Classified barriers facing Bitcoin cash mass adoption

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuous rampaging effects within many countries around the world, and the expanded lockdowns to curtail the effects, face to face financial transactions have been greatly reduced as people are restricted from going out of their houses not even for shopping purposes. The only way people do business and pay for services has been the use of digital payment channels online. This process requires an intermediary such as a bank, credit card agency, or a payment gateway like Paypal or Payoneer. The involvement of these intermediary slows down the process and add to the cost of a transaction.

Bitcoin cash has proven to be playing a greater role in digital transactions to disrupt and replace traditional payment system and their intermediaries. As it is with the traditional payment system, there is also a fee for every transaction made on the Bitcoin cash network. Transaction fees have been the elephant in the room when it comes to real used cases of any digital currency. While the Bitcoin cash adoption campaigns are on the highest across the world, and despite the greater speed and security in transactions, Bitcoin cash is still a way off from reaching mass adoption. Reasons for this are due to some sizeable barriers to entry, especially for merchants.

Individual entry barriers

The major barrier for adoption to using Bitcoin cash for individuals has been ignorance. It's a fact that Bitcoin cash as a digital asset and any other cryptocurrency is a completely new concept of money. People are not familiar with how blockchain and cryptocurrency works. A lot are still wondering how can money be created from thin air. Blockchain technology is still a very strange phenomenon to most people around the world. People find it hard to understand how they can acquire, store and use Bitcoin cash BCH. There is a whole lot of work to do to get individuals on board.

People understand readily how to use a credit card for digital payment to access goods and services online. They know how the cost of services rendered is being deducted from their bank account. But with cryptocurrency it's not easy for them, they need to know many things. The difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash, and other cryptocurrencies, the type of wallets, and how to use them properly. This might seem easy to some people but with most people, it's a different way of thinking entirely. Most people I have encountered in my bid to onboard them to use Bitcoin cash thought that the coins in their wallets could be transferred to a bank account without exchanging it to local currency first. When the value of the coins in the wallet fluctuates you have a question to answer. It needs a whole lot of education for people to understand how Bitcoin cash works. Moreover, the daily horror news of crypto scams and loss of wallet keys or mnemonics discouraged many individuals. Their thoughts are if a seasoned user is having this kind of trouble using cryptocurrency what chances does a novice have?

Entry barriers for merchants

For merchants, the barriers faced by individuals are doubled. Just as individuals are mostly ignorant about Bitcoin cash and cryptocurrency, most business owners are completely ignorant as well. Merchants' concern mostly for using Bitcoin cash hinges on transactions. Not the fees this time but the infrastructures to handle those transactions specifically built for merchants. Merchants don't have to accept BCH with a mind of speculation, lack of a mechanism to make BCH stable for merchants is a great barrier to merchants' adoption. Merchants and businesses would prefer to integrate traditional business technology into a digital infrastructure that allows them to use the local currency they're familiar with. Until the Bitcoin cash protocol developers create an infrastructure specifically to meet merchants' need of funds security this barrier may likely remain for long.

Another major issue is the discouragement created by governments on the use of digital currency in major countries around the world. Merchants will always want to be secured both in and out. If banks or financial institutions are restricted from doing business with cryptocurrency exchanges as in the recent case in Nigeria, how would they get their funds back in their local currency for buying new products to sell? Unfortunately, that is not in the power of the Bitcoin cash developers to solve, but on the governing jurisdiction, each merchant resides.

Barriers for large scale adoption

Getting a large scale for Bitcoin cash adoption would be great but not without barriers. Where uses are much, there will also be many barriers. What we are looking up to is millions to billions of uses for Bitcoin cash. Imagine the number of transactions that would be taking place on the Bitcoin cash network each minute, and as uses continue to increase the barrier of network congestion will likely be there. Already Bitcoin cash transaction congestion has been experienced on some fronts like the noise.cash platform.

Transaction fees may seem fair on the Bitcoin cash network now, but when you consider that billions of people exchanging Bitcoin cash and mostly in a smaller amount as in the case of shopping in a local market moving from shop to shop and paying for goods and services with BCH, the fees become prohibitory expensive. This will not be a one-time experience but a daily process that will involve millions to billions of people using BCH as payment. Transaction costs may likely be too expensive for a typical housewife and regular spenders. This will be a great concern to homeowners, housewives, and the regular day to day spenders.

Could there be a transaction feeless BCH?

The future will answer this question. But the advantages of having a feeless BCH transaction system will be so enormous. Individuals and business owners would not need to worry anymore about how much they spend and the technicalities involved in using a digital currency. Ultimately, this would be a paradigm shift in cryptocurrencies. Businesses and corporations would easily integrate their database applications into the Bitcoin cash network.