The Halving Report

From Cash to Crypto: Mastering Bitcoin Payments w/ BitPay's Merrick Theobald

July 23, 2023 • Brad Mines • Season 1 • Episode 89

Share episode

Are you ready to unlock the secrets of cryptocurrency marketing and reap the rewards of your Bitcoin investments? Join us and our esteemed guest Merrick Theobald, VP of Marketing at BitPay, as he unfolds strategies to thrive in the exciting yet challenging cryptocurrency domain. Discover how BitPay, the world's leading Bitcoin payments processor, innovates to adapt to the unique dynamics of digital currency space, and prepares for the upcoming Bitcoin halving.

Merrick, in this episode, also sheds light on how BitPay builds trust and expands reach by partnering with renowned brands like AT&T, Microsoft, and Gucci. His insights are not just limited to organizations; he also shares valuable advice for young entrepreneurs eyeing the cryptocurrency space. Get the scoop on user-friendly crypto apps like BitPay and Lolli, understand the pros and cons of using self-custody versus custodial wallets, and explore the possibility of being paid in Bitcoin. Dive in for an illuminating conversation that's packed with practical strategies, thought-provoking perspectives, and inspiring entrepreneurial advice. Buckle up for a thrilling ride into the world of Bitcoin and beyond.

Follow Merrick Theobald:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/merricktheobald/

🔗  Connect with BitPay:

🎥 YouTube Channel -   https://www.youtube.com/@bitpay1
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/bitpay
📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/bitpay
💻 Website - https://bitpay.com
👥 Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/bitpay-inc-/

Take advantage of special offers from our sponsors:

Buy Bitcoin from the reputable Canadian exchange, Bitbuy, and get a $20.00 bonus after making the first $250 transfer: https://bitbuy.ca/halving

Get a $30.00 discount on the ultra-secure Bitfi self-custody wallet: https://go.bitfi.com/NS60BY

Subscribe to Halving Report:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-halving-report/id1489878377
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1KPu47ArZiMwGBIeGh6e7i
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9V2ORC2mFwmeulX3Dcc1hg
Instagram: http://instagram.com/halvingreport



Support the show

Speaker 1:

What's up everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the having report podcast. I am your host, brad minds. The price of Bitcoin is just over 30,000 US dollars and there's only about 265 days left until the next Bitcoin having. As you can see, we're getting very close to the 800,000th Bitcoin block. When we get to 840,000 blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain, we will get to the 24 having. Today, we welcome Merrick Diobald onto the show. Merrick is the vice President of marketing for bit pay and has a lot of years of experience with fintech and payments. Bit pay is the world's First and largest Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments processor, helping many recognizable merchants Get onboarded into the cryptocurrency space. They work with many recognizable brands, including Dallas, mavericks, gucci and much, much more. We're super excited to get to know Merrick and what's going on behind the scenes with bit pay. So, without further ado, everybody, welcome Merrick Diobald the having report podcast. Merrick, welcome to the having report podcast. Thanks for doing this today.

Speaker 2:

No, it's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's our pleasure. You know bit pays. You know, obviously you guys are a company that's making waves to the industry. You know I've seen you guys in the headlines quite a bit throughout the years, so I'm excited to get to get some insight from you, get to know you a little bit and a little bit more what's going on behind the scenes with the company you know. My first question is you know About you and you know you're multifaceted, market of marketing executive and you've had successful strategies developing in financial services, payments, fintech companies. You know how do you adapt these strategies to the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the cryptocurrency industry?

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean Thank you for that. By the way, I know I I look very youthful and it doesn't feel like I've been around for a long time, but I've been around the number of years. As you mentioned. I've I've been doing payments and fintech for a number of years. Essentially, it's the same customer. It's just a different way to pay, right? So you have to understand who owns cryptocurrency, who owns Bitcoin, what are they like? You know, a person that owns Bitcoin isn't the same person that writes a check, right? So the demographic is different. So your marketing has to be based off of the demographic of the customer. So that's the biggest thing is just understanding who is a typical Bitcoin holder, cryptocurrency holder.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's Very well said. That makes a lot of sense. You know, and obviously you know, the Bitcoiners are, you know, unique individuals. It's still, you know, pretty, pretty unique concept. Still that a you know A lot of people are still on the other side of the fence and not in yet. My, my next question is you know about, you know, bit pay you guys are, you know, known to as the first, most experienced company in Bitcoin payments. So I was wondering if you could tell us about some of the powerful tools that bit bit pay has developed for spending, accepting and building with Bitcoin.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, absolutely yeah. We've been around since 2011. So we were probably the first payment processor. You know we focus only on cryptocurrency, so actually, at the beginning, we only focused on Bitcoin, but as other cryptocurrencies were developed and and customers started using those other cryptocurrencies, we started to add new coins to our supported Portfolio of coins. We're up to 16 now.

