitcoin processing.[71]

In June 2013, BitPay received an additional US $2 million venture capital investment led by the Founders Fund.[23] A Tech Crunch article stated that the investment would likely be spent on staffing, with a number of coding specialists required around that time.The funding was seen as an attempted push to become more global and was seen by some as a larger VC land grab for Bitcoin companies.[23] The Founders Fund investment was overseen by Peter Thiel, who was Facebook's first major investor.[72] It was said the investment came from Thiel and Founders Fund, because he saw how BitPay could help ease online commerce across borders.[72]

In December 2013, Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-shing invested through his Horizons Ventures firm about $2.7 million into BitPay.[73] At the time of the investment he was seen as the richest person in Asia.[73]

In May 2014, BitPay received $30 million in funding from investors including Index Ventures, RRE Ventures, Virgin Group's Richard Branson and Yahoo founder Jerry Yang.[74][75]

Sponsorship

In June 2014, BitPay reached a deal with ESPN Events to become title sponsor of the St. Petersburg Bowl for two years. The NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game began in 2008 and is played annually at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. BitPay secured the title sponsorship after Beef O'Brady's, who had sponsored the event since 2009, declined to renew.[76] Rather than branding it with the BitPay name, the Bitcoin name will be used to brand the game, as BitPay intended the sponsorship to promote the technology rather than the company itself. The currency was supposed to be accepted for ticket, concession, and merchandise sales for and during the game, and the sponsorship itself was also paid in Bitcoin. However, reports from the game indicated that this was not the case. Financial terms have not yet been disclosed.[76][77]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mayer, Trace. "Bitpay Founder Tony Gallippi discusses merchant adoption of Bitcoin.". Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "BitPay CrunchBase Profile". Crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  3. ↑ "BitPay Now Top-Funded Bitcoin Startup After Raising $30 Million".
  4. ↑ Hajdarbegovic, Nermin (May 28, 2014). "BitPay Now Processing $1 Million in Bitcoin Payments Every Day". Coindesk.
  5. ↑ Casey, Michael (December 11, 2014). "Microsoft to Allow Bitcoin Payments for Games, Apps, Other Content". Wall Street Journal.
  6. ↑ Murphy, David (July 3, 2014). "Newegg Now Accepting Bitcoin". PCMag.com.
  7. ↑ Shankland, Stephen (January 24, 2014). "US Retailer TigerDirect Accepts Bitcoin Payments". CNet.com.
  8. ↑ Stutz, Colin (June 11, 2014). "Mastodon, 50 Cent First Mainstream Acts to Accept Bitcoin Payments". Billboard.com.
  9. 1 2 Karkaria, Urvaksh (September 23, 2014). "Atlanta-based BitPay hooks up with PayPal to expand bitcoin adoption". Atlanta Business Chronicle.
  10. ↑ "Global Payments Signs Referral Agreement with BitPay to Offer Bitcoin Payment Acceptance". The Wall Street Journal. August 6, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Alternet Systems Launches Worldwide Payment Processing Business Through Strategic Agreement WIth BitPay". CNN. September 3, 2014. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014.
  12. ↑ "BitPay Unveils Bitcore, its Open-Source Project for App Developers". CoinDesk. 2014-02-15. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  13. ↑ "BitPay Releases Beta for Open-Source, Multi-Signature Bitcoin Wallet". CoinDesk. 2014-07-09. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  14. ↑ Peck, Morgen (Oct 8, 2012). "3 Years in, Bitcoin Digital Money Gains Momentum". Scientific American.
