Cryptocurrency Round-Up: BitPay's NFC Payment App and '1% of Consumers' Use Bitcoin

Bitcoin sees its price rise for the first time in over a week amid a market-wide upturn(IBTimes UK)

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have seen some respite from the recently tumbling prices, as all 10 of the most valuable altcoins saw positive market movement.

Bitcoin, dogecoin, peercoin and namecoin all rose in value by around 3.5%, while the largest gains from any of the big players came from darkcoin.

The anonymity-focussed altcoin saw a 9% price rise to take its market capitalisation above $8 million once again.

The Bitcoin Checkout app was announced at Money2020 and is available immediately on Android and "soon" on iOS.

"For retailers, accepting mobile payments is a growing trend, but none of today's industry offerings can provide a lower risk or lower cost than swiping a credit card," said Tony Gallippi, co-founder and executive chairman of BitPay.

"Accepting bitcoin can offer tremendous savings to merchants, especially merchants with a large international customer base, and BitPay's service combined with the new mobile app is a fantastic value for merchants."

A new study has found that more than 1% of consumers use bitcoin as a payment method, half of which use it as their primary payment method.

The survey of 1,000 online consumers, commissioned by digital commerce solution provider Avangate, looked at the evolution of mobile technology and how it is spawning the next generation of software and online services.

The study did not take into account transactions through online black marketplaces like Silk Road 2.0, which generally see cryptocurrencies used as the main form of payment.

Go here to read the rest:
Cryptocurrency Round-Up: BitPay's NFC Payment App and '1% of Consumers' Use Bitcoin