BitPay is the Blazer winner of the financial technology category in Atlanta Inno's Fire Awards.
BitPay is the largest and oldest blockchain payment provider, capitalizing on a market that’s hit a global boom in the past few months. BitPay has processed more than $5 billion in transactions and has more than $70 million in investments, including from Silicon Valley’s Founders Fund. The startup is in the process of applying to become a federally licensed bank.
Here's a Q&A with CEO Stephen Pair:
Q: How are your company’s innovations changing your industry’s landscape?
A: BitPay celebrates its 10th year this year. Over the years we have seen many changes, but none like the momentum, growth and interest occurring right now. BitPay believes that with continued adoption and increased regulatory involvement, the industry will reach an inflection point that will forever change consumer confidence, trust and pave the way for blockchain payments to disrupt the way consumers receive and spend funds. Bitcoin usage increased exponentially because it disrupted traditional financial systems. The ability to accept cryptocurrency expands a business’s sales opportunity into international markets where accepting traditional credit cards is not practical while also reducing high fees and increasing payment transparency and efficiency. BitPay sees the future for payments on the blockchain.
Q: What’s your advice to future and current entrepreneurs?
A: Successful leaders are those who not only listen to employees but empower them to take calculated risks. BitPay is built on the idea that the blockchain will forever disrupt financial services and the way money moves. Leaders in this space must be open to change including adopting new approaches and technology that's transformative.
Q: What’s been the biggest roadblock in your growth and how did you overcome it?
A: Education is needed to continue to get the word out, increase adoption and have crypto go mainstream. The greatest challenge is still getting businesses to accept crypto as a form of payment. Crypto solves real pain points, but most businesses can’t see past the negative hype. One of the biggest headaches merchants, especially those merchants who sell high-priced goods like jewelry and electronics, have today is chargebacks and for online merchants, this headache is compounded with the added risk of identity theft and fraud. The promise of cryptocurrency provides transactional transparency as it is impossible to use crypto for fraud as every transaction is verified, recorded and stored on the blockchain. One of the most critical elements about the blockchain technology is that when the transaction has been reported in the ledger, it cannot be changed. Further, as a push transaction, similar to taking cash out of a wallet, the user sends the exact amount of Bitcoin needed to pay the bill. This eliminates traditional credit card fraud and identity theft risks associated with credit cards. As a result, there are no chargebacks.
Atlanta Inno's Fire Awards 2021
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