Bitcoin Forum

I had a bit hard to know where this thread fits in so I did put it here, moderator feel free to move it if I posted it in wrong place.

Sup lads I am in need of your help!
I am owner of a physical shop located somewhere in the world. I can say right away what it is, it's a cannabis-shop so you know. (Yes cannabis is legal here)
But now I want to start to accept crypto as payment, I already tested this MetaMask but it's so limited since you can't pay with BTC. Or can you? If so then it's me that are stupid, but lets pretend i have right for now.  :P

To the thing! I want to be able to accept payments with more crypto currencies other then ETH or those who are in the ETH network.
If anyone have any knowledge of this subject and if you want to help me I would love to get any ideas, tips and recommendations whatever it may be, no recommendation is to stupid or to logic. I am a rookie at this.

For example if I want to accept BTC and a few more the most used ones. What is the best way to do it? Should be friendly and easy for people to use, just scan QR code. I want to do it as easy as possible for the customer to pay, and I think a easy way is just to take up your phone open your app you pay from, scan the QR code and done. But that maybe not how it should work when you take a payment with crypto?

If it's complicated to fix, it's not a obstacle I will learn my way how to solve it. Is it possible to just like example take your QR code from any online wallet print it and put it at the cashier? and then just cash out the crypto from my wallet to my bank or whatever I choose to sent it.

I know that you can cancel a not confirmed tx and in this country cannabis and crypto is legal as hell. So this things won't be a problem for me.


Please feel free to share your ideas & if it's some don't and do's with this type of payment method, yeah basically anything and everything, no reply is to stupid or to advanced, I will read it all very carefully and are very grateful for you people that choose to take your time to try to help me.


I can pay something if someone guide me really good to something also of course or even helping me with it step for step then I can pay even more.
Any questions or want to come in contact with me? Just send a PM or type in the thread.

Cheers BabyBandit.


EDIT: How safe / unsafe is this to do? Is it same safety as an hot wallet have or a cold wallet or is not at all like that? In safety concerns that say.

The best way would be to handle it all yourself without any intermediaries. You could setup a BTC Pay server and then you could just accept BTC and store it safely yourself without any outside concerns. If you wanted to be able to exchange it immediately for USD you could use a service like Coinbase that can handle that for you.

If I were you, I would accept: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash but you can grow this list and include Ripple, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Cardano, BNB, USDT. I just think that your clients will prefer more anonymous and matured coins (the first ones), so, they should be enough.

For sure, you can generate QR code of your addresses and ask your clients to scan them and pay but if I were you, I would buy a small screen, attach it to a computer and I would open a page that would allow them to convert USD to BTC or Altcoins, I would also include live bitcoin transaction fees that I would recommend them to pay accordingly if they pay from non-custodial wallets like Electrum and Sparrow. If they pay from exchanges, they will automatically pay with good fee.

If you want to make things digital, have a look at BTCPay Server (https://btcpayserver.org).

I have never implemented a crypto payment sollution for a physical shop... I did include crypto payments in online shops tough...

If you're not afraid of managing your own crypto (for example: if you're ok with exchanging the crypto you earned for FIAT on an exchange), it might be a good idear to start "small": you could buy a hardware wallet with multi coin support, paste some stickers at your door announcing you accept crypto, and if somebody wants to pay using crypto, just generate a new address for them on the pc behind your counter? Same can be done with several other SPV wallets (it doesn't have to be a hardware wallet).

Offcourse, if you want a more "automatic" or a professional looking approach, it might be a good idear to search for POS sollutions... I've seen a couple very professional looking devices popping up in the past... And some payment gateways make sure you're payed in your local currency by automatically converting your crypto to FIAT...

Personally, if i would have a physical store, i'd probably take the first route: just install an SPV wallet or use a dedicated hardware wallet to create addresses (QR codes) whenever a customer asks to pay with crypto... Let them send their funds, wait for a confirmation, finalize the sale and use an exchange to convert crypto to FIAT whenever i need FIAT money... This way your investment is very small, and you're able to gain some experience accepting crypto before going for an automated sollution.

BTW: if you're only talking about accepting bitcoin, you could look into btcpayserver, like the others have already mentioned...

