If you haven’t quite yet warmed up to the idea of cryptocurrency, you are in good company. Only an estimated 15% of Americans currently own some form of digital currency like Bitcoin or Ethereum. A large portion of these investors has bought in over the past two years. Regardless of your investment stance, there is a strong possibility that cryptocurrency will be impacting you and the future of business transactions.
Mainstream Institutional Adoption Is Already Here
The writing started to be on the wall, perhaps when MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor first publicly endorsed Bitcoin. As a publicly traded company dating back to 1989 and known for having lots of capital in excess reserves, Saylor coming out and publicly ringing the alarm of crypto and even calling it “superior to cash” indeed raised some eyebrows among institutions and created a snowball effect.
Tesla Invested $1.5 Billion Into Bitcoin
Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed “TechnoKing” of Tesla, has recently made quite a name for himself in headlines. From being a leader of the meme-coin Dogecoin and likely having a massive hand in pumping Bitcoin after updating his Twitter bio to include Bitcoin and subsequently buying $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin for Tesla, Musk and Saylor have put a face to the institutional acceptance towards cryptocurrency. Recently, Tesla has also announced that customers can now buy their vehicles using Bitcoin.
Paypal Is Also An Early Adopter
PayPal has origins as being one of the pioneers in ushering in digital transactions. Due to their history of promoting and simplifying transactions across borders within minutes, it only makes sense for them to jump on the board for cryptocurrency.
Recently, they have rolled out the ability for people to both buy and make transactions with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. Although, crypto enthusiasts have criticized PayPal for not letting users transfer their coins to a private wallet. Perhaps this is a feature that can come in the future and it’s a step in the right direction. MORE FOR YOU5 Cognitive Biases Blocking Your SuccessPreparing To Go Public: An Overview Of The IPO ProcessImmigrants Hope Registry Saves Immigration Bill
Visa And Mastercard Have Joined The Party
Two of the biggest platforms for making payments worldwide have both publicly endorsed the use of Bitcoin. For example, Visa is allowing transactions with stablecoins on the Ethereum blockchain. https://buy.tinypass.com/checkout/template/cacheableShow?aid=Yj2fRrCPpu&templateId=OTXWKFJL53QM&templateVariantId=OTVLE6GMPT50T&offerId=fakeOfferId&experienceId=EX3PSEK7T8IX&iframeId=offer_02c09bdd9890f67077a9-1&displayMode=inline&pianoIdUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fauth.forbes.com%2Fid%2F&widget=template&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com
Mastercard has followed suit and recently announced that their customers would begin transactions with crypto sometime in 2021. With two big payment giants hopping on the train, it seems that the doors are now open for broader mainstream adoption and practical use among business owners in the upcoming years.
Paying Employees Could Be More Convenient With Cryptocurrency
Having to handle payroll for a team of employees who live in many different parts of the globe can be a massive hassle as a remote team employer. Imagine having to convert your dollars into dozens of international currencies to pay your employees.
Making cross-border transactions is not near as much of a burden as the fees for changing the currency. With cryptocurrency, instant transactions across borders with minimal-to-no fees are now a reality. Since Bitcoin transactions are public, all parties can view the transaction details and immediately know the status. Cutting out banks saves both the employer and employee money and can be a big win-win for the workforce.
Crowdfunding And Raising Capital Is More Transparent
People love to use online platforms for raising money. This way, fundraising is done transparently. Also, it opens up the ability for people to publicly ask for funds and explain why. In the future, platforms like these will probably continue to be used.
However, crowdfunding with a dedicated blockchain wallet will keep the total amount of donations open to the public. In the same manner, it will allow the fundraisers to avoid fees from third-party platforms without sacrificing the donors’ trust. A crypto wallet also allows all parties to see how much donations have come in.
Crypto As A Viable Form Of Payment
One of the main criticisms given towards crypto is that there is no inherent value. Indeed, the value it has is the value that the world provides it. However, the same could be said for worldwide fiat currencies that have long strayed away from the gold standard.
Strong advocates for holding gold knew for years that extreme printing of money would lead to a devalued currency. Since gold has a relatively finite supply and has historically been seen as valuable, they use it as a hedge against inflation and a means of keeping the government out of their bank accounts.
Interestingly, some of the staunchest cryptocurrency users hold coins for many reasons that people hold gold. The main difference between the two is the very young age of cryptocurrency, having no proven history of long-term value.
What crypto does do well is the ability to keep your coins secure using an offline wallet and having a finite supply that encourages exponential growth of value as demand increases. With the ability to instantly transfer coins anywhere globally, the change in demand and overall value of cryptocurrency could make it a popular means of payment in the business world and peer-to-peer.
Using Crypto For Business Equity
One of the popular trends we see in the modern business world is giving early employees shares of the company profits. Considering the vast growth of crypto in the past decade, providing new employees a “company” cryptocurrency as equity shares could be a huge new trend.
In any case, it will be interesting to continue monitoring the future of cryptocurrency unfold. What we could see happen is a revolution in the financial field or a colossal disaster for the investors who have since made a fortune off the growth of crypto.