WordPress online stores now accept Cardano

Recently, Adam Dean, one of the Cardano developers, posted on Twitter that the integration with the Cardano Mercury wallet has been completed. This is confirmed by a receipt stating the order has been received and paid in the ADA (Cardano) cryptocurrency equivalent to $1. The payment was made through the online store on the WordPress platform with the WooCommerce eCommerce plugin.

Adam Dean’s tweet

What does this mean for Cardano? Let's figure it out!

Cardano integration with WooCommerce

The integration aimed to test the interaction of a Cardano-based hot wallet with websites through a bridge created between the storage of crypto assets and decentralized applications (DApps).

In particular, the tests used the Cardano Mercury wallet, which, among other things, acts as a gateway for direct payments between buyers and sellers using WooCommerce, the largest e-commerce web platform for WordPress sites.

As Dean noted in a tweet, “great things” are coming up for Cardano soon. Most likely hinting at the rapid rollout of a new update CIP-30, activating the much-awaited bridge (the proposal to implement these changes was received as early as April 29, 2021). This move will allow Cardano Mercury wallet users to pay in ADA for goods and services offered by online stores with WooCommerce.

The developer also spoke a little more about the payment mechanism. If you are a seller, you need to set the prices for all goods in fiat, while the buyer will be billed in ADA. After the payment is completed, the funds will be credited to the merchant's fiat account following the automatic conversion at the market rate. However, suppose the seller wants to receive payments in the ADA cryptocurrency. There is no need for such a conversion, and the payment scenario will automatically consider this. The online store owners independently decide which payment instrument they want to work with and optionally configures these parameters in the WooCommerce plugin.

What’s WooCommerce

As it turns out, WooCommerce supports Cardano (ADA) and much more. With the advent of the new plugin, online store owners have significantly expanded the list of payment instruments. Now, with the help of WooCommerce and processing from CoinGate, one of the leading cryptocurrency payment gateways, it has become possible to receive payment for goods and services in Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ether (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL) and more than 70 other cryptocurrencies.

Using the WooCommerce plugin and the CoinGate gateway, WordPress-powered online stores could accept over 70 cryptocurrencies.

Benefits for the seller:

• receive payments without delay from anywhere in the world;
• the services of intermediary banks are no longer required;
• there is no need to collect and transfer data about your customers to a third party (banks);
• reduction of expenses in the absence of bank fees for acquiring and transactions;
• the complete absence of chargebacks and refunds;
• the expansion of the customer base;
• obtaining a new competitive advantage (acceptance of cryptocurrencies).

Benefits of the WooCommerce Cryptocurrency Payment Gateway Plugin:

• setting a price in any fiat currency;
• instant order confirmation;
• automatic refunds for canceled orders or overpayments; 
• payment options (cryptocurrency or fiat);
• acceptance of more than 70 different cryptocurrencies;
• automatic conversion from cryptocurrency to fiat;
• the presence of a special information panel for tracking orders and managing them;
• quick, free, and easy plugin setup.

To install the WooCommerce plugin, follow these steps:

• create and verify a business account on CoinGate;
• generate API Auth Token;
• download the WooCommerce plugin through the WordPress admin panel;
• install and activate the plugin;
• configure the plugin, including API.

That's it! Now the online store can accept payments in cryptocurrency, and customers have a wide choice of payment instruments! The implementation of the win-win strategy looks precisely like this.