Accepting bitcoin in your business: the merchant guide
Taking bitcoin needs no contract, no terminal and no special skill — and costs less than a card payment. Here is what it actually involves, without the evangelism that usually comes with the subject.
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This guide is for business owners. If you are looking for where to spend instead, the guide to where to spend bitcoin is the one you want.
Why businesses do it
Three reasons come up, and only one is about conviction.
Fees. A card payment costs between 1 and 3 % of the amount, plus a terminal subscription. A Lightning payment costs the business a fraction of a cent, with no subscription. On thin margins — food, groceries, small retail — that gap is not cosmetic.
Settlement. A card transaction lands in one to three working days, longer over a weekend. A crypto payment is available immediately, and nobody can pull it back afterwards: there is no equivalent of a chargeback.
Visibility. The least discussed reason and often the most concrete one for a neighbourhood business. Cryptocurrency holders actively look for places to spend — few in number, but methodical about it, which is exactly what this directory serves. A handful of extra customers is enough to justify a setup that cost nothing.
What is not a reason: expecting a rush. Accepting crypto does not fill a room. It adds a narrow, steady trickle, and it sets you apart from neighbouring businesses for an audience that notices such things.
What it actually costs
Nothing in hardware. A phone is enough. There is no terminal to rent, no contract, no commitment.
A few minutes to set up. The time to open an account with a crypto payment provider or install a wallet, and display a QR code at the counter.
A little training. This is the real cost, and it is human: whoever is at the counter needs to know how to generate a QR code and recognise an incoming payment. Budget fifteen minutes, and expect that someone who never had to use it will have forgotten six months later. It is by far the most common failure visitors report.
Settle in cash or keep the crypto
This is the one structural decision, and it is not a technical one.
A payment gateway. A provider collects the crypto and pays you in local currency, at a rate locked when the payment is made. You are never exposed to price movement, your bookkeeping does not change, and your accountant has nothing new to handle. This is what nearly every business starting out chooses, and it is the right choice if the point is simply not to turn a customer away.
Holding it directly. You receive bitcoin and keep it. You carry the price movement, both ways, and custody is yours — with the backups and discipline that implies. That is a commitment decision, not a payment decision.
Both are legitimate, and the directory does not distinguish: either way, your customer paid in crypto.
Getting found, which is the other half of the job
Setting up without being listed is opening a shop without a sign. Two routes, and the second matters more than it looks.
The directory's form. Submit your business: name, address, currencies accepted, position on the map. The listing is reviewed, then published. This is the quickest.
OpenStreetMap. This is the route we recommend first, even though it appears to work against us. Add your business to OpenStreetMap with the appropriate payment tags: the listing will reach us at the next sync, and every other crypto map and app built on the same source. One entry makes you visible everywhere, not just here. It is also the most durable record: it depends on no single website.
The page for businesses covers both routes in detail.
Staying findable once listed
A listing is not a settled matter. Three things keep it alive.
Confirmations. Every listing shows how long it has been since a visitor confirmed the business still takes crypto. After twelve months without a sign it is flagged as uncertain — and a visitor choosing between two addresses picks the confirmed one. Nothing stops you asking a customer who has just paid to mark it: it is one click.
Opening hours and phone number. These come from OpenStreetMap and are missing on a third of listings. Filling them in changes visit rates concretely: someone who cannot tell whether you are open does not set off.
The currencies you take. Be specific. "Crypto accepted" with no detail loses the customer who only holds Monero or Litecoin, and brings in for nothing the one who only has Lightning if you do not take it.
Questions we get asked
"Is there anything to declare?" Taking crypto is taking payment: it goes in the books. Rules vary by country and change — that is a question for your accountant, not a directory, and be wary of any site that answers it confidently.
"What if the price crashes between payment and conversion?" With a gateway the rate is locked at payment: the risk is not yours. That is precisely what you are buying by using one.
"Does it attract difficult customers?" The experience of listed businesses says the opposite: paying in crypto takes effort, and whoever makes it comes prepared. The first problem reported is never the customer, it is staff who cannot take the payment.
"How long before I appear?" Through the form, the time it takes to review. Through OpenStreetMap, at the next nightly sync.
To get started
Look first at what businesses near you already do: the map shows who takes crypto in your town, and a few addresses usually come as a surprise. Then submit your business — free, no account, two minutes.