Speaker 2:

For us, it's it's about crypto acceptance. So working with companies, primarily e-commerce companies, but we can work with any company that would like to accept Bitcoin, but most of them don't want to own Bitcoin themselves. They want to be paid in US dollar or pound or or another fiat type currency. So that's where we really excel. So we made it really easy for them.

Speaker 2:

The easiest way that they could accept cryptocurrency is through email billing. So as easy as entering someone's email address, putting some Financial information in there how much they owe in US dollars and then we fulfill that email billing invoice to them, and then the user would actually just, you know, open it up, scan the QR code in there and complete payment, and then we process or do the conversion from Bitcoin to US dollar. So that's the easiest way. But many of our partners are e-commerce and have websites, so so we work with Shopify, wix and other companies like that. We have different plugins, we have different code libraries that they could use if they don't have a plug-in, and then we have that custom integration that we work, use and work with on some of our larger enterprise merchants. So you, it's all about acceptance, all about getting people to pay and making it in a way that they're used to and that they've been doing for a number of years with other payment alternatives.

Speaker 1:

With offices in North America, europe, south America. You guys obviously have a global presence. How does BitPay navigate the diverse landscapes and cultural differences in different regions to promote Bitcoin and Bitcoin adoption and usage?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a great question. First of all, we are a virtual company now. Yes, we have an office in our headquarters or North Atlanta, georgia, but we are a virtual company now, so we have employees that are living all over the world, in Europe and South America obviously here in North America, but you're right, bitcoin holders come from all over the world and you have to understand that not just the demographic information of the holder, but the geographic information of what you can do in those areas of the world and we have a great team in place here that really understands how to treat customers in all parts of the world. Everyone wants to be treated fairly and properly. That doesn't change, but there are different ways that people receive their education and their news depending on where they are in the world. But we're very lucky to have a diverse employee base too, because we are a virtual company now and that also helps.

Speaker 1:

So BitPay has raised over $70 million from top investors. Now how has this funding contributed to BitPay's growth and development? Can you share any notable milestones or achievements that made it possible through this investment?

Speaker 2:

The investment actually has allowed us to focus on building a platform that is scalable. So, as much as we want to say that we're mainstream, we're not quite there. We're not mainstream yet right. We're getting really, really close, especially with some of the new mainstream brands that are now jumping on board and accepting cryptocurrency with BitPay. So what that money has is it allowed us to focus on being our scalability, so that when crypto payment processing becomes mainstream, that we have the systems in place and we are ready to turn on that for all merchants, for all companies throughout the world.

Speaker 1:

Are you able to share some of these recognizable brand names that are partnering with BitPay?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so any company that has publicly announced I can absolutely share. There are some companies that accept and have it publicly announced.

Speaker 1:

For sure.

Speaker 2:

But some of the biggest ones in the world, like here in the United States, at&t and I'm pretty sure everybody has heard of AT&T, so we've been a partner of AT&T, or AT&T has been a partner of BitPay for a number of years, so you can actually pay your AT&T mobility bill using your cryptocurrency if you desire. Microsoft is another one. Some top e-commerce companies. Neweggcom is an electronics dealer. They work in I don't know 45, 50 different countries. They're big. Precious Metals is another one, so you have Atmex, jambulion and, more recently, some of the luxury brands are starting to now adopt and work with BitPay. Gucci a made an announcement that they are now accepting cryptocurrency at all Gucci North America stores, so we were working with them and they've done really well. Ralph Lauren is even testing cryptocurrency in their Miami design district store that just opened. So a lot of big names. Not all of them have been around a long time, but again, some of them, like AT&T and Microsoft, were early adopters to crypto payment processing.

Speaker 1:

Very cool. As a marketing executive, I'm sure you've encountered a lot of challenges in promoting crypto and blockchain to a broader audience. How do you approach addressing these misconceptions and building trust among potential users and customers?

Speaker 2:

That's the biggest thing I deal with every day. It's the lack of education or lack of knowledge about blockchain and Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a fantastic payment method. It was built for digital commerce, Explaining to everyone what exactly Bitcoin is, that it is, in fact, more secure than any other payment method out there. That helps.

Speaker 2:

It's a constant battle that we're doing because not everybody really understands Bitcoin. It's not something that you can hold not tangible. I think that's where a lot of people fall off on, but not everything that has value is tangible. It's just really convincing them that hey, it's secure. You can see every transaction that ever happened on the Bitcoin blockchain from the very beginning if you wanted to. A lot of times, people think that this is money or that is used for illicit purposes. While that might have been the way in the beginning and it took off a little bit with that, most of the Bitcoin transactions today are used for really good purposes. You can easily track everything on the blockchain if you needed to and wanted to. Education and knowledge is the key. We're constantly coming up with new ideas to further educate and provide that knowledge to those that don't understand the blockchain.

