Why we only take crypto

The short version

• Card payments can be reversed months after they are made.
  The bank decides, not the shop, and the shop loses the money, the item and a fee on top.
• We sell expensive things that cannot be un-delivered.
  A firmware build is made for one card and usually delivered within a couple of hours.
• Card companies do not want shops in our category.
  They hold funds, raise rates and close accounts.
• So crypto it is.
  It cannot be pulled back, and it is what keeps our prices where they are and the doors open.

What a chargeback is

When somebody pays by card, they can ask their bank to reverse the payment. The bank rules on it, the shop only gets to argue.

• It can come up to 120 days later.
  Long after the card has been flashed and the parcel delivered.
• The shop loses three times.
  The money, whatever it sent, and a dispute fee of roughly $20 to $100 whether it wins or loses.
• Too many of them end the account.
  The card networks count what share of a shop's payments get disputed, and above a line they fine the shop and then drop it.

What it actually costs

These are the numbers, with where they come from.

• $5.13 for every $1 lost.
  The 2026 LexisNexis True Cost of Fraud study puts the real cost to a US shop at $5.13 for each dollar of fraud, once fees, lost stock and the time spent fighting it are counted. It was $4.61 the year before.
• Visa's line is 1.5%.
  From April 2026, Visa's monitoring program puts a shop under review once fraud and disputes reach 1.5% of its payments.
• Mastercard's line is 100 chargebacks and 1.5%.
  Two months at that level makes a shop an "excessive chargeback merchant", with fines starting at up to $1,000 a month and rising from there.
• Most disputes are not stolen cards.
  The 2026 Chargebacks911 Field Report puts "friendly fraud" at 43.8% of all chargebacks. That is a customer who got what they ordered and asked for the money back anyway. Other industry estimates for online shops run higher.

Why it hits us harder than most shops

• Our items are expensive.
  One reversed order wipes out the margin on many good ones.
• Digital goods cannot be taken back.
  A chargeback after delivery takes the money and leaves the build.
• Friendly fraud is the norm in this market.
  Someone who has what they paid for and wants it free has an easy button to press.
• The category itself is the problem.
  Payment companies class what we sell as high risk before they have looked at a single order.

"But other DMA stores take cards"

Some do, and it is worth knowing how, because it usually costs you something.

• Their prices are higher.
  A shop that takes cards has to price reversed orders in. You pay for them whether or not you ever ask for one.
• It is often not really a card payment.
  Many route you through a marketplace, a reseller or a "friends and family" transfer. Those give you less protection than a normal card payment, not more, and some ban this kind of product outright.
• High-risk processors are expensive and fragile.
  The few that accept the category charge far more and can freeze a balance at any time.
• It tends not to last.
  The usual story: a shop takes cards for a while, its processor works out what is being sold, and the account is closed with money and open orders stuck inside it. The customers mid-order are the ones who feel that.

We would rather be straight about what we sell and take a payment that cannot be pulled back than get an account by describing ourselves as something else and lose it, with your order, later on.

What this means for you

• You pay through NOWPayments.
  It supports most major coins. The exact amount and the network are shown on the payment page.
• Prices stay lower.
  We are not pricing reversed orders into yours. It is a big part of why our prices sit below the market rather than level with it.
• You are not unprotected.
  Hardware carries its warranty, firmware carries the terms in our policies, and support is on the forum and in our Discord.

The easiest way to buy crypto

You probably already have an app that sells it.

• Cash App, PayPal or Venmo in the US. Revolut in the UK and Europe.
  You already verified yourself when you opened the account, so there is nothing new to set up. Buy Bitcoin in the app, then send it to the address on our payment page. Cash App, PayPal and Venmo each have a page on it. The first time you send crypto out, the app may ask you to confirm your identity once more; that is normal.
• Or a regulated exchange.
  Coinbase, Kraken, Binance or Bitstamp. Your bank sees a normal payment to a known company. Do the ID check the day before you order, because it can take a while.
• Without any ID at all?
  Honestly: every legitimate way to buy crypto with a card or a bank account checks who you are, because the law says it must. The only real no-ID route is a Bitcoin ATM, which works for small amounts and charges 10 to 20%. Anyone online offering "no ID" crypto for your card is where people lose their money, and we would rather you did not.
• Never buy from a stranger.
  Telegram sellers, DMs offering cheap crypto, random peer-to-peer deals that want your money first. A payment lost that way is gone.

Buying it on Cash App and sending it on, in a few minutes:

Sending it, step by step

• Buy the coin the checkout asks for.
  Our payment page says which coin and which network. Buying something else means paying to convert it.
• When you buy it, buy a little more than the invoice.
  Sending costs a small network fee, and it comes out of your balance. Buying a couple of dollars extra means you can send the exact amount the page shows and still have the fee covered. Send the exact amount, not the extra.
• Copy the address, never type it.
  Paste it, then check the first and last few characters match the page.
• Pick the same network the page names.
  Coins sent on the wrong network do not arrive.
• Wait for it to confirm.
  How long that takes depends on the coin you sent: some confirm in seconds, Bitcoin can take ten minutes to an hour. The page updates itself, and your order moves on in your account.

How to pay with crypto goes through our payment page screen by screen.

Before you send

Five ticks and it is on its way. If anything is unclear at any point, ask in our Discord before you send. We would much rather walk you through it than untangle it afterwards.

Sorry

We know this is not what most people are used to, and we know some of you will decide not to buy because of it. Genuinely, sorry. It is not a hoop we put there for fun; it is the difference between a store that is here next year and one that is not, and we would rather explain it than surprise you at the checkout.

If crypto is the only thing standing between you and an order, open a ticket in our Discord and ask. Where we can help, we will.