Stripe takes bitcoin integration live

Digital payment provider Stripe is now allowing any merchant in its network to accept payments in bitcoin after nearly a year of beta testing.

Any merchant in Stripe’s network with a US dollar bank account can start accepting bitcoin through the company’s API or its Stripe Checkout feature. Those merchants who are already a Stripe Checkout user can add bitcoin using just one line of code, the company said.

Stripe, which handles payments for Kickstarter and Shopify, as well as powering Facebook and Twitter’s ‘Buy’ buttons, started testing the bitcoin integration in March 2014. The scheme was completed in December.

During the beta programme Stripe conducted bitcoin transactions in 60 different countries, and has long been expected to complete the integration.

Since Stripe started testing bitcoin acceptance, both PayPal and payments subsidiary Braintree have started accepting bitcoin. PayPal only allows merchants in North America to accept the crypto-currency, while Braintree only allows those on its bitcoin private beta to do so.

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