New process removes the risk from accepting bitcoin payments

One of the things that inhibits merchants from accepting bitcoin payments is that there’s a time lag in receiving cleared funds. A bitcoin payment can take around 10 minutes to be verified and confirmed on the blockchain.

Even then most payment processors will wait for 2-6 confirmations (taking 20-60 mins) before guaranteeing to the merchant that the transaction is complete and the merchant will receive the funds. For merchants used to accepting card payments which are verified in seconds this is a problem.

But now payments processor Bitnet is introducing a new 'Instant Approval' system that looks at a bitcoin transaction and, in less than 10 seconds, assesses the probability that the transaction will be confirmed on the blockchain and sends the merchant a notification. Bitnet guarantees the payments this service approves, simplifying the acceptance of bitcoin for merchants.

Bitnet has partnered with BlockCypher, a blockchain web services company, as a key data provider for the new service. The Instant Approval process relies on a number of data points, crucial to which are BlockCypher's double-spend detection and transaction propagation metrics.

"One of the biggest challenges for merchants wanting to accept bitcoin is how to accommodate the delayed confirmation times into their 'real-time' checkout flows and still be assured of being funded," says Seamus Cushley, VP Product at Bitnet. "We partnered with BlockCypher to provide key data for our 'Instant Approval' service due to their best-in-class metrics and enterprise service".

You can find out more about how merchants can reduce the risk in handling bitcoin payments on the Bitnet website.

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