In this video, I’m going to show you how you can use distributed ledger technology to accept payments from consumers.
Let’s imagine you’re selling luxury watches online. You accept cryptocurrency payments through an integration with your payment partner. In this case, that’s us! BVNK. We process the cryptocurrency for you and settle you in your preferred currency – euros.
So let’s get started. Your customer adds a watch to their basket they select to pay in cryptocurrency and they're taken to a special payment flow that is managed by BVNK
So far, so good. In the background, your business requests a payment link from BVNK via an API. They choose the currency they want to pay in – let’s say USDC. We return the link, and you display it to your customer.
This is what they see:
- A quote for conversion rate, which BVNK holds for up to one hour
- how much crypto they need to send and
- the wallet address they need to send it to.
Now your customer will need to open their wallet and send the payment. Payment providers like BVNK have integrations with popular wallets which makes this part of the journey easier.
Your customer has now connected to their wallet from checkout and clicked to pay.
Next, let’s flick over to the Ethereum blockchain to see what’s happening there.
Imagine the blockchain as a large digital ledger recording all payments.
When you initiate a payment, a 'node' which is a computer, processes your request much like a mailman handles your post.
In Ethereum, validators - similar to accountants - verify payment details and document them on a block, similar to a page in our ledger.
Other nodes review this block for accuracy before adding it to the blockchain. Once enough nodes (about 12) have confirmed the block within approximately 5 minutes, BVNK receives the payment.
At this point, we screen the payment to make sure it’s not coming from an address connected to financial crime (more on that in chapter 3). Then we credit your account in euros, minus processing fees.
You show your customer that the payment has been successful. And hooray – they’ve paid for their watch in crypto, and you’ve received the money in euros.
