Elite Email Now Accepts Bitcoins, And We’re The First ESP in the World To Do That

580

It’s always fun to be the first in the world to do something. I mean, the world is a big place, so being a pioneer in anything is tough these days.So, we’re excited that Elite Email is the first email marketing service provider in the world to accept payment in bitcoins.Bitcoins have been all over the news lately as their value has absolutely skyrocketed, mostly due to the financial crisis in Cyprus.For those that don’t know what bitcoins are, it is an online digital currency that is independent of any government. Just like normal dollars or euros, you can use it to pay for products and services from vendors that accept it (now, including Elite Email). With bitcoins, you essentially have an online wallet that you can use to receive and send bitcoins, or fractions of bitcoins. The transfers are instantaneous, anonymous, and tie in really well with smartphones that can scan QR codes to make payment a snap.Here is a great video that you can watch that summarizes things a bit more:

As a bit more random info, in March 2013, Bloomberg valued the entire “bitcoin currency” at over $600 million and now (as of a couple days ago) estimated the total value of bitcoins at over $2 billion.There are currently 11 million bitcoins in circulation and about 25 new coins are produced every minute.There is much debate about the future of bitcoins and the value they’ll hold. Some are calling it a temporary bubble that will burst at any moment, while others are saying this is what will power the economy of the future (to some degree).While I have no clue how this will play out, there is one thing I know, and that is people all around the world are starting to use bitcoins more and more… and that includes our customers.Since our goal is always to make things as easy as possible for our customers, I figure that includes giving them the payment method choices they desire.We already accepted Visa, MasterCard and American Express in US dollars and Canadian dollars. But, now with bitcoins in the mix, it just gives our customers more options.The value of a bitcoin is changing so rapidly these days so what we do is calculate a real-time exchange rate at the moment a customer wants to make a purchase. This way we know at that moment in time they are paying the correct “converted” amount. This was the most fair approach we could come up with.You can view our bitcoin pricing page here: http://www.eliteemail.com/price/bitcoin/Read the full press release.