An exciting shift in Bitcoin's path from being used in digital payments to speculation and investment
Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by total market cap.
When Bitcoin was first unveiled, the goal behind it was to provide digital cash to replace the traditional currency represented by the dollar, the euro, the British pound ...
Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto described Bitcoin in his white paper as "a peer-to-peer electronic cash system."
But more than a decade after the launch of Bitcoin, the path and goal of Bitcoin has shifted from everyday transactions in stores to investment, savings and speculation.
In a recent report titled “The Geography of Cryptocurrencies 2020 ″, the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis found that 1% of Bitcoin's value sent to Africa came from merchants between June 2019 and July 2020.
In China, this figure was 0.7%, in Eastern Europe 0.84%, in Latin America 0.96%, in the Middle East 0.65%, in North America 1.04% and in Europe 1.08%.
In May 2019, data from Chainalysis showed that only 1.3% of Bitcoin transactions came in the form of commercial transactions between January and April 2019.
Looking specifically at Bitcoin, Chainalysis's Market Intel platform shows that in one week in September 2020, $ 62.5 million of Bitcoin was transferred from the services sector to trading platforms and $ 53.9 million from digital wallets to the services sector. .
While $ 1.3 billion was transferred between different digital wallets.
Ryan Rivert, a Texas business attorney representing startups and investors, stated:
Once you look at the blockchain, it is impossible to tell the difference between purchase and investment transactions.
Even when looking at companies that advertise their bitcoin acceptance, users are ignoring the bitcoin payment option they have.
Why don't people use Bitcoin in everyday business transactions?
As we indicated, it is not about the traders who do not accept Bitcoin, but rather the users.
A survey of 500 small and medium-sized companies in the United States conducted by "Zogby Analytics" on behalf of "HSB" found that 36% accept cryptocurrencies.
Large institutions, such as Wikipedia, Microsoft, and AT&T accept Bitcoin.
A Utah-based CoinZoom spokesperson stated that customers have spent around $ 200,000 of Bitcoin every month over the past three months.
"BitPay", an Atlanta-based cryptocurrency provider, said that the company processes $ 1 billion in bitcoin payments every year.
But Bitcoin is a far cry from the mainstream use of traditional fiat currencies.
If we compare it with transactions made in paper currencies, we find, for example, that the company "Visa" processed $ 2.3 trillion.
So why not use Bitcoin in everyday transactions?
There is a major reason that Bitcoin is still confusing trading.
Where he investigated the source and conducted interviews with a group of executives of different companies and digital stores, and their answers were as follows:
Akram Tariq Khan - co-founder of "YourLibaas" which is a Pakistani online fashion store - told that he added Bitcoin as a method of payment during the spread of the Coronavirus, but among the approximately 12,200 requests in the month following the addition of Bitcoin payment, 16 were paid He ordered only using Bitcoin, for a total of only $ 2,100, while 127 others tried, but did not complete the purchase.
He added:
We had no practical use for Bitcoin, which led us to stop using it.
While Berry Tone told the founder of "Thexyz", which is a Canadian-based hosting and email services provider:
Bitcoin is not very convenient for buyers, although its use has grown quite a bit among the few people who use it.
Another possible reason for not adopting Bitcoin in everyday commercial transactions is related to Bitcoin's bad reputation, he told "Ethan Taub" CEO of California-based Loanry:
There is still a stigma that Bitcoin is used in the online black markets, so companies that accept this type of currency are often seen as dodgy and untrustworthy.
In fact, one of the first cases of real use of Bitcoin was the purchase of illegal goods and services in the "Dark Web" marketplace, such as the "Silk Road" store that is now gone.
The future of Bitcoin use in everyday transactions:
There is still hope for Bitcoin.
Bitpay previously surveyed four merchants who accept bitcoin and found that people who spend digital currencies spend twice as much as they spend when paying with credit cards.
Projects such as Lightning Network aim to solve weaknesses such as the speed and cost of transactions, although the vast majority of cryptocurrency companies at this stage do not accept Lightning transactions.
For now, however, bitcoin will remain an investment and a speculative currency that traders can trade.
