What is LitePay?

LitePay aims to deliver the “world’s first borderless payment network,” a watershed moment for cryptocurrency and Litecoin.

Imagine sending Litecoin from the wallet of your choice to a LitePay Debit card, allowing you to spend Litecoins anywhere in the world debit cards are accepted.

Merchants will be able to accept Litecoin without worrying about the current price volatility in cryptocurrency. When you spend Litecoin at the store, LitePay instantly converts the Litecoins into the local fiat currency and deposits the money into the merchant’s bank account.

Exchange Rates

“To calculate the exchange rate for US Dollars, we typically pull the market depth from an exchange with adequate liquidity and reliable withdrawal capabilities in the USA and Eurozone.”

For non-USD currencies, exchange rates are based on the Open Exchange Rates API. However, as “Litecoin markets mature, LitePay will use those markets directly.”

So you might be thinking, but what’s wrong with my regular debit or credit card? Why would I want LitePay? Currently, you pay higher prices to make up for the 3% processing fees on credit card transactions. If stores accept Litecoin with Litepay, there’s only a 1% settlement charge to receive the direct bank deposit. With Litepay, merchants also save money by eliminating the costs and risks associated with fraud and chargebacks.

Amazingly, you can also use Litepay cards at ATMs to withdraw cash. The massive steps forward in the liquidity and utility of Litecoin are reflected in the recent price bump. Litecoin is up over 63% the week after Litepay news started to spread.

Litepay is looking to be ready on February 26th, 2018.

We started because the people asked @Bitpay to accept LTC. They wouldn’t, so we took the challenge. Infrastructure for LTC February 26 🚀#PayWithLitecoin #LitePay

— LitePay, Inc. (@LitePayInc) February 13, 2018

Bitpay attempted to provide a similar service utilizing Bitcoins but ran into the issues of higher fees and slower confirmation times on the Bitcoin network. They were charging at minimum 5 dollars in fees per transaction, making small purchases impractical. Litecoin however, has always aimed to excel when it comes to transactions. Charlie Lee has positioned Litecoin to be the payment coin when it comes to crypto. It’s the cryptocurrency looking to actually function as a currency. With faster block times and a new Litecoin update lowering the fees to less than one cent, it makes sense for the San Francisco based Litepay to build their infrastructure around the Litecoin network.

Signing Up

If you’re interested in the new payment processor, you can sign up on their website here and order a card. Once you activate your card and load it with Litecoins, you’re ready to start spending.

For merchants, accepting Litecoin is just as easy. With their invoice process, you’ll even be able to send invoices through email to receive payment.

Final Thoughts

By saving merchants money on transaction fees while simultaneously providing great liquidity for Litecoin holders, it’s easy to see why there is so much excitement in the Litecoin community. If holding Litecoin allows for frictionless spending around the world, we could see a massive increase in the adoption of LTC.

Finally, for credit card companies with high fees and rapacious interest rates, perhaps their chickens are coming home to roost. The Litecoin ‘Chikun’ however, wants to head to the moon.