Image source: Coingeek

Although cryptocurrencies have been around for over a decade, their potential remains untapped, especially in business and their usefulness as a means of payment.

An influential figure in the crypto space recently shared the same opinions others have held for years.

Underestimated

Vitalik Buterin is no stranger to the crypto space, best known for being the co-founder of the second largest coin, Ethereum.

He recently took to Twitter to talk about how cryptocurrency could play an important role as a means of payment, saying it’s often “underappreciated” compared to fiat.

Buterin highlighted how convenient cryptocurrencies could be for international payments and charities.

The Ethereum co-founder shared his thoughts in a Twitter thread on Wednesday, where he explained that it’s not just a sign of censorship resistance, but convenience that makes crypto a more flexible asset at times. multiple purposes.

The tweet

“People continue to underrate how often cryptocurrency payments are superior not even because of censorship resistance but just because they’re so much more convenient,” tweeted Buterin.

“Big boost to international business and charity, and sometimes even payments within countries.”

Cryptocurrency today

Despite Buterin’s tweets, the acceptance of cryptocurrencies in payments has grown worldwide.

Data platform PYMNTS released a report titled “Paying With Cryptocurrency” last month, which found that 85% of companies surveyed with annual revenues over $1 billion said they were embracing crypto payments.

They shared that their decision was made to find and attract new customers.

Crypto debit cards

Crypto debit cards have also appeared and are growing rapidly.

For example, Binance recently partnered with Mastercard to announce a prepaid card for Argentinians.

Crypto debit cards, like those from Wirex, reward users with crypto cash back for using the card as payment and make it easier to spend several major cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, including withdrawing cash. cash at ATMs.

International functions

Vitalik Buterin’s tweet highlighted the usefulness of cryptocurrency for international money transfers and charitable donations.

With traditional fiat currency, international payments tend to take time and incur high fees.

An example is the use in the Ukrainian war. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted that $ 54 million was raised by the non-profit and activist group Aid for Ukraine.

Transactions

Despite its potential, some have hesitated to use crypto as a means of payment, citing price volatility, ease of use and regulatory risk.

The high transaction fees and long processing times for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether are also some of the reasons for people’s hesitation.

Bitcoin’s blockchain can vary, but since Wednesday it processes around five transactions per second with an average fee of $ 0.819.

Meanwhile, Ether processes around 29.3 transactions per second with an average cost of $ 1.57.

Visa claims to be able to process more transactions (24,000), charging between 1.4% and 2.5% per transaction.

The Bitcoin blockchain is developing the Lightning Network, a layer 2 solution on the current blockchain that could provide a solution to transaction delay per second.

Ethereum is also exploring layer 2 rollup technologies such as zk rollups to reduce fees and processing times.

Stablecoins – cryptocurrencies designed to be pegged to other assets like the US dollar – have also become a popular medium of exchange, especially in emerging markets.

Reference:

Vitalik: people still ‘underrate’ the superiority of crypto payments