What fuels entrepreneurs' interest in cryptocurrencies?
In 2017, absolutely everyone wrote about cryptocurrency, even the non-FinTech media. It seemed to many ordinary people that soon it would be possible to pay for a fare on public transport or in the supermarket with bitcoins. But three years have passed, and the mass spread of crypto hasn't happened. Why?
The first thing that comes to mind is that businesses don't see the potential in crypto. However, this is far from the case. Representatives from the Graft Network payment blockchain system surveyed 65 businesses. The analysts wanted to know what businesses were expecting from the introduction of cryptocurrency payment. The results are as follows:
74% of respondents expect an influx of customers and lower fees for acquiring
60% of entrepreneurs want to raise company status with cryptocurrency payment capability
52% think that due to digital currency the average client check will increase
About 50% think that cryptocurrencies will help to create new loyalty programs
As you can see, the main desire of entrepreneurs is to increase sales and their own prestige in the eyes of customers. At the expense of the top topic, which is actively promoted in the media, the company can become more innovative. Here again it is worth remembering 2017, when various companies began to accept cryptocurrencies.
In addition, the study showed why entrepreneurs are still not adopting digital currency. It's very simple here - there are inconveniences for customers, especially in offline businesses. Most business owners also want quick cashouts and the convenience of paying through POS terminals.
What problems do cryptocurrency payment providers have
You should also take a look at the cryptocurrency adoption situation on the part of payment providers. A 2017 study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge will help. It shows that global operators have a number of significant problems.
It turns out that the main problem for such companies is to maintain adequate relations with banking institutions and traditional remittance operators. The next factor is compliance with all legal requirements. It involves going through a whole series of bureaucratic procedures, and it often requires considerable financial expenses. The third problem is low liquidity in local currency markets.
At the same time, cryptocurrency payment operators do not worry about competition with classical payment systems (for example, Western Union and SWIFT) and fintech organizations.
What are the advantages and disadvantages for entrepreneurs when getting paid in cryptocurrency?
Among the advantages is the transparency of operations with crypto. Manipulations with tax services in the case of implementation of crypto are greatly simplified. Moreover, there is no need to work with huge arrays of documents.
Among the significant disadvantages are the initial complexity of working with digital currency and the need for a set of measures to prevent shadow transactions.
The state regulation of operations with cryptocurrency is worth mentioning separately. In order to do this, the state needs to completely switch to the blockchain system. If it really happens, it will require development and adoption of a number of decisions, laws and new legal norms. Among other things, the issue of taxation needs to be addressed. When prepared from scratch, the process of implementing blockchain takes about 2-3 years. If the government seeks help from ready-made solutions from the ICO market, the process will take much less time.
What is needed to implement cryptocurrency in business
In order to implement digital currency payment on a website or online store, a so-called crypto-gateway is needed. This is a special kind of software that allows you to accept and send crypto as payment for goods and services. The crypto-gateway also helps to split the bill for payment and stores the coins received.
One of the most popular and proven services is BitPay. With its help, companies can accept BTC and Bitcoin Cash as payment. The service charges a relatively low fee for processing transactions and converting digital coins into regular currency. To start working with the service, you should fill out an application with the company's business data. On the BitPay website you can find detailed instructions on how to install the software and work with digital currency payments.
If the application is rejected for some reason, which also happens, you can look at two alternatives - BTCPay and B2BinPay. The first is a free, open-source server for entrepreneurs who want to accept only Bitcoin as a means of payment. B2BinPAY allows to accept about 10 largest by capitalization crypto-assets, as well as more than 500 tokens To start working with this service, it is necessary to make an application on the B2Broker website. After that, the user receives detailed instructions on how to set up the service by email.
Besides this, the processing services also provide the following services:
Bitaps.com
Coinbase Commerce
Blockchain.com.
More advanced users may be interested in Apirone platform. It helps clients accept Bitcoin and Litecoin as payment for goods and services. However, installing this payment processing plugin takes more time.
Can Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency become a full-fledged currency for payments in the near future?
Some analysts are quite confident that bitcoin will become one of the leading currencies in the future. In their opinion, it is only a matter of time. But cryptocurrency's role will be more about accumulating value, like gold. People will buy crypto as an investment asset.
Other crypto-assets will still be used for everyday tasks like buying coffee, groceries, and other things. For example, some experts consider USDT (Tether) as a means of payment. Today, currencies are backed by gold - something similar will happen in the cryptocurrency market.
In the foreign economic sector, no global changes will follow. Transnational crypto-trading requires a single ecosystem based on a single software with common standards, and this will be extremely difficult and very problematic to achieve. The issue of global circulation of crypto affects many interests and it is difficult, if not impossible, to find a compromise.
As for the domestic market, it is much easier to standardize blockchain. It is easier to prepare the legal framework and infrastructure in one country than it is to fit the whole world.
Bottom line
In addition to relatively low commissions and fast transaction processing, the transition to cryptocurrency payments expands the target audience, allows you to attract a number of new customers and get ahead of the competition. Moreover, the transition to crypto will help to become more independent from the traditional banking system.
As for the issue of taxes for entrepreneurs, they should be the same as regular fiat payments. However, there is a possibility that entrepreneurs who decide to implement blockchain in their business will receive temporary benefits and bonuses from the government for introducing such innovations.
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