Top 5 companies which helps you accept Bitcoin donations — And how to do it?

NGOs and many other not-for-profit organizations are run by the virtue of donations from people who like do their part by giving back to the society. Unfortunately, the process of accepting donations which is also a financial transaction is constrained by the world of banking protocols.

Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies directly address these constraints and are helping organizations get donations seamlessly from across the world. Today, it is possible for any Bitcoin owner siting anywhere to send financial help to a cause which is close to their heart - immediately and without any hurdles which were abundant previously like high transaction costs and complicated formalities.

And they are! As the prices shoot up, crypto community is coming forward in a big way and sharing their gains in a generous manner. Reports tell that crypto donations went up by 10x times in 2017. From US olympians to political parties, all are now accepting crypto-currencies to cover for their operational costs.

Although Bitcoins are perceived to be highly technical in nature, accepting Bitcoin donations on your website is fairly easy and you can get started in minutes. Here are the top five companies which can help you:

Blockonomics — Be your own bank

• Pros: Blockonomics transactions are charged a cheap 1% fee for unlimited transactions, with your first 10 transactions are free. Payments go direct to your own wallet too — letting you own your Bitcoins instead of holding it at an exchange. You can customize the button to use own logo and ask customized details from your donors.
• Cons: Blockonomics does not allow for instant fiat conversion upon payment delivery, meaning you’ll have to periodically send it to your local bank.

CoinGate — Fiat friendly

• Pros: Coingate allows you to customize buttons, by setting your button window title and description, your background picture and your logo. Similar to Blockonomics, they do allow you to accept 50+ cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin using Shapeshift. Incoming Bitcoins can be converted to fiat in real-time for an additional fee.
• Cons: The payment is not native to your website i.e. when you click on the payment button, you will be redirected to their website for payment. UI is not really great and also payments you’ve received are held in CoinGate’s wallet until you‘re ready to transfer them out.

BitPay — Fossilized payment processor

• Pros: Founded in 2011, BitPay is one of the largest payment processors for Bitcoin. If you do not have a website, Bitpay lets you create a bitpay donations page for free. Much like Blockonomics and CoinGate, their transaction fees are capped at 1% for unlimited transactions and lets you to convert to fiat automatically.
• Cons: Watch out for additional network fees that are passed on to your customers — especially low sized donations. Similar to Coingate, funds are received and held in the BitPay wallet. Also, they only accept Bitcoin for donations, and have a strict identification verification process.

Coinbase — An umbrella of services

• Pros: Umbrella of exchange and commerce supported in a lot of countries. UI is pretty neat. Supports multi-currencies and is customizable.
• Cons: Running pretty late when it comes to Segwit implementation. Also the exchange charges are a bit on the higher end.

CoinPayments — Cheaper than your average

• Pros: Proving one of the lowest transaction fees, Coinpayments offers a 0.5% transaction fee to merchants. They also allow direct conversion to fiat from over 100 cryptocurrencies. Plus, they’re Segwit compatible.
• Cons: Like most payment processors, your incoming Bitcoins are held by in their wallet — with an additional transaction fee if you’re looking to send it to your personal wallet. Also, support appears to be lacking for some of their merchants with inquiries.

If you chose to get started, here is a tutorial blog which can help you set-up in less than 10 min.

If you have any queries or need any help, feel free to chat with our team.