Just to be clear, the online wallet has nothing to do with the account you create with this centralised platform, which might require you to pass KYC, and at the end of the day, you have a deposit address that will be generated for you. If that's what you mean, I will have to advise you to make use of any non-custodial wallet. You can use one that's built only for bitcoin, get any of them from the right source, and generate your wallet. Keep the phrase or private key intact, and you can generate a QR code from your address. You can also do the same with your altcoin since you also want to add them to your payment option.
 
I read something like you wanted to convert your bitcoin and transfer it to your local currency whenever you wanted. If it's something that you will do very quickly, I think receiving payment in crypto you will have to be careful, because the time when it was used to pay for goods and the value as of then and when you will want to sell it and use the money to buy back products might not be the same and it might affect your business a little, so plan yourself well and proceed with caution.

There are two payment processors: self hosted and hosted. Self hosted you need to learn and put more effort since you're need to start from scratch, while hosted payment processor is easy to use, but the drawback is privacy and extra fee.

For self hosted I'd recommend Bitcart since this payment processor is accepting various coins and network, while for the hosted one you can choose coinpayments.

For the other alternative, check here Bitcoin Payment processors  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5444578.0)

@OgNasty @Helena Yu @Orpichukwu @mocacinno @Synchronice

Hey guys and thanks for your answers, all look good but I will read them more carefully when I am back from work.
But I want to ask one thing, all this things is new to me.
Why can't i just for example use my own private wallet and just share that QR code and put it on the desk?
Is it not legal or is it to unsafe?

Please explain like I was a kid.  :-*
Thanks in advance and thanks for the previous replies.

If you have access to the wallet, you can use it. This is the same recommendation I made for you: get yourself your own private wallet where you have full access to it, generate your personal wallet address QR code, and place it on your desk.
 
I even prefer that method to using any third-party service because you can track your transactions, you don't need to pay any service provider any fee for using their service, and you have full control over any payment you receive with it, so why not? If crypto is legal in your place, then this is very much legal, and you don't have anything to worry about, provided that you can keep your wallet safe.

There's no relation about legality.

For safety, I think if you always use a new address from your own private wallet, it's nothing different with payment processor.

I think using payment processor will make the customer easier to pay the stuff because it will be automatically converted according to the current Bitcoin rate and this mostly related to online marketplace.

So if you not bother to convert fiat equivalent to BTC equivalent or even better all stuff you sell in BTC equivalent, you can use your own private wallet.

Honestly, this is the strangest thing I've ever heard!!! Shop to buy cannabis with Bitcoin!!! This is really strange. ???

Even if cannabis is legal in your country, is Bitcoin legal? Bitcoin may be banned in your country!!

Personally, I do not like this idea because it will be unacceptable in most countries of the world and will cause a bad reputation for Bitcoin. Bitcoin is basically accused of being used for drugs and financing terrorism, and now this will cause more problems for Bitcoin.

If you succeed in setting up your store it will be banned in most countries of the world because cannabis is illegal.

Not your keys (private keys), not your coins. You will lose your coins if you share your private keys.

You can share your Public address for people and consider it as your receiving address. Problem is if you use only one receiving address to receive Bitcoin from many people, it will be hard for you to note what a transaction is.

You can edit each transaction description but it takes more time because you will have to do it manually.

It is unsafe as I explained above. Lose your keys, lose your coins.

Avoid the use of any payment gateway financial institutions to perform this role for you, always make use of a non custodial bitcoin wallet in performing this, the use of a centralized exchanges wallet is not a safe practice because at the end, the coins are not yours because you're not in control of them, if you understand why you need to make this kind of decision, then you would also understand the value expected of you to give your fund, many customers as well will be interested in making bitcoin payment because they have it.

First, I have the utmost believe that if you placed your company properly in the manner and shape which is best for the business, for example, the location, the products placements, the Publicity and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM), you will definitely sell as hell. Because the cannabis business is yet one of the successful businesses I've noticed other time, no cap.

Secondly, if I was in the position to advise you on the best coins to go for, I will suggest none other than these stablecoins, like the USDC, Tether (USDT), Dai (DAI), Binance USD (BUSD), TrueUSD, TerraUSD, and Reserve (RSV) coins. They are digital assets you can bank on for your B2C business transactions, so that you don't suffer the price fluctuations in the wider crypto world.

Lastly, you will have to generate your unique QR Code with the use of the wallet addresses you're using for the business transactions. Just like the conventional bank account numbers, you will generate a unique address use to accept your transactions and then generate a QR Code for it which you can then print out and place it on your cannabis shop.

