GoCoin, an international cryptocurrency payments platform, and Ziftr, an ecommerce and credit card processing company, announced a strategic merger today. GoCoin and Ziftr hope to tackle the hybrid-payments space where cryptocurrency, local currency, businesses, and customers come together in e-commerce transactions.

GoCoin brags the third world spot for cryptocurrency powered transactions, and is the only major processor for Litecoin, Dogecoin, Tether, and other experimental currencies, in addition to Bitcoin. The processor serves over 7,500 merchants and claims over 500 new signups monthly.

Ziftr recently launched ZiftrPAY, a cryptocurrency and credit card payment platform. In addition, the company has also launched ZiftrCOIN, a coupon coin designed to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and mainstream customers, and ZiftrWALLET, a mobile cryptocurrency wallet that stores multiple cryptocurrencies and embeds credit card payments with an eye for incentivizing cryptocurrency use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMDobuWtESQ

Cryptocurrency adoption is all about incentives

Steve Beauregard, founder and CEO of GoCoin argues that when it comes to incentives, Bitcoin has a major adoption problem.

According to SiliconANGLE‘s own research this appears to be true. Over the past year, Bitcoin adoption has been flattening—although previous years had seen noted increases in adoption, and increased use during Bitcoin Black Friday, metrics from last years’ BBF weren’t released. CoinMap showed a decreasing average of venues added, from an average monthly growth of 1.7% in March, down from an average of 2.6% across a six-month window, according to now-offline BitcoinPulse.com. And Cointerest showed a dip to 2.5% in March, down from 3.28% in the same six-month window.

“Loyalty points play a key role in a consumer’s choice of payment method,” says Beauregard, “and with the ziftrCOIN loyalty platform integrated into the ziftrWALLET, I believe we can finally give consumers the right experience to choose digital currencies over cards at checkout.”

By partnering with GoCoin, Ziftr expects that the company will be able to offer substantial incentives to customers to make the jump to cryptocurrency for everyday, mainstream purchases.

Due to the argued low-cost, highly secure nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies merchants have plenty of incentives to make use of it. However, sluggish adoption has been thought to be due to a lack of interest from the general public.

With ZiftrCOIN and ZiftrWALLET—which combine into what the company calls the ZiftrVERSE—GoCoin and Ziftr hope to overcome this wasteland of interest and engage the public in the world of cryptocurrency, which in turn will give rise to greater adoption from merchants who can reap the rewards.

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