Are these stats only counting retail as purchases made by cryptocurrencies in person? Or do these also count transactions online from big brands (eg, buying a computer of newegg for BTC), or using purse.io to buy items of amazon?
I think these stats are pertaining to all bitcoin-related transactions as long as bitcoin is in the talk of the transaction or used as a medium for payment they are counted in. If you'll gonna tally a compiled transaction percentage of an asset in a country you need to consider all possible transactions that will include that asset so for sure it includes all.
Damn. That's actually a lot lower then I thought it would be then, I expected companies like purse.io (basically makes it able for you to spend cryptocurrencies on amazon and some other sites) to have fairly decent traffic, as well as other online businesses that accept cryptocurrencies to be quite high traffic.
Virtual currencies are currently a fringe phenomenon in the U.S., accounting for a tiny fraction (less than 0.001%) of all U.S. retail transactions
In the five-year period ending 2016, more than half a billion retail payments were made in Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies that include Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, according to the most recent estimates.
Virtual currencies' (including Bitcoin) are a way to transfer value, but there is no established mechanism or legal framework in place to protect users.
Virtual currencies could lead to financial services for individuals and corporations that wouldn't be possible otherwise. Bitcoin itself could become the most prominent example of just such a new kind of "money"
Bitcoin can be an alternative to money or even platic money such as debit/credit card. Most people prefer it since they have access to their own money and is not controlled by other entity such as banks. Virtual money or cryptocurrency can be the next trend that we will have in the future. Imagine managing your own finance, and transacting easy, fast and convenient. Let's just hope that slowly crypto will be accepted by the government and adopted by the mass.
It can be a replacement to a lot of the payment methods we use, but the thing is getting people to change, especially when it's technology is so new and a lot of people don't like/understand it.