So far, you have been able to pay your bills or make transactions using your country’s native currency. But what if we say you could soon make such transactions using cryptocurrency, just like you would with regular money? Well, BitPay has announced intentions of bringing a BitPay card to Google Pay and Samsung Pay, thereby allowing customers to use cryptocurrencies for making transactions.
BitPay is currently one of the world’s largest providers of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies services. In an official announcement, the company confirmed the arrival of BitPay Prepaid Mastercard support in Apple Pay. Additionally, the company will bring support for the same to Google Pay and Samsung Pay. The service will be available in the US for the time being.
Google Pay, Samsung Pay to get cryptocurrencies
“We have thousands of BitPay Wallet app customers using the BitPay Card who are always looking for new places and ways to spend their crypto,” said BitPay CEO Stephen Pair. “Adding Apple Pay and soon Google and Samsung Pay makes it easy and convenient to use the BitPay Card in more places from day-to-day items to luxury purchases.”
This isn’t the first time a popular payment service gets support for cryptocurrency payments. Back in March 2020, Coinbase confirmed users on Android could use its Coinbase card on Google Pay to make payments with cryptocurrency.
While the US versions of Google Pay and Samsung Pay are incorporating cryptocurrencies, the Indian versions are busy regulating the market share. Just before 2020 ended, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) asked third-party UPI payment services to limit their share up to 30 percent only. Google Pay and PhonePe were found to have 40 percent of the market share.
WhatsApp too recently joined the party with its UPI-based payments system via the WhatsApp app. However, based on a couple of reports, the messenger service is unable to break into the payment sector in India.
Meanwhile, Samsung recently reworked its Samsung Pay service on its latest Galaxy S21 series devices. The company got rid of the MST chip that aided credit as well as debit card payments to POS machines. One can use Samsung Pay in India to make wallet-based payments as well as UPI payments.