  15. ↑ Farivar, Cyrus (2012-11-16). "WordPress now accepting payment in Bitcoin". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  16. ↑ Musil, Steven. "WordPress begins accepting Bitcoin for service upgrades". CNET.
  17. ↑ Matonis, Jon. "What's Your Bitcoin Strategy? WordPress Now Accepts Bitcoin Across The Planet". Forbes.
  18. ↑ "WordPress.com criticizes PayPal, credit card firms for restrictions, now lets you pay with Bitcoin". The Next Web.
  19. ↑ Browdie, Brian (September 11, 2012). "BitPay Signs 1,000 Merchants to Accept Bitcoin Payments". American Banker.
  20. ↑ "Bitcoin payments processor, BitPay relos HQ to Atlanta and plans software center". Biz Journals. Jan 7, 2013.
  21. 1 2 Roy, Jessica (30 July 2013). "And Now, the First Ever Bitcoin Charity". BetaBeat.
  22. 1 2 Olanoff, Drew (May 9, 2013). "Mobile Gift Card App Gyft Partners With BitPay To Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments In Its Android App".
  23. 1 2 3 4 Ingrid Lunden (2013-05-16). "With PayPal-Like Ambitions For Bitcoin, BitPay Raises $2M Led By Founders Fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  24. ↑ Spaven, Emily. "BitPay now has over 10,000 merchants in its payment processor network". CoinDesk.
  25. 1 2 Kirk, Jeremy. "Bitcoin processor links web shopping carts to Amazon.com's shipping". IT World.
  26. ↑ Foxhall, Emily. "O.C. Lamborghini dealership sells car for 91.4 bitcoins". LA Times.
  27. 1 2 Trudell, Craig (7 December 2013). "Bitcoin Meets Tesla With Lamborghini Dealership’s Model S Sale". Business Week. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014.
  28. ↑ "(Press Release) BitPay Opens San Francisco and New York Offices". Yahoo Finance. March 19, 2014.
  29. ↑ Wilkerson, Chris (August 22, 2014). "BitPay looking to inspire startups in St. Pete". Tampa Bay Business Journal.
  30. ↑ "(Press Release) BitPay Opens Latin America Headquarters in Argentina". Reuters. March 5, 2014.
  31. ↑ "(Press Release) BitPay Opens European Headquarters in Amsterdam". Yahoo Finance. April 2, 2014.
  32. ↑ Popelka, Larry (13 January 2014). "Ten Innovations From CES You Should Know About". Business Week.
  33. ↑ Trejos, Nancy. "Las Vegas casinos adopt new form of currency: Bitcoins". USA Today.
  34. ↑ "Sacramento Kings to accept Bitcoin for purchases". USA Today. January 16, 2014.
  35. ↑ Rovell, Darren. "Sacramento Kings to accept Bitcoin". ESPN.com.
  36. ↑ Terdiman, Daniel. "Sacramento Kings are first pro sports team to accept Bitcoin". CNET.
  37. ↑ Terdiman, Daniel. "Turnabout is fair play: Bitcoins mined with Adafruit's miner used to buy Adafruit products". CNET.
  38. ↑ Ingrid Lunden. "Zynga Links Up With BitPay For A Bitcoin Payment Test In FarmVille 2, CityVille And Other Web Games". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  39. ↑ Musil, Steven. "Zynga begins testing Bitcoin payments for some online games". CNET.
  40. ↑ Brennan, Morgan. "Why more businesses may adopt bitcoin". USA Today.
  41. ↑ Ryan, Patrick. "Ka-ching! You can buy 50 Cent's new album with Bitcoin". USA Today.
  42. ↑ Snyder, Riley (June 3, 2014). "Rapper 50 Cent accepting bitcoin as payment for new album". LaTimes.com.
  43. ↑ "Rapper 50 Cent (BTC 0.0007458) Seeks Digital Dough for his Flow". Wall Street Journal. 3 June 2014.
  44. ↑ Jackson, Candace. "Lake Tahoe Property Sells for $1.6 Million in Bitcoins". Wall Street Journal.
  45. ↑ Paul Vigna, Michael J. Casey (22 August 2014). "BitBeat: Bitcoin Accepted Here; Dollars, Not So Much". Wall Street Journal.
  46. ↑ Rosenberg, Alex (May 22, 2014). "Euro Pacific Precious Metals". CNBC.com.
