The aggregate market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies has risen exponentially since 2016 and so has the global volume of cryptocurrency trading. Even so, broad mainstream adoption is still elusive, and the use of cryptocurrencies for retail payments lags behind — it is still quite small compared, for example, to PayPal’s 451 billion U.S. dollars of payment traffic in 2017. There are clear signs that all that is set to change though, as a LendEDU’s survey from September 2017 shows that almost 40% of American consumers are open to using bitcoin for transactions and purchases. Since that is the case, it seems clear that the fault for poor adoption rates so far lies more on the side of providers (merchants, ERP/POS vendors, FinTech solution providers) than the consumers.

Why aren’t merchants more eager to offer their customers a possibility of cryptocurrency payments?

From our experience and conversations with various merchants, we have pinpointed the following issues:

Poor understanding of technology: The understanding of how distributed ledger technology works is still very limited to dedicated developers and blockchain/crypto enthusiasts; the vast majority of merchants themselves don’t understand it and are reluctant to use it as a result.

Lack of technical support for seamless integration with their existing POS: Most existing crypto payment services are either stand-alone, or providers don’t offer full integration with the merchants’ existing ERP or POS systems. Retail merchants process a huge amount of orders and invoices daily, and as a result they need their systems to run smoothly and efficiently. Any addition to their existing system should be seamless, easy-to-operate, and backed by immediately responsive and comprehensive customer support.

Risk of volatility: The crypto market has seen extreme levels of volatility over the course of its meteoric rise. For example, the annualized historical, long-term average of the realized volatility of the S&P 500 index is roughly 15% per year, whereas the volatility of crypto market was consistently above 100% for a large part of 2017! Although speculative investors would view this trend positively, it makes most merchants very reluctant to accept cryptocurrencies as payment. Imagine receiving a payment today, and tomorrow your revenue is worth 30% less.

These were the burning issues that the Limitlex team considered when embarking on its mission to build an advanced merchant solution, satisfying the needs of both consumers and merchants. In terms of technology, our approach is to provide merchants with full integration of the crypto payment gateway into their existing POS. In effect this means simply the seamless addition of crypto payments to their existing model, without disturbing their ordinary POS operations in any way. In order to implement this solution more universally, Limitlex aims to establish partnerships with the leading ERP/POS vendors, who can integrate the Limitlex payment gateway into their system. As a result merchants will not be bothered by any hassles in implementing the new technology, and they can start using the service right away.

The development of the payment gateway is completed and Limitlex has already entered into a strategic partnership with one of the largest ERP/POS vendors in the region, Comtron. Comtron will integrate the Limitlex payment gateway into their POS terminals, as this deal equips over 1,000 merchants (bars, restaurants, retail venues) with the tech needed to accept payments in cryptocurrencies.

What about large-scale merchants or retail networks that are managed by in-house ERP systems? Limitlex will work hands-on with their system engineers to fully integrate the crypto payment gateway into their systems.

Consumers will be able to pay either directly from their own crypto wallets, or from their account on the Limitlex platform. Crypto wallets open up the possibility of crypto payments to a wider number of consumers, as they can conduct their transactions from any crypto wallet they already use (and are not required to sign up to the Limitlex platform at all), whereas the Limitlex account will be very convenient for users and traders on the Limitlex platform, where they will be able able to set up a dedicated sub-account for transmitting external payments.

As regards the question of volatility, it is important to note that Limitlex is building the world’s first smart cryptocurrency exchange supporting both crypto and fiat currencies. Unlike most other exchanges, Limitlex is building its platform with merchants in mind, and will therefore provide them with advanced features, such as automated conversion of received crypto payments into fiat currencies. This feature removes the issue of volatility for the merchants using the Limitlex payment gateway. Of course, merchants can choose to retain their payments in crypto if they prefer so.

Limitlex will enable payments in most of the cryptocurrencies listed on the exchange, and will guarantee conversion into fiat for all that have enough volume with fiat pairs. As with other operations on the Limitlex platform, the LMX token will be an important piece of the equation as using it will result in discounted fees for merchants within the payment gateway ecosystem.

Limitlex has recently opened a “private pre-ICO” round for early backers, available only to a limited number of participants. Early backers are rewarded with a bonus of additional LMX tokens of up to 50%! Visit Limitlex to find out more.