Speaker 1:

Derek, just to give your brain a little break from Bitcoin and blockchain. What do you like to do outside of all of this?

Speaker 2:

I do a lot I've got. I have three grown children in college, so young adults I call them. You know we do a lot of camping. We're here at North Georgia. We got the North Georgia Mountains not far from us. We can do that. I have two children at UGA, so college football is big. They have won the last couple of national championships. I have a son. My son goes to Oklahoma, so we're really big into college sports and big universities like that, yeah. And I've got some family here locally so we do a lot with our family here. So a lot Enough to keep me busy after work, that's for sure. What about you? What do you do?

Speaker 1:

I work a job during the day. I do the Bitcoin podcast. At nighttime and on weekends I like to go paddle boarding. I like to play spike ball basketball yeah. I like to watch good shows. I've been watching some Yellowstone lately I finally bit the bullet on that one and just been binge watching that at night before bed. I like to read Bitcoin books. I'm currently reading the Progressives Case for Bitcoin by Jason Mayer. I got a stack behind me. I got a little collection of autographed Bitcoin books. All that keeps me busy. I also have a Husky who likes to go on lots and lots of runs, so I take him biking a lot. That all keeps me busy as well. No kids or anything, but I do have an Eastern nephew and they love it when Uncle Brad comes over.

Speaker 2:

Well, if you're ever in North Atlanta, we have an amazing lake here, Lake Lanier. You can do some paddle boarding there. You can do some other stuff on that lake too. Actually, a show that you should watch is Ozark. Have you seen the show?

Speaker 1:

Ozark. I watched the first season of Ozark, yeah.

Speaker 2:

It was filmed. A lot of it was filmed here in North. Atlanta and on Lake Lanier, so it's really interesting Wow that's very cool, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'll definitely put it on my list. So, shifting back to BitPay, brand awareness very crucial for company success. What specific initiatives or campaigns has BitPay implemented to increase brand visibility?

Speaker 2:

We actually rely a lot on our partners. So we work a lot with our partners and see how we can help them, because when we help them build their brand with crypto, it's helping BitPay build our brand. So working with our partners when they do any type of contest or they have something on their website or a news release or a press release that in fact helps does more for us than if we did something independently, and we're also a big believer in working with our partners. So with BitPay, we're here to build an industry, so everything that we do is to make sure that the customer is getting absolutely everything that they should be getting and our merchant partners are getting everything that they should be getting. So we like to work with the customers and we like to work with merchant partners as we build this industry.

Speaker 2:

We could do it other ways, but that's how we choose to do it. Again, we have our own social channels, so we do a lot on our social channels, constantly putting out educational materials. We have a lot of different blogs out there. If anybody ever wants to learn about two factor authentication or the blockchain, or what a secure crypto wallet is, or a custodial wallet versus a self custody wallet. We have all of that information on our website.

Speaker 1:

So this industry is becoming ultra competitive. How do you guys approach customer loyalty?

Speaker 2:

Well, that's the backbone of it. So, if you're talking about our merchant customers, those partners, that's it. That's why we want to do as much as we can do to build that relationship with them. There's things that we do that we don't have to do. We try to go above and beyond. You know, again, we want to help them market crypto payments often, and there are studies that have shown that merchants that accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment with bit pay can see up to 40% new customers. So that's not existing customers converting from one payment to another payment. That is up to 40% new customers and their average order value is two times what it is with traditional payment methods and e-commerce merchants. Retailers understand that and that's why they're starting to work with us. So it's making sure that we can provide that and help them drive some transactions through them and see that additional business.

Speaker 1:

What emerging trends in the cryptocurrency space do you find most promising or exciting for the future of bit pay?

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow, there's a lot going on the amount of new crypto wallets that are being added. Again. We started with just one cryptocurrency being Bitcoin. Then, as more and more cryptocurrencies were developed and more customers demanded that we accept those other cryptocurrencies, we added some. As I mentioned, we're up to 16 now.

Speaker 2:

Many are not a few, I can't say many but are now stablecoins. So people want Bitcoin, but they might not necessarily want to use it to buy something right now, but they do like the fact how digital transactions work and how cryptocurrencies work with that. So they'll buy stablecoins now and use that. When they want to buy something, keep their Bitcoin. But when the price gets back up to $70,000, you'll see a lot of people using their Bitcoin again and buying those things, or actually even converting into a stablecoin and then using the stablecoins at that point too. So customers and customers the users they want choice.

Speaker 2:

So by us, we support all crypto wallets, but some of them we have a really tight relationship with. As you can imagine, all crypto wallets are different and unique with how they handle the cryptocurrencies that they support. So but some of them work with us and we have a payment protocol that makes it a much better way for a customer to make a payment, and if they can adopt our payment protocol, it's just that much better. So that's one thing. So working with all crypto wallets and probably adding more coins in the next couple of months, and a few years too, as they become, as they have been validated by the marketplace.

