The acceptance of bitcoins as a valid payment method is beginning to spread. The United States even recognizes bitcoin as a “legal virtual payment method”. Great we have a legal virtual coin, now what? It is nice to have a virtual coin but if you can’t use it to buy virtual goods or goods in reality what use does a virtual coin have?
So the next logical step is that people that have existing shops will accept bitcoin as virtual payment methods. As this will become more generalized, more and more people will add Bitcoin as another payment option for buying their products. There are already some platforms that facilitate buying and selling goods with the use of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.
A beautiful example is coingig, where people can put their products on the site for a fixed price. This site is easy to use. There are also rumors that a kind of auction site will be coming online soon where Jack and Jane Public can sell their items for crypto. Also amazon is conducting tests with the use of cryptocurrency payments. This is only in a “test phase” and can easily go many different ways.
Of course there are already exchanges, some good & some very shady, where people can trade bitcoin for a variety of other cryptocurrencies. This can be best described as a normal stock exchange with the uppers and downers for different currencies. Some people like to daytrade, while others mine coins which they sell on the exchange for other cryptocurrencies. Whatever floats your boat.
Why would people use Bitcoin as a payment method? A consumer might want to use bitcoins to pay for goods and not use a credit card. Bitcoin is another income source so why not use it to pay for products you want. There is also another reason why people could opt for paying goods with cryptocurrencies in general and with Bitcoin in particular. It is about anonymity.
If an individual wants to buy something online, it will be done by a credit card transaction. When using a credit card the consumer needs to divulge information-credit card number, security code, billing address etc.-over the internet. A hacker can “steal” this information and use it to syphon money from your account to his or her account. A Bitcoin transaction requires just two pieces of information. Nevertheless this can also be hacked and nothing digital is truly safe but cryptocurrencies are generally safer than a credit card.
Whenever a customer uses his or her credit card the retailers have to pay a certain percentage merchant fee on credit card transactions, though the consumer will always have to pay this fee. A Bitcoin transaction doesn’t have those costs like credit card transactions and thus the Bitcoin fees are minimal or non-existent.
Bitcoin transactions are generally much faster than credit card transactions. The amount that an item you purchased will be deduced from your account nearly immediately. Before you buy items you should always check if the seller is a reputable person. This doesn’t mean that a seller who hasn’t sold anything is a crook; it can only mean that nobody has bothered to buy items from him or her. Just contact the seller and get to know him or her. When conducting Bitcoin transactions or cryptocurrency transactions in general, you should always use escrow for safety. That way you have some security and assurances that, when the item doesn’t arrive you can get your money, in this case your Bitcoins, back.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.