Recently, there were speculations about the popular mobile based on-demand taxi service adopting bitcoin as one of the payment options. The rumour gained more popularity after one of the Reddit user posted his alleged interaction with Uber’s customer service representative over email.
As soon as the rumours began spreading, the company decided to put it out by announcing that they have no intentions of integrating bitcoin as an additional payment option. But this has not stopped the drivers on Uber network from accepting bitcoins from customers.
READ MORE: Not Going to Incorporate Bitcoin yet, Says Uber
Currently the Uber application can support credit card payments and money wallet payments in some parts of the world (PayTM in India). Uber directly charges the passengers for the rides, and the total ride cost will also include a tip amounting to 20% of the actual fare which will be automatically added to the bill. Uber’s policy discourages drivers from taking additional tips from passengers.
Uber drivers seems to have recognized the advantages of bitcoin and are now using it to make few extra bucks by prominently displaying their bitcoin wallet address and QR code inside the cars and on their business cards. They hope to increase their earnings by collecting some off the books tips without Uber’s knowledge.
Braintree, the payment processor used by Uber, Airbnb and other disruptive start-ups has already enabled bitcoin payments in their services. The bitcoin payments options on Braintree is a result of the company’s partnership with Coinbase earlier this year. Even though Uber can opt to collect bitcoin payments anytime by flipping the switch on Braintree’s merchant dashboard, they have not done so yet. Unlike credit card payments, bitcoin payments need to be authorised every single time which is not in line with the company’s debiting system which automatically deducts the fare from the linked credit card as soon as the passenger exits the vehicle.