AMSTERDAM—Verotel, an internet payment service provider for high-risk merchants, announced today that it has started to accept Bitcoin payments with BitPay (BitPay.com), a leading merchant processor for virtual currencies. Verotel is a registered Payment Institute for high-risk merchants, including adult entertainment webmasters. Bitcoin can now be used to buy adult entertainment online anonymously.
"The anonymous nature of Bitcoin makes a lot of business sense," said Jason Collins, VP Business Development at Verotel. "No credit card needed to access adult content online is a no-brainer. There is no credit card statement and there are no disputed charges by the spouse of the cardholder. An ideal world for any adult entertainment consumer."
The content of adult merchants who wish to add Bitcoin to their payment methods is screened in the very same way as under the credit card brand protection programs. That means that Verotel will only work with merchants to accept Bitcoin under the same strict content regulations to avoid fraud and illegal content.
The Bitcoin payment method with Verotel is under Beta launch and is currently only available for a small selection of merchants. The roll-out to the entire Verotel merchant portfolio will start on March 15 this year.
Bitcoin continues to be accepted by many new merchants worldwide. Adding Bitcoin as a payment option for Verotel merchants will grow BitPay's merchants base significantly.
“We believe that BitPay’s order volume will increase significantly with this new partnership,” said Tony Gallippi, BitPay co-founder and CEO. “We are proud to share our powerful, reliable and scalable tools to accept Bitcoin with the high-risk industry."
The credit card industry is built on interchange fees and discount rates of affiliated banks. With the absence of banks in Bitcoin transactions, Verotel is able to offer a simple 1 percent all-inclusive pricing on all Bitcoin transactions. Integration of Bitcoin in the Verotel platform is already done. Merchants can simply enable the Bitcoin payment option in the Verotel Control Center.
Payments are scheduled weekly and are payable in U.S. dollars, Euros and British pounds. Verotel doesn't offer Bitcoin as a payout currency yet, as the currency exchange rate is still very volatile. Therefore all Bitcoin transactions are converted into the merchant's currency at the time of the transaction. As a third-party processor, all money coming in and out is regulated by the Dutch Central Bank, where Verotel is a licensed Payment Institute. Verotel's payment institute licenses reinforce Verotel's reputation: "We never missed a payment."
Verotel has been an internet payment service provider (IPSP) since 1998 and is specialized in online credit card payment processing for high-risk businesses. Servicing over 50.000 online businesses with online payment solutions, Verotel understands the risks of online billing. Verotel is the first high-risk payment processor awarded with the official Payment Institute status. Processing all major credit cards, online checks, payments by phone and now Bitcoin, Verotel is a trusted online payment processor.
BitPay is a payment service provider (PSP) specializing in ecommerce and B2B solutions for virtual currencies. Visit BitPay.com.
