Ever since its creation, Bitcoin has been derided by various economic experts, who predicted that the cryptocurrency would flop, become worthless, and would never break into mainstream awareness. With Bitcoin flying in the face of those particular predictions, the nay-sayers have instead switched their arguments to the limitation of how it can be used.
Of course, from an investment point of view, the fact that Bitcoin has been labelled as ‘digital gold‘ is a wonderful thing, with just one ‘coin’ of the cryptocurrency worth close to $2,000, but the argument that these ‘coins’ are difficult to spend has seen some ordinary consumers become rather wary of them.
The new MasterCard?
Let’s break this argument down a little more. The argument for “you can’t buy anything with Bitcoin” may come down to the fact that it is hard to imagine a day where you can walk into your local grocery store and buy your weekly shop with your Bitcoin wallet. However, this doesn’t mean that Bitcoin can’t act like a credit card so you can use them for extra payment security online, particularly when making big purchases online. And this ignores the fact that, actually, there is an increasing trend for Bitcoin to be accepted on the high street.
Not surprisingly, the online or iGaming industry has embraced Bitcoin as one of the best ways to help reduce costs (due to lower transaction fees and lower charges for accepting them), allowing companies that rely on Bitcoin to be able to win more customers, with the process of getting a new player made far easier by the flexibility of the cryptocurrency. With Bitcasino, for instance, it’s possible to register within minutes, make the first deposit, and then receive a welcome bonus of up to 100%.
Serious players in iGaming aren’t just there for the fun of the gamble; they are there to win big, and the simple fact remains that these big rollers wouldn’t be making use of the currency if they didn’t think it had sensible and beneficial applications, or indeed, if they didn’t have adequate outlets for spending after a big win.
Holidays show spending is easy
It is the range of these outlets that is perhaps the easiest defense of the argument we’ve been discussing. You only really need to list a few to get an idea of the depth here; you can book holidays on Expedia using Bitcoin, a New York pre-school has said it is accepting them because of the ease of the transactions, and more and more Bitcoin ATMs are cropping up across the globe for people to make withdrawals.
With this range of options available in 2017, it is clear that the marketplace is increasingly happy to accept the cryptocurrency and the doubts surrounding its actual usability rather than the intrinsic value of it deserve to start diminishing.
If transactions continue to become easier to make and to process, there will be no reason why more companies (whether large or small) won’t start to accept a currency that is now old enough and established enough to be seen as secure and trusted.
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