BitPay, a global bitcoin payment service provider, has announced a new partnership with Hanover-based bitcoin payments company PEY. Under the agreement, PEY will be using BitPay’s bitcoin payroll API to offer bitcoin salary and benefits payments for businesses in Germany.

“PEY will be one of the latest companies to start using the bitcoin payroll API we launched in 2014, alongisde US-based HR platform Zuman and Canadian gaming marketplace OPSkins, which uses BitPay to issue more than $40,000 in bitcoin payouts daily”, said Corey Glaze, Sr. Sales Engineer at BitPay, in a blog post.

Last year, PEY integrated BitPay’s payment gateway API into bitcoin payment terminals used by German merchants and since then, it has been working to offer a complete payment solution for bitcoin-accepting merchants and bitcoin users. Offering a payroll solution will be the next step in PEY's plan.

PEY is starting its payroll rollout with t3n, a leading German tech publication. t3n recently announced that its employees can opt for bitcoin salary payments as well as an additional tax-free benefit of up to 44 euros.

The publication said it has been conducting a trial of the payroll service since November. It added that it decided to get on with the trial in order to boost the wider bitcoin ecosystem and to learn more about the technology, CoinDesk reported.

"One motivation to implement the new form of salary payment, of course, is in our editorial related interest in new technologies and their adaptation by users in everyday life”, t3n said in a blog post.

Glaze explains that as bitcoin is not yet considered legal tender in Germany, employers using PEY will be able to offer bitcoin as a tax-free benefit to their employees. Moreover, employees opting to receive bitcoin as this benefit or as a portion of their regular salaries will be able to use it to shop at local merchants and online businesses using the PEY app to accept payments.

Following a successful German launch, PEY intends to expand its payroll offering to companies in other European countries.