Google quietly adds Bitcoin in its payment request API

In a deep dive into the payment request API recently developed by Google, a blogger discovered that the Internet shops and marketplaces theoretically can use it to activate payments in Bitcoin. The proof of this lies within the code mechanics: the currency must be formulated in three letters (say, USD for the U.S. dollar), but the API will understand only the 3-letter codes it knows, or else the payment sum will not show up in the corresponding message box. In case with the XBT (Bitcoin code), the system understands what currency is meant. The screenshot below, taken from the blog post, demonstrates that the payment request system understands Bitcoin code just like it does with the U.S. dollar:

Image courtesy of Matt Gaunt

These new functions Matt Gaunt describes were added only recently, and there’s certainly more to come. Google has previously demonstrated interest in cryptocurrency when it became a part of a digital giants’ alliance that considers the development of fast in-browser cryptocurrency payment system its main objective.