WordPress Lets Bloggers Pay With Bitcoin, Citing Open Access

The world's most popular web publishing platform has begun accepting Bitcoin, an international digital currency and payment system with no central issuing authority.

WordPress, whose software is used by bloggers worldwide, said Thursday that customers can now use Bitcoin in lieu of credit cards or PayPal to pay for upgrades. While WordPress lets anyone build a website without charge, the company sells hosting and design services, as well as an ad-free version of its blogging platform. Andy Skelton, an engineer with Automattic, the company that owns WordPress, wrote Thursday in a blog post that it is accepting the unregulated currency to ensure universal access to its services.

"PayPal alone blocks access from over 60 countries, and many credit card companies have similar restrictions," Skelton wrote. "Some are blocked for political reasons, some because of higher fraud rates, and some for other financial reasons. Whatever the reason, we don't think an individual blogger from Haiti, Ethiopia, or Kenya should have diminished access to the blogosphere because of payment issues they can't control."

BitPay, an Orlando-based company that helps online merchants accept the digitized currency as payment, will process payments on WordPress' behalf. Bitcoin, which had an estimated 740,000 users worldwide in 2011, lets users move money instantaneously to others via the Internet...