  47. ↑ Anderson, Mark (August 26, 2014). "Sacramento charity may be nation's first bitcoin-based nonprofit". Sacramento Business Journal.
  48. ↑ Biggs, John (June 12, 2014). "CoinVox Brings Bitcoin Donations To Politicians". TechCrunch.
  49. ↑ Ploshay, Elizabeth (July 24, 2014). "Bitcoin for Campaign Donations". BitPay Official Blog. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014.
  50. ↑ "Digital currency and bowl backer Bitcoin seeks to broaden its appeal as a form of payment". Tampa Bay Times. August 22, 2014.
  51. ↑ "Atlanta's Bitpay got hacked for $1.8 million in bitcoin - Atlanta Business Chronicle". Atlanta Business Chronicle. 16 September 2015.
  52. ↑ "BitPay Sues Insurer After Losing $1.8 Million in Phishing Attack". CoinDesk.
  53. ↑ http://bravenewcoin.com/news/bitpay-extends-exchange-services-with-visa-debit-card/
  54. ↑ https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitpay-launches-bitcoin-payments-app-among-array-of-new-features-1477496150
  55. ↑ http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/28/11525482/bitcoin-steam-valve-bitpay
  56. ↑ https://www.heifer.org/about-heifer/press/press-releases/2016/heifer-international-announces-bitcoin-donation-method.html
  57. ↑ http://www.coindesk.com/precious-metals-jm-bullion-accept-bitcoin/
  58. ↑ http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/24/bitpay-beefs-up-bitcoin-wallet-security-with-intel-chip-integration/
  59. ↑ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-blockchain-as-a-service-update-3/
  60. 1 2 Sakich, Tony (August 13, 2014). "Merchants: Accept Bitcoin With Free Unlimited Processing, Forever". BitPay Official Blog. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014.
  61. ↑ Harris, Robin. "Bitcoin 2013 conference: the future of money?". ZD Net.
  62. ↑ Hernæs, Christoffer (August 8, 2014). "When Payment Processing Becomes A Commodity". TechCrunch.
  63. ↑ "Bitcoin for eCommerce". BitPay.com.
  64. ↑ "BitPay Features". BitPay.com.
  65. ↑ Carney, Michael (February 3, 2014). "Bitcoin payday: BitPay’s Payroll API means bitcoin salaries are near". Pando.
  66. ↑ Rizzo, Pete (July 17, 2014). "BitPay Launches Facebook App for Easy Bitcoin Sharing". Coindesk.
  67. ↑ Pair, Stephen (July 17, 2014). "Help your friends get bits — Facebook, meet Bitcoin". Official BitPay Blog. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014.
  68. ↑ Niccolai, James. "Bitcoin developer chats about regulation, open source, and the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto". PC World.
  69. ↑ Jahosky, Jan. "BitPay Expands Seed Round with VC Investors". http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130304006653/en/BitPay-Expands-Seed-VC-Investors. Business Wire. Retrieved March 6, 2013. External link in |website= (help)
  70. ↑ Drew Olanoff (2013-01-07). "BitPay Banks $510K In Investment To Become PayPal for Bitcoin, Already Has 2,100 Businesses On Board". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  71. ↑ Dotson, Kyt (9 January 2013). "BitPay Receives $510,000 in Funding Round to Advance Bitcoin Processing". Silicon Angle.
  72. 1 2 "Bitcoin Hits the Big Time, to the Regret of Some Early Boosters". Technology Review.
  73. 1 2 "Asia’s Richest Man Invests In BitPay". Tech Crunch.
  74. ↑ BitPay Scores Record $30M in Funding, Aided by Richard Branson Betabeat.com 5/15/2014 by Molly Mushine
  75. ↑ Casey, Michael (May 13, 2014). "Bitcoin Processor Raises $30 Million". Wall Street Journal.
  76. 1 2 "BitPay to Sponsor St. Petersburg Bowl in First Major Bitcoin Sports Deal". Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  77. ↑ Wilkerson, Chris (August 22, 2014). "BitPay exec: We paid ESPN for our sponsorship in bitcoin". Tampa Bay Business Journal.
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