For the September edition of the Developer Spotlight article, we will interview Kate, the senior marketing manager at NOWPayments.
Hey Kate! Happy to connect today and learn more about the NOWPayments project! Can you tell us more about the project and what is the problem that you were addressing?
Hi, happy to answer your questions!
NOWPayments was founded in 2019 by the team behind ChangeNOW, a leading crypto exchange service. NOWPayments remains close partners with ChangeNOW but is fully independent and has its own team.
The idea of NOWPayments was to help spread mass adoption by making it easy to use crypto daily. The challenges merchants face when deciding if they should accept crypto are:
- Volatility.
- Lack of knowledge about crypto basics.
- Lack of means to accept on popular e-commerce platforms.
- The need to withdraw to fiat.
We try to help solve each of these by offering a fixed-rate option and supporting conversion to stablecoins. In addition, we continue developing plugins that can be integrated with major e-commerce platforms. We also have a fiat conversion option, although we hope it won’t be needed in the future if everyone can use crypto everywhere. That is why we are targeting all industries: e-commerce, services, traveling, gaming, tech, etc. Crypto is ubiquitous.
What are the most important things about NOWPayments?
With pleasure!
One of the most important things is that we are a crypto-to-crypto payment gateway with a fiat conversion. True mass adoption is about accepting and using crypto! Anyone can accept Cardano payments anywhere, and we hope that the merchants will hodl and use ada in the future.
NOWPayments is non-custodial, so merchants receive ada in their wallets and are in full control. We do have a fiat conversion option, but we focus on crypto-to-crypto payment, as that’s where true adoption lies.
We pride ourselves on our auto coin exchange feature. That means we process the exchanges ourselves without using third-party exchanges. So even if customers pay with some other crypto, merchants can still accept ada.
Lastly, payments and donations are not the only use cases we contribute to the Cardano ecosystem. For example, we also support mass payments, enabling an ada-powered payroll for companies.
Going forward, how will NOWPayments make an impact in the crypto space or on the world?
We have many ambitions and plans to make crypto even easier to use and as widespread as possible. Here are some of the things we are going to implement soon.
Subscriptions: Selling subscriptions for crypto is a very popular in-demand feature, and we have developed a way to do this.
New e-commerce plugins: Recently, we have released a new Shopware plugin, but we “never stop, never stopping.” Our plans include Ecwid, Bigcommerce, and many other plugins. We research which e-commerce platforms are popular and in-demand and start working on new plugins to help crypto payments become widespread.
PoS solutions: We are helping offline stores explore the benefits of crypto payments. Besides developing ways to integrate with current PoS systems, we are working on an invoices system that merchants can use for their brick-and-mortar stores.
Mass payments: We plan on making our mass payments feature even more user-friendly so that it won’t be even a question of whether to use it, but when to use it. People will be able to create mass payments requests right in their NOWPayments account so that the whole process is swift and there are no additional steps.
Donations: We have created a way to make a customized donation link right in your account. We are going to perfect that. We are also working on a charity project - featuring charity projects with a donation button underneath them to make it easy to donate. A recent charity project we have partnered with is Elongate. We also have partnered with CoinSocialStory to create a page that would feature charities and an easy way to donate to them. There you can find a way to donate to the Rainforest Foundation.
More coins: We are adding new and exciting cryptocurrencies every month. Stay tuned and accept any crypto you like!
What are your accomplishments so far, and what are you most proud of?
Two years, and we have 95+ cryptocurrencies, eight plugins, 3 APIs, several donation solutions, thousands of partners, and incredible friendships in the crypto space.
Why should people choose to use NOWPayments? What are the advantages?
- One of our key advantages is auto coin conversion, meaning you don’t have to have multiple wallets for different currencies. Instead, we can auto convert any currency into the ones you want to accept.
- Pricing is always 0,5% per transaction and 0,5% per exchange if needed.
- New coins are added every month.
- Personal account manager.
- Always ready to customize.
What is the future of NOWPayments? For example, what new things to come, and what will it mean for the overall project?
The future is bright with possibilities. Our vision of the perfect future is that every store, offline or online, accepts crypto with ease and pays their employee’s salaries in crypto. As a result, they can use it globally and spend it on everything they want. NOWPayments will be proud to have played a role in making that happen.
Tell us about your team. Who are the people behind NOWPayments?
Many amazing people are working at NOWPayments and making the dream of Mass Adoption come true. Here are some of them. Xena Kash is our CEO, Maria Key and Yana Mar are our business developers, and I Kate am our senior marketing manager.
Which partnerships have you engaged so far, and which ones are the most impactful?
Hundreds of new partners sign up with us every month to start accepting crypto. Some notable partnerships include Travala, a booking service, and Elongate, a crypto charity project. These two represent two of the most important use cases for crypto: payments and donations.
Thank you for your time! Do you have anything else to add?
Thank you for this amazing opportunity! We are thrilled to contribute to the Cardano ecosystem by bringing in more use cases for ada. If there is anything you think we can make easier in terms of payments or donations, please let us know!