A Singapore based alternative payments solution provider, Codapay will now support bitcoin payments as well. The company recently entered into a partnership with the BitX bitcoin exchange, enabling the company to add support to another payment option.
Codapay enables merchants accept payments from cardless customers across Southeast Asia. Merchants and customers can use this service to conduct transactions without debit or credit cards. While the company has been offering its service using multiple non-conventional payment methods, addition of bitcoin payments will make Codapay’s service more effective. Bitcoin being a global currency which can be used for transactions across the world at negligible cost is an ideal alternative payment tool. Other alternative payment methods like telco payments have very high transaction fees.
According to the CEO of Codapay, Neil Davidson, The credit and debit cards penetration is very low in the region and bitcoin will change the way customer in which the Southeast Asian customers transact online. The company’s partnership with BitX has allowed Codapay to integrate BitX’s bitcoin exchange infrastructure. It will help merchants accepting bitcoin to receive funds in local fiat currency.
Codapay currently has a strong presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It offers 5 different payment channels for its customers, these channels include bitcoin, direct mobile carrier billing, voucher redemption, bank transfers and cash payments at retail outlets.
Adoption of bitcoin is gradually increasing in these parts of the world. While most of the bitcoin transactions in these countries happen as part of the remittance sector, it will not take much time for bitcoin to expand into other areas of transactions as well. In addition, Southeast Asia is also known for its smartphone density. The number of smartphone users in the region may be far greater than those who own a credit or debit card. Codapay’s new offering will be a boon to the region’s e-commerce sector.