PRESS ROOM Now that cash is no longer king, being a merchant means you have to pay to be paid. About three-quarters of payments are made by either debit or credit card and those payments come at a cost, which varies. This cost, known in the trade as interchange fees, are the charges a merchant must incur to have his transactions processed by the card networks, such as Visa and MasterCard. The average interchange rate for a credit card payment is around 1.81%, while the typical interchange fee for debit cards is 0.3%. However, some merchants may pay 3% and more of transaction volume. These, especially, will be happy to know that Epazz, Inc. (OTC: EPAZ) is offering a way to accept payments that is not only as reliable and secure as having a merchant account, but less costly. Through its ZenaPay mobile payment system, consumers will be able to purchase Bitcoin, at point-of-sale, and use the crypto-currency to make their purchases.
In a recent interview, a spokesperson for Epazz explained the merits of the innovative app. Through its fintech subsidiary ZenaPay, Epazz is offering consumers a unique, secure and reliable app, which allows them to acquire Bitcoin at the point-of-sale. Essentially a payment app, ZenaPay then allows the consumer to use the digital currency to make purchases and payments. Since transactions are carried out with Bitcoin, they do not require to be legitimized, authenticated or administered by a trusted third party or intermediary that will charge fees for its services. Therefore, merchants that sign on to ZenaPay can cut costs and improve their bottom lines.
ZenaPay has an added benefit for cannabis dispensaries and retail outlets. These establishments face a limited range of options for accepting payments, since many depositary institutions (banks and credit unions), citing federal laws, will not open accounts for cannabis businesses. Now these outfits can accept payments in Bitcoin through ZenaPay. Not only does ZenaPay provide pot shops with a payment solution, it frees them from being forced to accept payment in cash only. Naturally, having large amounts of cash on their premises increases the risk of robbery and burglary.
ZenaPay also comes with a “wallet” that allows Bitcoin to be stored for later use. Since its release in November 2017, the ZenaPay Bitcoin wallet has gained widespread acceptance. On March 1, 2018, Epazz announced that the ZenaPay Bitcoin Ethereum Wallet App had surpassed 25,000 downloads. A recent version now supports Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, in addition to Bitcoin and Epazz plans to provide support for LiteCoin and SegWit in future releases. The app can be integrated with another innovative app, CryptoFolio, which Epazz has acquired.
CryptoFolio is an app with the capability to track and manage Bitcoin and Altcoin portfolios. Epazz, Inc. has acquired the software rights, source code and user base of CryptoFolio, and plans to add additional cryptocurrencies and languages to the app, along with an iOS version to attract more users. The CryptoFolio, designed for business enterprise, provides free features to attract users and then allows them to purchase additional features from $1.99 to $5.99 each.
Epazz also offers an IOS app, called Bitcoin Charts, which provides live trading data of cryptocurrencies. The company plans to combine the newly acquired CryptoFolio (the tracker app) with the Bitcoin Charts IOS app to create the ultimate live cryptocurrency trading app. The combined app will be available on both the App Store and Android Play Store soon and will eventually be translated into 10 different languages. The next release of Cryptofolio, which will incorporate features from the charts and tracker apps, is set for Fall 2018.