Today the Litecoin Foundation has announced an official partnership with
Aliant Payment Systems. Aliant has been in the payments processing business
for 15 years. It will offer cryptocurrency capabilities to merchants in the
e-commerce, retail and mobile industries.
Aliant CEO Eric Brown was very upbeat when announcing the partnership:
"We are thrilled to be partnering with the Litecoin Foundation to bring a trusted,
stable solution to innovative merchants who are interested in adopting
cryptocurrency payments. We look forward to working together to bring
Litecoin payments to mass adoption.''
Charlie Lee, creator and CEO of the Litecoin Foundation had this to say about the partnership with Aliant:
"The Litecoin Foundation is pleased to partner with Aliant Payment Systems for Litecoin payment processing. Aliant offers a well rounded solution for merchants to accept Litecoin easily with physical point of sales terminal (via Poynt), virtual sales terminal, and custom API integration. Merchants also have the flexibility to keep the payments they receive in LTC or convert them immediately into fiat currency.''
Aliant has already signed up 80 merchants for this new service. The transaction fee for using this new service is 4.5 cents. Eric Brown CEO of Aliant says that nobody is talking of Litecoin as an investment or store of value. ''Whats going to work in the payments space? It's going to be Litecoin.''
Aliant processes transactions for debit and credit cards for 6.700 merchants worth over $435 million. Brown confidently declares that there is,"flood-gate type surge coming. Crypto is here to stay. It just makes sense.''
In addition Aliant has announced that it will be attending the first ever Litecoin summit. This will take place in San Francisco in September of this year.
Michael Levere writing for The Independent Republic sums up nicely the importance of this strategic partnership for Litecoin after the disappointment of the Litepay debacle:
"A small, fast purchase-based vendor, such as a food truck or coffee shop, will benefit from LTC integration. ... The partnership with Aliant, in addition to the failed LitePay project, demonstrates a commitment by the Litecoin community in growing the availability of LTC transactions. Litecoin, like all cryptos, is a ready-made currency that can be bought, swapped and sent as a digital form of traditional tender. However, there is a disconnect for merchants and stores looking to accept cryptocurrency as apart of transactions: not all companies want to expose themselves to crypto-related volatility.''
Levere makes the further salient point that :
''Rather than forcing merchants to adopt cryptocurrency for buying and selling, payment processors open the door for greater adoption in crypto-related transactions. Even if one side of the commerce equation exchanges for fiat, cryptocurrency is still being used as a vital piece of the exchange.''
This breakthrough rounds off a good week for Litecoin after the announcement earlier that Abra was going to use Litecoin smart contracts as part of its payment solutions.
https://www.aliantpayments.com/about-us/merchant-blog/
https://www.aliantpayments.com/crypto-processing/crypto-pricing-features/
https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/04/05/aliant-confirms-status-litecoins-first-official-payments-partner/
https://www.theindependentrepublic.com/2018/04/05/aliant-litecoin-ltc-foundation/