Speaker 1:

Do you have any specific case examples where BitPay solutions significantly benefited a business?

Speaker 2:

Significantly benefited business. I can't get out some names, but yeah, we have some of our merchant partners. You know, when someone starts accepting cryptocurrency, our standard rule is you're going to see 1% share of checkout. Doesn't sound like a lot, but you're going to get 1% share of checkout. But when you add in the low processing fee, when you add in that there are no fraud charge backs, that's pretty impressive right there. But some of our merchant partners that have been with us and who promote and know how to promote crypto payments, have seen now 7, 8, 9, 10% share of checkout. And that's when it's really exciting for companies when they get up to 10% share of checkout no fraud charge backs, a lower processing fee. That's what we're seeing with some of our larger partnerships, the ones that have been with us a while and understand how to market cryptocurrency payments too.

Speaker 2:

But some interesting stories we've had some merchants that will only accept the crypto payment on nights and weekends and holidays. So take, for instance, if you wanted to do a private air charter and it's going to cost you $50,000. You know they're not going to accept any other form of payment. They're not going to accept a check or credit card payment or ACH or wire or anything, because some of those can be overturned or disputed, right? So if you want to fly out that day, some of them actually say you need to pay with BitPay and you need to pay with cryptocurrency Because, again, there's no fraud, charge backs, it can't be overturned.

Speaker 1:

Merrick, with all your experience in financial services, payments and fintech, what advice would you give a young entrepreneur or marketer entering the cryptocurrency space?

Speaker 2:

Education. You've got to get in, you've got to understand it. When you think you understand it, something else is developed and now you have to understand that. So don't be afraid, jump right in. Yeah, so I would recommend, you know, just jumping in, diving in.

Speaker 2:

There are some apps out there that make it really easy. And you know, I don't know if we're allowed to throw out some brands, but you know, I like the Coinbase one, where you can go in and you can learn and earn right. So that's a great concept where you don't necessarily have to put your own money in yet, but you can learn about cryptocurrency, you can learn about new coins. Sometimes you actually earn Bitcoin if you do something. So again, you're starting in cryptocurrency. You might not have put your own money in yet, but now you get to understand how it works.

Speaker 2:

And there are other apps out there that I would recommend and I always recommend, you know, even to my kids. There's an app called Lolli. I don't know if you've ever heard of Lolli, l-o-l-l-i, but when you spend items that you normally buy anyways, you get rewarded with Bitcoin. So again, you're going to buy that $25 Starbucks gift card. Why don't you earn a dollar in Bitcoin? You're going to do it anyways. So you know, start there and then, as you accumulate Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, you might start investing on your own. And then, when you start investing on your own, you have to make that decision on the self-custody type wallet or a custodial wallet. You know, and there's benefits to both. I personally prefer the self-custody wallet. That's very private, very secure, but you have to be knowledgeable enough to know what that is, and if you don't, then you might want to reach out and get that custodial wallet.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure, like you said right in the beginning, like education, right, and maybe not taking that full custody right away. Maybe it's something people some folks have trouble getting comfortable with right away, but you know, it's definitely something you want to learn about in the long term. That self-custody is kind of obviously the major theme of one of the major themes of Bitcoin. Merrick, this has been awesome. I'm going to thank you so much for coming out of the Havon Report. I'm going to open it up for you if you think there's anything worth mentioning that we haven't yet. If not, maybe some words of wisdom to leave my audience and I. If not, just let us know where we can follow you and learn more.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, absolutely. I do have one thing that we didn't really cover and it's related to Bitcoin, and I think people might like this. But you know we started with Bitcoin acceptance payment acceptance but we also have Bitcoin payout. So, as an employee of BitPay, we are all for the opportunity to be paid in Bitcoin. If we want to be paid in Bitcoin and many of us do so if you are working for a company or with a company, it's, you know, a benefit that they could offer to their employees. You don't have to participate.

Speaker 2:

You can get 1% payment in Bitcoin, you get 100%, you can get $100, whatever you want to set that number at. But that's another way to get into cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. And then you do the dollar cost averaging. So if you do $50 every week or every pay period, sometimes the price is going to be low, sometimes it's going to be high, but you do the dollar cost averaging and that's going to be better for you for the long term. But the payout product is also good to pay an affiliate network offer as a reward, an incentive contract. So most people think of BitPay as payment acceptance, but we also have a payment payout product and it's being used by a number of different companies today as well. Other than that, you know, bitpaycom is our website. Our social channels are there. You have my name on the screen. I'm on LinkedIn. I have other social channels, but my primarily business one would be LinkedIn, and it's Merrick Feebald on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for doing this today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks for having me, brett.

Speaker 1:

Until next time, I'm Brad Mines.