Image credit: Marco Verch
Though still in its infancy relative to other innovations, cryptocurrency is starting to win support from major companies and services, and each step takes it farther into mainstream awareness. It’s a slow process, certainly — the early positioning of Bitcoin as a shiny bauble for speculative investors led to the perception that cryptocurrency is a gimmick — but times are changing.
Not only has Bitcoin become a fairly stable investment option, but it’s also become viable for typical payment. Is every cryptocurrency ready to be used for regular transactions? Are people ready to embrace a financial paradigm shift? No, not yet, but that’s understandable. For now, it just needs to be a readily-available option — everything beyond that will be up to the people.
So how widely is cryptocurrency available? Not enough for someone to get by using nothing but cryptocurrency payments, most likely, but there are some industries that are leading the way in giving their customers the freedom to choose. Let’s take a look at 5 of them:
Ecommerce
Buying and selling general goods online is the most natural fit for decentralized currency because it allows people to create their own marketplaces without any need for third-party interference. This is the basis for marketplaces like Forra — with no transaction fees, sellers and buyers alike can get better returns — but it doesn’t stop there.
For the time being, at least, the main value doesn’t lie in isolated marketplaces with niche appeal: it lies in infiltrating existing marketplaces and expanding utility. This has already been achieved with many payment gateways and eCommerce systems (by now, almost every mainstream-viable retail CMS either supports Bitcoin natively or supports it through a plugin).
The sheer breadth of options made available through integrated systems continues to grow, and it seems inevitable that cryptocurrencies of many varieties will be accepted as the standard for eCommerce payment systems within the near future.
Online gaming
The massive rise of token-led microtransactions in video games can be related to the advent of cryptocurrency, though not in a flattering way. Where cryptocurrency is intended to make transactions free and transparent, the proprietary tokens used by profit-hungry companies like EA are intended solely to make money by locking people into their ecosystems.
That said, there’s one type of online gaming that’s strongly adopting cryptocurrency, and that’s online gambling. There are so-called Bitcoin casinos that trade solely in cryptocurrency payments, with no regular money changing hands, but that’s not all: many online casinos (like 32Red Casino) already accept Bitcoin payments, and it surely won’t be long before the others follow suit. 32Red is one of the world’s premier online casinos, after all.
Regardless of their games of choice, online gamers are tech-savvy and forward-thinking, making them among the more likely people to want to use cryptocurrency. Industry businesses have to take action or they’ll swiftly be left behind.
Energy supply
One aspect of cryptocurrency that doesn’t get spoken about too much is the communal element — a group of people can decide to form a community with its own cryptocurrency, tying it to whatever standard it deems appropriate and getting by without any need for traditional banking. This is particularly notable in the world of green supply because it’s supporting green energy.
The model that’s proving quite popular involves irrevocably typing cryptocurrencies to energy units, allowing people to easily trade energy (something that’s important for areas with inconsistent energy supply). Someone with a solar panel can sell any energy they don’t use, then buy some back whenever they need it.
These energy communities (known as microgrids) encourage people to cut their reliance upon classic power plants and make it possible for people to track where their energy comes from (and, if they wish, choose to pay more to get green energy).
P2P lending
Conventional methods of investment don’t suit everyone, particularly when you factor in the developing world. Entrepreneurs in third-world countries don’t typically have ready access to wealthy investors, or the resources needed to create impressive pitches capable of winning them over — most importantly, they often don’t have standard banking accounts.
That’s where P2P lending (or microlending) comes in. An aspiring entrepreneur can crowdfund investment, picking up small amounts from numerous people throughout the globe, and cryptocurrency is ideal for this. The transactions have no fees, are entirely transparent, and don’t rely on specific financial institutions to be carried out.
People can either directly lend cryptocurrency, or lend regular money backed by cryptocurrency through platforms like CoinLoan or LendaBit. It’s going to be extremely interesting to see how lenders use cryptocurrencies (asset-backed or otherwise) to invest in the future.
Travel
Just as cheap airlines turned international travel into something the average person could afford, sites like Airbnb have overhauled the practice of renting temporary accommodation. Instead of paying set rates to hotels, renters can deal directly with individual property owners, reaching more nuanced and favorable agreements.
This move towards convenience is a step in the right direction, and the next step is coming from the cryptocurrency world, driven by IoT technology. While Airbnb itself doesn’t yet accept Bitcoin payments, travel companies like LockTrip are changing the game by allowing people to pay for everything from hotels to flights with cryptocurrencies.
Soon enough, the old system of collecting hotel keycards will be obsolete. People will pay by crypto through their phones, receive their digital keys, and instantly open their IoT locks.