To generate the QR Code, the best platform I can recommend for you, which I also use for generating other QR codes for my businesses is the CANVA App (https://canva.com). You can simply download the app through your Android or iOS device.

Step 1: Sign up with your Google account or other available options to keep record of the details of the QR code and navigate the Menu bar by your left-hand side of the screen.
https://i.postimg.cc/cCTGSssD/IMG-0238.jpg

Step 2: Navigate the 'App' button in the menu bar.
https://i.postimg.cc/YCvK5KT3/IMG-0239.jpg

Step 3: A page will be opened to you where you will be able to scroll down until you find 'QR Code', click on it.
https://i.postimg.cc/vZCFM2sd/IMG-0241.jpg

Step 4: Upon clicking on the 'QR Code' option, you will be given another option to select between existing design or a new design. Click on 'Use in new design'.
https://i.postimg.cc/02W1X2Xj/IMG-0242.jpg

Step 5: Select the option you most preferred. For me, my most preferred option is square and I do select the 'Instagram Post (Square)' option as the size of the white space where the QR code will appear.
https://i.postimg.cc/26fsLqyc/IMG-0243.jpg

Step 6: A page will be opened where you are meant to add a link where the generated QR Code will redirect the viewer to, after scanning on your QR Code. In this space, copy and past your Bitcoin/Crypto wallet address to the address bar. Please ensure that the information on the Address is correct so it doesn't take your customers to another address. Check the alphanumerical carefully to ensure it's a match with your address.
https://i.postimg.cc/Ghh1jsQ6/IMG-0244.jpg

And voila, you have your QR Code ready. You can now go ahead and save the picture in a PDF document ready for print out. With the QR code, your customers are able to see your Bitcoin/Crypto wallet address immediately they scan and can therefore send in your money to your wallet, seemlessly.

https://i.postimg.cc/jjNVj6xn/IMG-0245.jpg
Above is the QR Code for Learn Me A Bitcoin (https://learnmeabitcoin.com) website. You can however take your time to go through the contents on the website to learn more about how the Bitcoin technology works. Thank you and let me know if this helps!

Agree! The more the better since people would really be having tons of options since not all would really be having that Bitcoin balance on their crypto wallet but somehow its not really that hard to make some conversion
from coin to coin if ever they would really be only accepting one but i would really be that recommending on having multiple coin payment option. As for wallet then it would depending or according to preference but
in speaking of security and assurance then better to make those transactions would be directly be that putting up into your personal wallet but if you do want to go with those common payment processors
then its your choice. Recommendations above been mentioned with some users or posters above on which it would really be that a considerable option to take.

Hey, thanks a lot for all answers. I will check them all very closely when  I got some spare time in the weekend.
It's alot to do at the moment we soon to open our third shop.  :)

Using QR codes is quite efficient and convenient for your customers. Btw do you employ shop staff or handle everything yourself?
I only read bad news regarding this QR code, where an employee secretly changed the shop's QR code to his personal address so that the customer's payment never reached the shop owner's wallet.

I got staff in my shops and I trust my staff to 100% we are like a small family and I think they like me to and are happy with their privileges they got for working for me so I hope it won't happen.
But in worst case I got a good CCTV setup.  :)

Nice, and actually there are many settings to anticipate cheating. If you have an adequate cash register, you can generate a QR code just from the monitor (installing 1 additional monitor on the customer side) when the bill is issued. Or use unique holograms (watemark) on QR code plates.

How can that happen if you tightly manage your store? If you manage your store well from product quality and quantity of goods in the store, it is easy to see if the goods in the store decrease but input revenue is lacking. Furthermore, if your employees can do it with bitcoin, they can also do it with fiat. I think it's a problem in recruitment and human resource management and has nothing to do with using bitcoin or QR for customers to pay. QR is a convenient method and is being implemented in most stores in developing countries.

why would it affect Bitcoin though? I mean, if the OP isn't accepting Bitcoin, the currency he'll be accepting as a payment method is their local currency and other types of payment method that is available in their country. the OP is basically just further broadening the payment methods that are available in his shop. people who think Bitcoin is bad because it is being used to buy drugs and financing terrorism(while FIAT has been used for the same thing for god knows how long) are nothing but hypocrites and their opinions should be ignored.

I could probably setup a system to work with your point of sale, I'm looking for a short term gig and weed industry is very interesting.

