We have seen several smaller partnerships between Bitcoin and universities in the United States over the past few months. Georgia Institute of Technology will be the first university integrating Bitcoin payments into its stadium concession sales , as well as student dining and shopping credit system. All of this is made possible thanks to BitPay, the global leader in Bitcoin payment acceptance.
Today we are excited to reveal our relationship with PayPal to increase the adoption of bitcoin worldwide. The first project we have completed is an integration with PayPal’s Payments Hub, which is their alternative payments platform for digital goods. Customers with a bitcoin wallet will be able to pay participating merchants in bitcoin for games, music, videos, news, ebooks, and other digital content.
Earlier this month we announced that businesses working with Braintree will soon be able to accept Bitcoin as a payment option through their innovative v.zero SDK and relationship with Coinbase.
Today we are announcing PayPal’s next step in helping merchants accept Bitcoin payments. PayPal has entered into agreements with leading Bitcoin payment processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin. Starting today, these agreements let PayPal digital goods merchants accept Bitcoin with a simple integration through the PayPal Payments Hub. This will be available to merchants in North America first.
There was some training to get the bookstore staff up to speed with the new system, but Murphy said it’s basically the same process as using a credit card.
Rakuten Super Logistics U.S, a company that provides order fulfillment services for online retailers, has already begun accepting bitcoin via BitPay after receiving requests from customers.
商品の受注から発送までを代行する、いわゆるフルフィラメントサービスを提供する Rakuten Super Logistics が、ビットコインの取扱を開始しました。決済部分は、BitPay が担当します。
Rakuten Super Logistics was formerly called Webgistix. The American company was acquired by Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten in 2013 as part of a global expansion outside its home market.
Rakuten Super Logistics は、2013年に楽天が Webgistix を買収して誕生した会社です。
すばらしい前進です。楽天本体ではなく、北米のフルフィラメントサービスから開始するというのは、非常に現実的です。確実に実績を積み重ねて、取扱範囲や規模を拡大していくプランが見えます。
楽天と言えば、2014年7月に三木谷さんがビットコインに対する前向きな発言をしたことで一時話題となりました。わずか1ヶ月で、実現することになりました。
このスピード感で進めば、日本国内での普及も見えてきます。
Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN), one of the largest worldwide providers of payment solutions, today announced that it has signed a referral agreement with BitPay, the world leader in business solutions for the bitcoin digital currency. This relationship allows Global Payments to incorporate the cryptocurrency into its product suite and to offer bitcoin payment acceptance to its worldwide merchants.
Global Payments は、決済の仲介を提供している大手です。今回、ビットコイン決済導入のために、BitPay との提携を発表しました。この提携によって、Global Payments を導入している店舗には新たな決済オプションとして、ビットコイン決済が提供されることになります。
“This partnership with Global Payments allows ecommerce and retail merchants to easily accept bitcoin payments,” said Tony Gallippi, BitPay’s Co-founder and Executive Chairman.
ビットコイン決済を導入したい店舗側は、簡単に新しい決済方法を追加できるようになるとのことです。
単純にビットコイン決済を導入できる店舗やビジネスが増えるため、ビットコイン決済の普及に大きな前進です。また、電子決済プロバイダーとして上場している Global Payments との提携は、BitPay にとっても大きなチャンスとなります。ビジネス上の決済においても、今後ビットコインが使われる期待が持てます。
ちなみに現時点（2014-08-07 06:26 JST）での Global Payments の株価は $67.97 です。
