Unified commerce, borderless payments

We are delighted to showcase Musqet as our Business of the Month.

As we approach the festive period, eCommerce platforms have naturally seen a sharp increase in online sales. While marketing preparation is key in the run up to Christmas, assessing marketplace fees and transaction costs is fast becoming a higher priority for many retailers. Innovation is also high on the agenda as businesses look to differentiate from the competition.

One area of business and financial innovation that is hitting the headlines again is Bitcoin, a digital asset that launched in 2009. Though the UK has traditionally lagged behind the Bitcoin adoption curve, this is all set to change, as a new wave of consumers seek ways to save and spend their Bitcoin and some employees are now asking to be paid in full or part Bitcoin for their work.

Businesses need to ready for the Bitcoin revolution or risk being left behind. Musqet is UK-based and is the go-to company for future-proofed Bitcoin payments and associated software.

Spotlight on Musqet: Boom in Bitcoin adoption

Musqet is a London-based payments company providing card present, electronic point of sale (ePOS) and online payments across the UK and Europe. Established by founder and CEO, David Parkinson, the company focuses heavily on Bitcoin payments to ensure businesses can prepare for Bitcoin adoption globally and transition to accepting Bitcoin alongside traditional methods of payment.

We caught up with CEO David Parkinson for more insights into Bitcoin adoption, “Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer network meaning that there are no centralised third parties involved in a transaction, unlike with the traditional card payment network. A big challenge of using Bitcoin for payments is that it can only process around 7 transactions per second versus Visa which is around 25,000 TPS. The Bitcoin Lightning Network is known as a ‘Layer 2’ network and gives a theoretical throughput of 40 million transactions per second. This means that low value transactions can now settle instantly between the customer and the merchant and with the Musqet self-custodial solution there is no counterparty risk to the transaction – in other words, funds received belong to and are accessible by the merchant and only the merchant.

“We are, to our knowledge, the only business the delivers a unified payments experience covering Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple Pay, Google Pay and self-custodial Bitcoin Lightning transactions. Bitcoin engineering is very, very hard and we are fortunate to have some of the best Bitcoin and Lightning engineers on the planet in the team.”

Forbes endorsement

Musqet has successfully raised £750,000 funding from venture capital firm Axiom in collaboration with a select group of private individuals and angel investors. This funding round will support Musqet's continued growth and ambition to bring Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network to the mainstream market. A recent glowing review of Musqet in a Forbes online article covering the benefits to a business of accepting Bitcoin payments also underline this.

Beat the Autumn Budget

The Autumn Budget has certainly raised a few eyebrows in the FinTech sector. Though improving digital adoption in the public services and SMEs are still prioritised, heavy tax rises on businesses will have an immediate impact. The UK still looks set to become the world’s next Silicon Valley but this may be determined by Government plans for AI opportunities and The Industrial Strategy details.

Despite these challenges, Musqet has strategically positioned itself for the upcoming mainstream Bitcoin adoption with a suite of world-class merchant payment services for any type of business.

“We have solutions that are scalable and customisable for any business. Right now, we are focusing on online eCommerce platforms and helping businesses reduce their marketplace fees and transaction costs. Alongside this we have a world class ePOS capability that streamlines Hospitality, Food and Beverage business operations which, when combined with our frictionless payment capability gives a compelling proposition. Alongside our payments capability we recently partnered with Cartwright, an employee benefits business who will be offering our ‘Bitcoin payroll’ product that lets businesses pay their staff in Bitcoin directly into the staff Lightning wallet. In the UK, there are no tax advantages to this but it carries excellent employee retention as an incentivisation tool and removes all the friction from the end-to-end experience. People can wake up on payday and see that their company has paid them a bonus in Bitcoin.

“We also recently launched our Seed funding round which will give us a platform for continued growth and expansion across Europe. The next natural market for us to launch into is likely MENA as they have a very favourable regulatory environment for Bitcoin focused businesses.”

To reduce marketplace fees and transaction costs on eCommerce platforms today, contact Musqet today at the website below: https://musqet.tech