Solutions

The Bitcoin payment guide

Participate in the economy of universal and native internet means of exchange.

Do you remember the telephone communication fees? The roaming charges due to the wastefulness of intermediaries? Just as Voice over IP and Video over IP have revolutionized audio and visual communication, "value over IP" promises to revolutionize economic transactions by significantly reducing costs and accelerating value exchanges on a global scale.

Today, it is possible for businesses to accept payments on these new internet-native value networks.

Discover why and how.

A return to commerce as it has always existed: a peer-to-peer exchange of value.

The benefits

The goal is to facilitate a true peer-to-peer exchange without intermediaries, as commerce has always existed, to capture as close to 100% of the created value as possible.

Reduce Your Costs:

Transaction fee reduction.
Lower costs for payment terminals (POS), typically free since you use your smartphone and a free app. In comparison, a credit card POS costs:
- From 30 to several hundred euros for purchase.
- 10 to 40 euros in monthly rental.
- Commission fees per transaction, usually around 1.6%, depending on whether you have a subscription.
Very low transaction fees borne by the payer, so zero cost until you make a transaction yourself.
No need for specific exchange rates by country.
No counterfeit bills or bounced checks (native audit and traceability).

Sell with Less Friction:

A 100% authorization rate since it's the customer who decides.
Fewer abandoned carts as customers always have their smartphones handy and don't need to enter their information or validate the transaction via their banking app and/or an SMS code.
Quick and easy setup for Bitcoin payments without needing permission from a bank or organization.
No need for revenue recovery since the payment can't be canceled: transactions are final (no chargebacks from a banking or credit intermediary).
Collecting users' identity data is not mandatory (KYC), and there's no need to manage an account for users. For deliveries, you can restrict yourself to collecting the minimum necessary for service.
Adopting the native internet currency means a universal user base, no borders or exchange rates, and you can sell to anyone (foreign visitors, international remote sales).

Access a Broader Customer Base:

Increase sales for those without a bank payment terminal or online sales.
Ensure a complement and diversification of revenues.
Start selling without the complexity of startup.
For content creators: easily add options to your website for tips, ticket sales, access to paid content, etc. The advantage is being able to charge even a few cents, which is impossible with the current banking system.
Exposure to a potentially young and tech-savvy customer base, although the technical barrier is low (smartphone users). Every day they are more numerous and have different motives (geeks, hipsters, environmentalists, new economy, local economy, intellectual choice, foreigners traveling, etc).
Differentiate from competitors who don't accept it.
Adapt to new modes of consumption and customer payment preferences. For instance, physical stores have gained resilience through click & collect - these new consumption modes should not be overlooked. It's easy to adapt to this evolution in consumer behavior. Learn by doing and anticipate future growth drivers.
Increased visibility in an enthusiastic community, often generating free publicity from customers.

Finally, this payment strategy fits into a treasury diversification strategy for those who wish, with some merchants even offering more advantageous prices in return.

Our solution guide based on how you to plan to use it

Note: it's logicial to start at a given level, get familiar, and seamlessly move to another level

Additional considerations

Instant payment

Historically, for large amounts (> several hundred or thousand euros), it is recommended to directly use the Bitcoin base layer itself ("on-chain"). This will cost a few euros and require a minimum wait of about ten minutes. The advantage is maximum security. When looking to consolidate part of your treasury and move it away from your phone or computer, it is recommended to put your funds "on-chain" and secure them with a physical signing device.

For small amounts (from nano-cents to a few hundred euros), it is recommended to use the Lightning Network, which allows for instant payments (in Bitcoin) with the lowest possible fees. While security remains excellent, liquidity on the channels hasn't always allowed large amounts to pass easily. But this is changing rapidly. With time and adoption, the average amounts transacted on Lightning are increasing. That's why it is now the recommended solution for businesses.

You can easily move your funds from the Bitcoin base layer "on-chain" to Lightning, and vice versa, by yourself. The analogy used is that of a safe deposit box (Bitcoin) and a checking account (Lightning).

Treasury and accounting

In France, for now, Bitcoin is not considered a currency but a digital asset. Therefore, these digital "tokens" (PCG, art. 619-1) should be simply recorded as a debit in account 5202 "Tokens held." When you use them (to pay for a purchase, pay a supplier, or convert them into a traditional currency like the euro), you need to calculate if there was a capital gain between the day of acquisition and the day of disposal.

This requires access to the transaction history.

For individuals:

Capital gains below €305 per year are exempt from tax.
Beyond €305 per year of capital gain, the tax regime is the flat tax (PFU) at 30%. But once again, this only applies to the capital gain related to the appreciation of the Bitcoin (for example, if you have €1000 worth of Bitcoin that you converted into euros, and its exchange price has appreciated by 50% between the time you were paid and the time you sell it, then you will pay a flat tax of €150). In no case will you incur a loss.

For companies:

There is no flat tax of 30%, but instead, a corporate income tax (IS). When you convert your Bitcoin (purchase, exchange for traditional currency), you need to calculate the capital gain or loss from the sale to include it in the company's overall result.

If you do not sell your Bitcoin for traditional fiat currency or make any purchases with it (i.e., you hold onto them), you do not pay tax on potential capital gains.

Generally, the portion of Bitcoin you want to keep for the long term can be transferred to a separate wallet ("cold wallet"). For example, you can automatically export a portion of your income (triggered at a threshold, on a weekly basis, etc.) to this "cold wallet."

Similarly, you can also make exports to traditional currencies via a conversion service to pay your supplier purchases.

For those who want to keep all or part of their Bitcoin without exposing themselves to their volatility (rise or fall), they can do so in the form of "stablecoin," which is a form that is stable compared to a reference traditional currency (e.g., euro, dollar).

Either by using a "stable sat" service (your number of Bitcoins goes up or down, but their value in relation to your reference currency remains stable).
Or by converting into a "stablecoin," which is another cryptocurrency backed by a currency (this conversion does not trigger a capital gain calculation because you stay within the realm of "digital assets").