The battle to become the world’s leading Bitcoin payment processor is heating up between BitPay and CoinBase. Most people seem to prefer BitPay over CoinBase for some reason, which is why we tried to look up some things about Coinbase that you may not know by now. Even though we don’t have a dog in the fight, we do want our readers to be as informed as possible on all things regarding Bitcoin.
CoinBase – The World’s Largest Bitcoin Platform
Before we go any further, there is a vast distinction between being the world’s largest Bitcoin platform and the world’s leading Bitcoin payment processor. CoinBase is about much more than just processing Bitcoin payments, as it also acts as an exchange to buy and sell Bitcoin, and they offer their very own Bitcoin wallet service.
BitPay on the other hand, is mostly focusing their efforts on bringing Bitcoin payment processing capabilities to as many merchants around the world as they can. Regardless of whether you want to use it for in-store or online purposes, BitPay seems to be the most popular choice for accepting Bitcoin payments.
Both companies are providing merchants, retailers and consumers around the world with the service and platforms they desperately crave, even though most of the world’s population doesn’t realize the full potential of Bitcoin yet. However, we do need to have a proper infrastructure in place for when we achieve the “critical mass” of Bitcoin adoption – which will hopefully take place sooner rather than later.
Gaining Mainstream Adoption
According to a recent Q&A session, with CoinBase, they feel that, in order to gain more mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and digital currency, in general, merchants need to come up with some loyalty program. The purpose of such a loyalty program is straightforward; pass the merchant’s savings – from accepting Bitcoin compared to traditional payment methods – on to the consumer.
It would not be too hard to develop such a loyalty program by participating retailers, as most major brands and chains already have a similar program in place for their customers. Whether it is by saving “points” on a card to exchange for a discount or collecting stamps to buy a special set of kitchenware at a discount, there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
However, we do need some of the bigger “brands” to “jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon” in order to make loyalty programs a remote possibility. There is no real incentive for mom & pop stores to start offering a loyalty program to customers paying in Bitcoin, as their customer base is much smaller. Until, that is, their customer base starts growing, which could very well change the story entirely.
Other Ways To Achieve Critical Mass
Bitcoin offers many possibilities from a financial perspective, which are not necessarily related to loyalty programs. In fact, one of the areas where Bitcoin outshines the competition is where microtransactions are concerned. With low to no payment fees involved, Bitcoin should be the primary choice for any company dealing with these small transactions on a regular basis.
Peer-to-peer lending is another prime example of why we need a payment solution like Bitcoin in our everyday life. Lending money to a friend or family member is hard to keep track of these days, and almost forces you to put it in writing. With Bitcoin and the related technology – there is a far easier solution to lending money to people you know, and even people you don’t know.
Source: Own Research
All images courtesy of Pixabay
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