Newegg Opening Bitcoin Payments to Canadian Customers

Newegg, North America’s leading technology-focused e-retailer, announced on Wednesday that the company is affording customers in Canada the option of paying for products with Bitcoin — citing increased mainstream awareness of the digital currency.

‘The Time Is Right’

Shoppers in Canada using popular e-retailer Newegg may now pay for purchases with Bitcoin.

The addition of Canadian Bitcoin payments is long overdue, as payments in the dominant digital currency have been accepted from customers in the United States since August 2014. Notes the company’s CEO, Danny Lee:

In 2014 Newegg was among the first major companies to offer customers a bitcoin payment option. Since that time the value of bitcoin has skyrocketed and customers holding bitcoin have considerably more purchasing power. We believe the time is right to broaden our acceptance of bitcoin to our customers in Canada.

As noted by Business Wire, a large portion of Newegg’s 36 million total customers live on the North American continent. Now said customers in both the United States and Canada can use Bitcoin to purchase products from the company’s complete catalog.

Newegg’s Bitcoin payments in Canada will be processed via BitPay — a global Bitcoin payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia — as has been the case for US payments. BitPay allows Newegg to both accept payments in the dominant cryptocurrency as well as process refunds and payment exceptions via “the most powerful bitcoin API in the industry.” Says BitPay CEO and co-founder Stephen Pair:

Newegg was an early e-commerce adopter of bitcoin, and that leap of faith the company took in 2014 put Newegg on the map as a bitcoin-friendly place for tech enthusiasts to shop. We’re seeing a lot of traction in Canada, and we’re happy to see Newegg extend its bitcoin payment option north of the border.

Lite’s Out

On the flip side of the coin, thing’s aren’t looking so good for LitePay — a BitPay-like payment processor for Bitcoin’s younger brother, Litecoin.

Earlier this week, The Litecoin Foundation announced that LitePay CEO Kenneth Asare has shut down all operations related to the project and is actively preparing to sell the company. The closure comes after the project was improperly hyped by both The Litecoin Foundation and Litecoin creator Charlie Lee. Wrote Lee on Twitter:

Like everyone else, we got too excited about something that was too good to be true and we optimistically overlooked many of the warning signs. I am sorry for having hyped up this company and vow to do better due diligence in the future.

What do you think of Newegg’s acceptance of Bitcoin as a viable payment option for Canadian customers? Do you think more websites will start accepting the dominant cryptocurrency as mainstream awareness increases? Let us know in the comments below!

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