Bitcoin Comes to Influential Payments Startup Stripe

Stripe, the intriguing startup that helps drive payments on everything from Facebook to Lyft, is now handling bitcoin.

The company made the long-awaited announcement with the launch of a microsite this week. Basically, any business using Stripe can immediately sign up to accept the bitcoin digital currency, and Stripe will charge 0.5 percent on each successful bitcoin transaction.

The digital payment startup begantesting its bitcoin tools back in Marchwith a beta program, and it conducted transactions in up to 60 different countries during this period. Now, the company is rolling things out to everyone.

The move is another shot in the arm for bitcoin, which promises to reinvent how money is moved and stored online but has lost some mindshare in recent months after, well, a bit too much hype.

Stripe helps drive payments on Facebook and Twitter. It dovetails with Apple Pay, the new mobile payments tool on the iPhone. And it underpins online ride-hailing startup Lyft and the instant grocery-delivery service Instacart. More recently, Kickstarter announced it was dropping Amazon Payments in favor of Stripes digital payment services.

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Bitcoin Comes to Influential Payments Startup Stripe

Can Morgan Spurlock live off Bitcoin?

Story highlights What is to be made of digital dollars? How does bitcoin work? Might you be able to eat, live and exist entirely through these mysterious moneys?

Watch CNN's "Morgan Spurlock Inside Man" Thursday nights at 9 p .m. ET/PT

In the next airing of "Morgan Spurlock Inside Man," the host sets out to examine all the essential elements of this most modern form of currency. And, in advance of Thursday's episode, here are the 5 W's of bitcoin.

1. What is bitcoin?

Formal definitions aside, how best to explain money that you can't hold, smell or feel, yet has every bit the purchasing power of paper or plastic?

In short, bitcoin was designed as a less expensive way to buy and sell goods, all around the world, while dodging pre-exisiting financial institutions.

"Its founder wanted to create a global currency that existed outside a central bank or government," notes Spurlock. "Just a person to person system that could be used instantly and internationally."

Void of traditional surcharges and fees, but fluctuating like any other currencies, at the time of Spurlock's quest, one unit of bitcoin was equal to roughly $624 U.S. At present, that value has dropped to $235.85 U.S.

Either way, at least it won't weigh down your pockets with a ton of silver and copper.

2. Who uses bitcoin?

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Can Morgan Spurlock live off Bitcoin?

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