Yeah it can happen in fiat too, so it's not a matter for the currency.

When a the store give their QR code, when you scan it you will see the name or brand you will pay. Let's say it's should be "KFC", but the employee is using their own QR code and after you scan it the name is "Alice". This can be easily noticed by the sender, but if he don't care about that, he will send the money to Alice instead of KFC.

Keep in mind that unless you are running the till, you will need to train your employees how to accept the crypto payment. Most employees have no idea how to properly make sure the funds are sent to the correct address and make sure the correct amount.

The few stores in my area that accepted it, they just had a bar code of the address and you sent the money there but the workers usually preferred to get paid in fiat because they didn’t know exactly how to do the crypto transaction.

It doesn’t matter what you are selling as long as it is legal in your country. You can use any of the mainstream payment processors. Btcpay is opensource and free I believe. The other option is bitpay which is closed source and not-free. If you use btcpay you’ll have to set it up yourself but if you use bitpay their team will probably help you with the process because they’ll be making money. Ultimately both of them will work and there are many merchants that use btcpay or bitpay. If you are a person who likes DIY stuff, go with btcpay. If you are no good with following instructions, then go with bitpay.

Bitpay isn't the only payment processor on the market... I don't know where they stand right now, but a while ago they had a pretty bad reputation amongst a subset of the community (not for scamming, but for other stuff like forcing KYC on both the vendor and the customer).
If you're going to use a processor (so you don't have to handle everything yourself), it might be a good idear to do a small market study before picking one...

Here's a website i'm not affiliated with, and that might be out of date, but nevertheless it's interesting reading material before jumping on bitpay's ship: https://debitpay.directory/anti-bitcoin/

I used to own a rather large weed farm here in the US legal.

The federal laws on banking are a pain in the ass! If banks suspect you are a weed farm they will drop you in a hot second. So getting it from BTC to cash is a huge pain in the ass unless yo can find a private buyer. It could look allot like laundering money if you don't keep tight records. Now if you could get your supplier(s) to accept it that would be sweet. I doubt it. If I did it I would purchase pre paid cards and use those. aka bitrefill


There are weed friendly banks but they charge huge fee's per month.

Yes coinbase can really help OP if he wants to quickly cash out the money that he has received through Bitcoins. But I would suggest OP not to cashout the Bitcoins soon. Soon it’s estimated that Bitcoins will go up. So if you can hold the coins temporarily for a shorter period of time, then definitely you will make good profits from it. And regarding how to setup the payment gateway, I guess many members have already responded about that. So good luck with your business.

You can receive Bitcoin using a Metamask wallet with (WBTC) Wrapped Bitcoin in an Ethereum Chain.

If you are considering accepting Bitcoin, it is highly recommended to determine the most commonly used Bitcoin wallet application in your country. You can accomplish this by creating a poll on a local board and asking participants why they prefer to use a particular application over others. This information will help you decide whether to use the most popular application or other options that offer different advantages, such as zero fees. However, it is essential to note that not all exchange or Bitcoin wallet applications offer zero transfer fees when transferring funds to other users. In addition, some wallets are not secure since you are not holding your keys, but some users consider this option since it may be cheaper on their end. So my advice is that if you consider using some of these applications, you might secure them after receiving them.

If you're reading this OP then I suggest not to go this route for two reasons:
- it could only complicate things for you and your customer
- transaction fees on the Ethereum for WBTC is often higher than the real Bitcoin network so that's another inconvenience

You are better off using one wallet that supports multiple networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum than receiving BTC in two different chains.

MetaMask is primarily an Ethereum-based wallet, and you cant accept Bitcoin directly through it. But the world of crypto doesnt end at Ethereum. Now, if you're adamant about Bitcoin (and you should be, given its prominence), then you need a comprehensive solution. Wallets like Coinbase Commerce or BitPay offer merchant services and allow acceptance of multiple cryptocurrencies, including BTC. You are absolutely right with the QR code idea. These services provide you with a QR code for payments. Customers scan, pay, and its done. Simple, direct, no frills.

However, a word of caution: crypto payments, while futuristic and cool, arent always as straightforward as traditional methods. Transaction times, fluctuations in value, potential tech issues - these could pose problems. You need to be prepared to face these challenges head-on. Its not just about having a QR code printed and stuck to your counter. Its about understanding the ecosystem, the potential pitfalls, and the advantages. If you're ready to dive deep and get your hands dirty, then welcome to the future of payments.

