The imminent arrival of LitePay has gotten many people excited. The payment processing service will make Litecoin easily transferable around the world. It will also pave the way for cryptocurrency to start being used more frequently and easily in real-life transactions. It could help Litecoin break into the top 3 cryptocurrencies in the world.
What is LitePay?
LitePay is a new payment processing service by Litecoin. The service will let people accept payments in Litecoin’s cryptocurrency (LTC) from anywhere in the world. A Visa-compatible LitePay card will be made onto which users can load their LTC tokens.
LitePay will be more beneficial to large-scale users i.e. businesses. Companies and businesses alike will be able to accept payments in Litecoin. The cryptocurrency market has exploded since 2017 and there are a lot of people who hold crypto tokens now. Therefore, the service lets people use their crypto tokens for transactions instead of just holding them and doing nothing.
Moreover, It gives more payment options for people wanting to make payments. The transactions will be quick and will be instantly settled with banks. Businesses will be able to instantly process these payments.
The LitePay Visa card will work in all countries where regular Visa cards are accepted. The card will take money directly from your Litecoin wallet and the conversion from digital to fiat currency will be done immediately.
The benefits?
According to Litecoin, the service will have two benefits:
“Firstly, it gives merchants an added incentive to begin accepting Litecoin because the payment processor assumes the risk of accepting the crypto – protecting merchants from market volatility. Secondly, it gives Litecoin holder more liquify in the short-term with their debit cards.”
Litecoin has better transaction times and cheaper fee than other cryptocurrencies as well. Therefore, if a currency like Bitcoin were to implement such a service (which it has), it would be slow and expensive. An example is the BitPay service. The service is a Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash processor and transactions take a long time to confirm. It also charges a $5 transaction fee.
However, LitePay will be different. A much lower fee of “a simple, flat 1% settlement charge” which is even lower than the 3% of credit cards! Transactions will also be instantly settled with banks. Therefore, LitePay will be a large alternative for users holding cryptocurrencies. Why pay with your card when you can pay with your crypto coins?
LitePay will also be really beneficial for crypto miners. Litecoin is one of the easier currencies to mine. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are hard to mine and are usually mined by large firms. However, anyone can mine Litecoin. LitePay will instantly convert Litecoin to US dollars, therefore, those who mine the coin can use it in making all sorts of payments as the coin is currently priced at $146. Miners won’t have to go through the troublesome process of first converting their coin to fiat currency. They can simply use the LitePay card which immediately converts Litecoin to US dollars.
What worried many people regarding LitePay was not the service itself, but the cryptocurrency. The market is extremely volatile with tokens changing in value in just a matter of hours. Therefore, it can potentially harm businesses if a massive price correction were to take place (which happened recently).
However, LitePay keeps in mind the volatility of the market. Whenever Businesses accept Litecoin, they need not worry about price volatility because as soon as they receive the payment, the amount will be automatically converted into US dollars according to its exchange rate at the given time.
If LTC prices fall further, businesses can adjust accordingly the amount of Litecoin they would accept for a transaction. However, a massive decrease may not come after the huge correction that has already taken place. Instead, the price of Litecoin may now soar because of LitePay.
Which areas will support LitePay?
Litecoin owners will be able to convert their LTC tokens using their LitePay atm cards wherever Visa payments are accepted. Thus, LitePay won’t be limited to a few, it’ll be available worldwide.
The Visa card will take money directly from your Litecoin wallet. There must be some mechanism in place for the card to get connected to your wallet, however, you don’t need to worry about that as it’ll be just like withdrawing money from an ATM.
What’s next?
With LitePay set to launch soon, Litecoin isn’t done there. Founder Charlie Lee posted on Twitter revealing that there will be another payment service that’ll be launched later in the year. According to him: “It’s going to get a lot easier for merchants to accept LTC!” The new service will be known as LitePal.
Another payment processor for Litecoin. It’s going to get a lot easier for merchants to accept LTC! @GoCoin @CoinPaymentsNET @AliantPayment @LitePayInc and now @LitePalOfficial #PayWithLitecoin https://t.co/fjvpeESpnX
— Charlie Lee [LTC] (@SatoshiLite) February 4, 2018
Users will be able to use the service with PayPal, Western Union, Bitcoin, and Litecoin. According to the announcement, the fees will be “bone chillingly low”. There’s not much information revealed for LitePal so far but expect Litecoin to tell us more after the launch of LitePay. All we know about LitePal is through the announcement that was made regarding it:
“LitePal is a Litecoin-first payment processor. We envision a cryptocurrency world where Litecoin is utilised by merchants from all over the world; one streamlined, simple, less confusing process.
Litecoin is regarded by many as the superior version of Bitcoin as it is faster and has less transaction fee. The digital currency is clearly making full use of its ‘superior’ characteristics with LitePay and LitePal. Its payment services offer unique incentives to crypto holders and businesses alike. Its transaction fee is also lesser than credit card fees.
Moreover, services like LitePay will be available to almost everyone in the world which will bring a lot of people towards Litecoin. More people interested in Litecoin would bring up its demand and hence it’s almost a guarantee that Litecoin will soar in value. It even went up after the LitePal announcement.
Therefore, with plans set in place for Litecoin, if you’re an investor, then its best to invest now while the currency’s relatively cheap. After it eventually soars, you could easily convert the profit into cash using the LitePay debit card.