Why It Might Make Sense to Pay Your Employees in Bitcoin (VIDEO)

If your company regularly pays wages to international workers, then incorporating Bitcoin into the payroll process could be a major cost saver.

At least, that is the conceit of Bitwage, which bills itself as the world’s first Bitcoin-based payroll service. In order to circumvent the costly fees associated with transferring money internationally, as well as the time it takes for such funds to move from bank to bank, payments made via Bitcoin can save both money and time for employers and employees alike, explains Bitwage’s founder and COO, Jonathan Chester.

“By using technologies like Blockchain,” says Chester -- a public, chronological ledger of all Bitcoin transactions -- “you can actually see exactly where the money is throughout the process.”

The Bitwage platform can receive wages from employers and then pay these wages to employees in each of their respective local currencies, Chester added, using Bitcoin as a kind of temporary middleman to rapidly facilitate the transfer.

A handful of businesses already using the service include Wisconsin-based coffee company Colectivo and real-time Internet marketing company Rockerbox, but Bitwage envisions itself eventually servicing multitudes -- from unbanked workers in developing countries to the world’s biggest earners.

For more about Bitwage, check out this short video.