In the aftermath of bitcoin transaction fees reaching dizzying all-time heights, litecoin has arisen as a popular alternative for payments and peer-to-peer transactions. A new service called Litepay is getting ready to launch sometime this month. The service will allow businesses to receive litecoin payments, and may even offer litecoin-powered cards.
The Idea Behind Litepay
According to the official website, the goal of Litepay is to offer much lower settlement charges for payments than credit cards currently offer. They will also allow merchants to cash out to fiat without any risk of volatility directly. In comparison to credit cards, representatives claim they will charge a flat one percent fee for merchants. Credit cards, according to Litepay, charge up to three percent in processing fees.
The site also details how they will provide payment cards that will withdraw from a litecoin balance.
First, a potential customer orders the card and pays a fee for it, then they verify their identification, and finally receive the card. After activating the card, they can transfer litecoin into their designated account, and then spend it at any place where “debit cards are accepted, or withdraw cash from any compatible ATM.”
The site even suggests that users could have their salary deposited straight into the card for conversion to litecoin. The website does not, however, list any of the fees that users would incur.
To determine the exchange rate, the site says that they will make use of a published exchange-rate which will meet their “regulatory, operational, and market depth requirements.”
A Boost for Litecoin?
Already, some cryptocurrency new sites are claiming that the impending release of Litepay will result in significant increases in litecoin’s current valuation. This is, of course, all conjecture as no one knows how the market will respond, if at all, to Litepay launching.
Litepay has received some attention on Twitter from the Litecoin foundation. Naturally, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee is a follower of the account.
Thanks for the love! We look forward to our public launch in February of 2018, and helping grow, "The Cryptocurrency for Payments!" https://t.co/yuhV4s5eqo
— LitePay, Inc. (@LitePayInc) December 22, 2017
Litepay will likely be facing some stiff competition. Already, some competitors offer cryptocurrency funded payment cards. Further, many of these options support multiple cryptocurrencies.
Therefore Litepay will need to offer something significantly different or better than their competition to stand out. One thing they could do is provide lower fees or no fees for cardholders, and instead only charge merchants.
The market is eagerly awaiting the full site launch and when it does it will increase the profile of litecoin among the general public for mass adoption.
