Have you ever wanted to have a simple, fully self hosted way to receive payments from customers or supporters? Maybe you have a crowdfunding project or want to accept donations for your personal project. Well with BTCPay Server you can run everything from your own Point of Sale system for a bricks and mortar store all the way up to an online store front with full integration into e-commerce giants like Shopify or WooCommerce.
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What Is BTCPay Server?
BTCPay Server is a completely Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Bitcoin payment gateway system (think like Visa or Stripe) that was started by Nicolas Dorier back in 2017. It allows any person or business to freely self host their own payment processor and accept bitcoin payments as well as lightning payments. Nicolas started BTCPay Server after the below famous Tweet.
This is lies, my trust in you is broken, I will make you obsolete
Nicolas Dorier
At the time, the easiest and best way for businesses to accept payments using Bitcoin was to sign up to various centralized third parties such as BitPay or blockcypher. Given Bitcoin was explicitely created by Satoshi Nakamoto to get rid of trusted third parties, it was vital for there to also be a payment processor software layer that could be used without third parties as well.
Why Should You Use BTCPay Server?
But why should you or your business care? Why not just use Stripe or Shopify or even BitPay? Well the main reasons to use BTCPay Server are for self soverignty, no KYC, full control and zero fees. By being your own payment processor, there are no centralized third parties in between you and your customer.
You can accept bitcoin payments directly, peer-to-peer just how it was intended from the first Genisis Block. This means that you or your business can never be banned, de-platformed or cut off from your customers (and vital incomee) like so many other big tech companies will do these days for reasons they never say.
As you’re the literal bank and payment processor, you also don’t have to pay anyone else fees for each transaction. You obviously still have to pay the Bitcoin Transaction Fees, but this can also be side stepped by using the Lightning Network.
Beyond these core benefits, using BTCPay Server also has many other benefits:
- No KYC required for you or your customers
- Complete control over your funds with instant settlement (no waiting weeks or months)
- Enhanced privacy and security for you and your customers
- Full support for payments over Tor for even more privacy
- Easily support a crowdfunding campaign, point of sale app or simple payment buttons
- Full customization of the invoice look and feel
- Full support for virtually any currency
- No ongoing platform fees
What Can BTCPay Server Be Used For?
With a Full Bitcoin Node and BTCPay Server, you are not just your own bank, but your own payment processor too. You can send and receive bitcoin as well as generate invoices for customers to pay you all entirely peer-to-peer and entirely hosted and controlled by you with your own free, open source hardware and software.
A huge multi billion dollar bank with big, old granite buildings at the heart of Wall street? Obsolete. Internationally spanning credit card systems, EFTPOS terminals and proprietary online systems and API’s? Obsolete. We cannot overstate how powerful a Bitcoin Node + BTCPay Server stack is here! It’s just like how WordPress now makes any giant News conglomerate obsolete.
Now any private individual, business, merchant, charity, non-profit, developer, local community or other entity can join the Bitcoin Network and receive bitcoin donations or payments for their products. No more third parties and for a cost that’s basically a rounding error!
Some of the top use cases for BTCPay Server include:
- Merchants who sell products and services either online or at a bricks and mortar shop
- Charities or non-profit organizations who want to accept donations in a privacy preserving way
- Individuals who self fund their dream project or who wish to run a crowdfunding campaign
- Developers who want to receive donations or ongoing support from the community
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