It's been a decade since Bitcoin emerged as a decentralized digital currency for the people. While it's no secret that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrrencies have some drawbacks, they're still a great alternative to Fiat when it comes to making payments without a centralized entity in charge of our funds.
With latest advancements such as DAGs, smart contracts, Layer-Two scaling solutions, Dandelion Protocol, Zero Knowledge Proofs, and more, it's becoming more evident that crypto will someday replace traditional payment processors like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Android Pay. Yet, Blockchain technology is still struggling with user adoption and regulatory compliance.
Nonetheless, do you believe that there's hope for Bitcoin to beat traditional payment processors or will those same payment processors adapt to the Blockchain in the future?
With latest advancements such as DAGs, smart contracts, Layer-Two scaling solutions, Dandelion Protocol, Zero Knowledge Proofs, and more, it's becoming more evident that crypto will someday replace traditional payment processors like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Android Pay. Yet, Blockchain technology is still struggling with user adoption and regulatory compliance.
Nonetheless, do you believe that there's hope for Bitcoin to beat traditional payment processors or will those same payment processors adapt to the Blockchain in the future?
For wire-transfer or sending money across borders, its already a winner. As a payment alternative it covers most scenarios. Something you buy online and go pick up later (or is sent to you) is already working perfectly well.
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Future depends on merchant willingness. Often, you can talk directly to a seller and ask if he/she would accept bitcoin, and chances are getting better and better everyday that in fact they do. Its often their trading platforms that won't, due to "fear" or regulation.
Company A wants to check that car physically before buying it, so they will travel to the foreign country. They inspect the car and found out that is's fine for them. So they want to pay for the car, before anyone else pops in and buy the car by cash before their payment arrives, which means e.g. 2 working days outside SEPA (in the SEPA area it's 'only' 1 working day)... I know that there's earnest money which you pay to hold that car for you but that's only good against the other buyers, but you still have to camp there in a hotel or in your car to wait for the payment to get finalized via the SWIFT or SEPA system...
So bitcoin seems to be a winner when a company wants to pay for another company...
But there's regulation, and in most of the countries, companies don't have a clear guideline where to put bitcoins when it's about book keeping. Also they don't really know how is it possible to prove that there was a real payment (in bitcoins) and it's not something in connection with money laundry...
So companies will mostly wait for a fiat wire transfer instead of using the quick bitcoin network for international payments now... But if the countries will implement permissive regulations in connection with bitcoin (e.g. Germany in the EU), this situation can become better for the companies, not only for the individuals