In general, that is not too new and still happens in some stores when human resource management is not really good.  and what I want to say is that it has absolutely nothing to do with using bitcoin as a payment method for our business.  and even if that happens, it's not the customer's fault but ours because we didn't manage our employees well. if an employee intentionally commits fraud, whether it is with fiat currency or bitcoin, they will still do it.

Once you start accepting the bitcoin as payment for goods (will not discuss the ethical side of the issue in your case) in your store, it will create yet another excuse for bitcoin haters to say that the bitcoin is being used to buy illegal and prohibited substances / goods (even though it is legal in your country).:)


Why do you need a BTC Pay server? Wouldn't it be enough to simply indicate the btc address (or QR code) to which buyers will send bitcoin? The convenience of bitcoin lies precisely in this, that you don't need any payment terminals or payment services. Why complicate this?

WBTC is not BTC, it is an altcoin, and if you receive WBTC you are receiving an ERC-20 token.
If you are accepting BTC, either in your business or any sort of tx, it does not matter what wallet your customer, client or payer uses, all you have to do is provide a BTC address or your address's QR code for payment, and whoever is paying can decide on the wallet they want to use for the payment. Take note that if you are sending BTC on-chain, there's nothing such as zero fees, you must pay tx fees if you want miners to confirm your tx.

Is this legal in your place ? I don’t know how many country have made weed legal for it to be publicly sold out their to the extent of opening up a shop for it. If it’s legal then you can probably start up one as you plan to, it’s just that in my own side here even being found having one you are in trouble talk more of starting up such business.

But if you can get that started I believe you will make lot of money from it, as the market is selling illegal in most places and still their are lot of profit talk more of when you will start up in the open many people will want to patronize you and paying with bitcoin is really going to be part of their choice of payment.

Yeah, but the shop owner's incompetence sometimes makes big crimes go unnoticed. Imagine you work at the shop and the owner wants to try something different because bitcoin is trending as a means of payment. From this point on only you know how the payment system should be set up and you deliberately installed a back door to the system, on the other hand you managed to convince the owner not to check or withdraw his bitcoins for some reason.

Common sense, bro. That's the only way they can receive Bitcoin in the Ethereum Chain. Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is an ERC-20 token representing Bitcoin on the Ethereum network.

I suggest good ideas to the shop owner so that when the clients/customer is cheap, they can still consider paying in Bitcoin. Some application services in our country offer free transfer inside their applications to have more users.

Lol! Yeah you have 100% right there bro  ;D, they take every chance they got sadly! But they will lose in the end my friend! Bitcoin for everyone!



That's what forum is all about! Thanks mate. 🙏


Yeah I have been thinking about this ALOT!  ;D
I hope it will be a easy process for them to understand how it works, I have already introduced them a little bit, but slowly and safe and I think it will turn out good at the end.


Thank you for all the helpful replies, been busy times. Will probably install something next week and post a update how it worked out.  :)


- Regards BabyB. 👼

Actually, this issue should be looked at from a business perspective, not a transaction processing technique, because you can accept payments with crypto as just one payment method among many others. And it mainly depends on your customers, if they know crypto, it will make it easier for both parties to negotiate, but if they don't know and understand crypto, there's no need to force them to pay in that form, as long as the transaction is convenient for customers because it is business.

However, I have a suggestion to help you attract a crypto-aware audience willing to pay for your items, put a few slogans next to your store's banner "accept payments with crypto" or but the thing with the same content. I'm sure it will help you easily reach audiences who share your passion for crypto, as well as your interests in the products you are trading.

OP I have read all your details but you can feel free to start bitcoin transactions in your business without any hassle. Many people like you have introduced BTC payments in their business. But you can use any BTC wallet to receive BTC in your business. There you can scan the QR code and drag it to the store so that everyone can make BTC payments by scanning the QR code. At the end of the day you can convert your BTC to USD so you have no loss if the market goes down.

Lol I believe the reason why @OP want to start accepting BTC payment in his shop is he want to hold Bitcoin, if his intention want to get paid in inflated currency, he will not ask this question.

I read the context talks about fee.

Do you think Ethereum network is cheaper than Bitcoin network? currently Bitcoin fee is more expensive because of ordinal attack, but in general Bitcoin fee is cheaper than Ethereum network.