In the aftermath of bitcoin transaction fees reaching dizzying all-time heights, litecoin has arisen as a popular alternative for payments and peer-to-peer transactions. A new service called Litepay is getting ready to launch sometime this month. The service will allow businesses to receive litecoin payments, and may even offer litecoin-powered cards.
The Idea Behind Litepay
According to the official website, the goal of Litepay is to offer much lower settlement charges for payments than credit cards currently offer. They will also allow merchants to cash out to fiat without any risk of volatility directly. In comparison to credit cards, representatives claim they will charge a flat one percent fee for merchants. Credit cards, according to Litepay, charge up to three percent in processing fees.
The site also details how they will provide payment cards that will withdraw from a litecoin balance.
First, a potential customer orders the card and pays a fee for it, then they verify their identification, and finally receive the card. After activating the card, they can transfer litecoin into their designated account, and then spend it at any place where “debit cards are accepted, or withdraw cash from any compatible ATM.”
The site even suggests that users could have their salary deposited straight into the card for conversion to litecoin. The website does not, however, list any of the fees that users would incur.
For example, the startup fee and individual transaction fees are not listed. Further, it does not detail which payment network the cards will eventually use. It does not specify if it will use Visa, MasterCard, or any other provider, nor does it specify if there are any use limitations based on residency.
To determine the exchange rate, the site says that they will make use of a published exchange-rate which will meet their “regulatory, operational, and market depth requirements.”
A Boost for Litecoin?
Already, some cryptocurrency new sites are claiming that the impending release of Litepay will result in significant increases in litecoin’s current valuation. This is, of course, all conjecture as no one knows how the market will respond, if at all, to Litepay launching.
Litepay has received some attention on Twitter from the Litecoin foundation. Naturally, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee is a follower of the account.
Litepay will likely be facing some stiff competition. Already, some competitors offer cryptocurrency funded payment cards. Further, many of these options support multiple cryptocurrencies.
Therefore Litepay will need to offer something significantly different or better than their competition to stand out. One thing they could do is provide lower fees or no fees for cardholders, and instead only charge merchants.
The Litepay website is still missing a lot of information, and currently all of its “get started” buttons seem to do nothing. The market will just have to wait until the formal launch when it can learn more details about how the service may work. If it is successful, it could at the very least increase the profile of litecoin among the general public.