A new payments startup called PayStand will accept credit cards, e-checks and — you guessed it — bitcoins.

CEO Jeremy Almond sees virtual currencies as a kind of online cash that gives more options to merchants and makes them less reliant on the card networks. “We’re looking to give all payments types equal weighting like in the real world,” Almond told Bank Innovation. “We’re long on cryptocurrency acting cashlike online. We want merchants to be able to accept everything.”

Credit card transactions will cost 2.9%, e-checks will cost $0.25, and virtual currency transactions will be free. Merchants will pay a monthly fee to use PayStand’s service.

The company also announced $1 million in funding from  Cervin Ventures, Serra Ventures and Central Coast Angels.

PayStand will act as a “gateway of different payment rails,” Almond said. “Twenty years ago, Cisco bet on the internet and put together a device that would handle all the delivery systems of the internet — the router.” PayStand, he said, will be a router for money, connecting to the banks via ACH, the card networks, and digital currencies.

Bitcoin has enough momentum to be taken seriously now, Almond said, and indeed Stripe and more recently Square have taken steps to allow their merchants to accept bitcoins. “The proof point came when bitcoin transactions exceeded PayPal transactions,” Almond said. This happened last November, when bitcoins were worth about what they are now — $500.

PayStand will offer a more turnkey solution than that offered by Stripe, Coinbase or PayPal/Braintree, according to Almond. Merchants can sign up and be up and running in as little as five minutes. The system is designed to easily integrate with existing merchant backends and accounting systems.

“There is a high degree of demand for this service,” Almond said, saying thousands of businesses are on the wait list, while just a few hundred were let in to beta test the service. Beta testing began in the second half of 2013.

“We want to reduce friction in payments,” Almond said. “PayPal is 1997 technology — the founder is off building rocket ships and electric cars. We offer a beautiful, modern, branded Apple-like experience.”

PayStand Dashboard Walkthrough from PayStand on Vimeo.