eBay’s Braintree now accepting Bitcoin, expands One Touch payment options

SAN FRANCISCO — PayPal-owned Braintree is welcoming cryptocurrency fans with open arms as it opens up support for Bitcoin payments. Braintree is opening up its One Touch system to Bitcoin and PayPal accounts as well, the company announced today.

Over the last few years, Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) have been rapidly increasing in popularity, even giving rise to an entire segment of companies building products solely for Bitcoin.

Braintree has listened, as it’s now supporting Bitcoin, thanks to a partnership with Bitcoin wallet Coinbase.

“[This is] Braintree’s first foray into Bitcoin,” said Braintree’s CEO Bill Ready, onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

Now merchants using Braintree’s software development kit can make Bitcoin one of the payment methods they accept, just as they accept credit cards and debit cards. The integration with Coinbase means that merchants don’t have to handle Bitcoin, as Coinbase handles the currency exchange.

This will likely make a lot more merchants open to the idea of supporting Bitcoin, as they don’t have to accept Bitcoin themselves. They don’t even have to get a Coinbase account, as a PayPal representative explained to me on-site. Only the shoppers themselves do.

The other news Braintree unveiled today is slightly expanded support for its One Touch system, originally a Venmo creation (Braintree owns Venmo). Once a shopper has set up their PayPal, Venmo, or Coinbase account, the system will remember their authentication. One Touch then allows mobile shoppers to check out from participating merchants’ apps with just one tap.

Braintree made this available back in April 2013, but it seemed to only support Venmo accounts at the time. The company has now added PayPal and Coinbase support, as a Paypal representative explained.

As many online payments players have found, the friction caused by inputting credit card information, or even going through several steps within an app, can quickly discourage shoppers from completing their purchases. One Touch could help save those purchases.