Guides to blockchain payments in Canada
From what a stablecoin is to reconciling transaction hashes against invoices. Worked examples use the site engine and say which assumptions they rely on.
Foundations
Canada's Real-Time Rail
The status of Payments Canada's planned Real-Time Rail as of October 30, 2026, and how real-time bank payments differ conceptually from on-chain settlement.
Interac e-Transfer for business
How Interac e-Transfer works for Canadian businesses: domestic reach, why deposited transfers are hard to reverse, how fees vary by bank and plan, and records.
Payment rails in Canada, compared
How Canadian payment rails differ: cards, Interac e-Transfer, EFT and PAD, wires, Lynx, the planned Real-Time Rail, stablecoins and other on-chain payments.
What are blockchain payments?
A plain-language Canadian primer on blockchain payments: how they move, what they cost in an illustration, and which rules to check before accepting them.
What is a stablecoin?
Stablecoins explained for Canadian businesses: reserves, redemption, depeg risk, the CSA's VRCA term, the 2026 Stablecoin Act and USD-to-CAD conversion.
Costs
Cross-border payments from Canada
Where cross-border payment costs hide for Canadian businesses: FX spreads, correspondent banking and stablecoin conversion, with a worked rail comparison.
How card processing fees work
Interchange, network and assessment fees, processor markup and chargebacks explained for Canadian merchants, plus the October 19, 2024 small-business change.
Network fees explained
Why blockchain network fees rise and fall with congestion, how a flat fee per payment compares with percentage fees, and what that means for small tickets.
Stablecoins vs cards for merchants
Worked cost comparisons of USD stablecoins and credit cards for Canadian merchants, the break-even payment size, and costs and protections a fee table misses.
Wire transfers and FX spreads
How to measure the foreign exchange spread on an incoming wire, with a worked $10,000 USD example, plus flat fees, intermediary deductions and comparisons.
Working capital and settlement time
How settlement days and weekends tie up cash for Canadian businesses, with a 60-day simulation comparing card, EFT and stablecoin settlement timing.
Operations
Accounting for crypto receipts
How a Canadian business records crypto received for a sale: barter treatment, fair market value in CAD, GST/HST on that value, and the records to keep.
Custody models explained
Self-hosted wallets, custodial accounts and processors that convert to fiat, compared for Canadian businesses, with cost trade-offs and FINTRAC MSB questions.
How to pilot crypto payments
A staged plan for a small, capped crypto payments pilot: scope, volume cap, accounting set-up, compliance check, conversion policy, metrics and exit criteria.
On-chain settlement and finality
When is a blockchain payment done? Confirmations, probabilistic and economic finality, Bitcoin and Ethereum timing, and the gap between finality and usable CAD.
Questions to ask a payment provider
Due-diligence questions for a crypto or stablecoin payment provider: RPAA and FINTRAC registration, custody, conversion, fees, security, data and incidents.
Reconciling on-chain payments
How to match blockchain transaction hashes to invoices using unique addresses, amounts or memos, handle partial and over-payments, and close the month.
Refunds on-chain
How to handle refunds for crypto and stablecoin payments: policy options, which rate to refund at, a worked example, address checks and record-keeping.
Risk and security
Chargebacks vs irreversible payments
What chargebacks cost a merchant in worked examples, what irreversible rails remove and what they do not, and how customer protection shifts between the two.
Crypto payment scams
Common crypto payment scams aimed at Canadian consumers and businesses: impersonation, fake invoices, address swaps and recovery scams, and where to report.
Price volatility and conversion
How price movement between receiving crypto and converting it to CAD creates exposure, how the illustrative 95% figure works, and how to set a conversion rule.
Wallet security for businesses
Key management for businesses that hold crypto-assets: seed phrases, hardware wallets, multisig, segregation of duties, backups and handling staff changes.
Standards
Payment request standards
How BIP-21 and EIP-681 payment URIs encode an address, amount, units and chain id, why units cause errors, and how to test requests on a testnet first.
Webhooks and payment events
How payment event webhooks work for on-chain payments: event types, confirmation thresholds, HMAC signature checks, idempotency, retries and ordering.