BitPay Launches New Bitcoin Payment App Using NFC Tech

While Apple Pay is looking to change the way people pay from their bank accounts BitPay is looking to change the way people pay for their purchases using Bitcoin. To that end, the company just launched the Bitcoin Checkout App that is geared to work much the same way other NFC payment platforms work. With the application on your Android (News - Alert) device (with an iOS version coming soon), you can pay for items at stores that accept bitcoin just by tapping your device on the POS terminal.

Perhaps even better than being able to pay for your purchases, is that you will be able to actually receive bitcoin payment from other people right on your phone. Bitpay says this way is actually easier than scanning a QR code thanks to NFC technology.

“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,” Tony Gallippi, co-founder and executive chairman of BitPay said in a statement announcing the application. “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.”

The launch of an NFC payment app that works with bitcoin is just the latest move to show that the digital currency is certainly becoming quite a bit more mainstream. While the iOS platform was strongly against bitcoin until recently, Android has really had no such qualms. That could be why this application got the green light from Google (News - Alert) first.

While Apple had been opposed to accepting bitcoin applications in its app store, Circle recently announced it had launched a new application that will allow users of the digital currency to treat it more like a regular currency. The BitPay application is another step in that direction.