liquidity rules
One of the big gray areas around crypto, especially for outsiders and newbies to the space, is the looming question of where can you spend your currency? Once you own some bitcoin/ethereum…what do you actually do with it?
And though there are lots of individual investors “HODL-ing” until the end of time, surely there are use cases (especially if things in the space go “well”) where cryptocurrencies are far more than an investment vehicle — but rather an entire new medium for exchanging and transacting.
Many do not think our current economic infrastructure, here in the United States, is in place to support any sort of “currency revolution.” At least not yet. Since the technology is still developing, we are sitting at an interesting period of hurry up and wait, as the framework and infrastructure of this new financial world is still being built.
Today, the process of purchasing cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin and Ethereum) is cumbersome and difficult. Unless you use a service like Dether — that lets you buy and sell your ether coins for cash — you have to register for an exchange, deposit money, verify your information, wait a few weeks, and then, after all that, you can finally withdraw your currency.
On top of that there are fees. Outages. Slow downs in the market place.
And even then…
Once you have your digital currency. Where do you go spend it?
It is not like you can walk to your local grocery store and exchange your bitcoins for a banana.
I guess the good news for crypto enthusiasts is that the list of merchants that accept bitcoin is expanding…but still, how soon will that pick up to be practical for the masses?
Here are a bunch of places I found, just through googling that will take your bitcoin:
Home_Over 100,000 Merchants Accept Bitcoin Find almost anything you’d like to buy with bitcoin by searching or browsing our…_spendbitcoins.com
Where to spend your Bitcoins_Bitcoin is amazing. The advantages and opportunities it provides are endless.However, all these positives are going to…_www.cryptocompare.com
75 Places to Spend Your Bitcoins - Shopify_Bitcoins burning a hole in your wallet? We can help.On Wednesday we announced that over 75,000 Shopify merchants can…_www.shopify.com
20 Places To Spend Your Bitcoins_If you're a follower of technology or business websites, you've probably heard of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a digital peer-to…_www.hongkiat.com
Who Accepts Bitcoins As Payment? List of Companies_Who accept bitcoins as payment? Bitcoins are taking over the crypto-currency marketplace. They're the largest and most…_99bitcoins.com
Spend Bitcoin Online - Bitcoin.com_Spend Bitcoin Online on Bitcoin.com_www.bitcoin.com
Spending Bitcoin - Bitcoin_Beware of Bitcoin's possible incompatibility with some major services_bitcoin.org
(my friend Adam also made Cryptoallowed, a “google” that only returns crypto results — which can help you find crypto stuff).
Today, the number of merchants hovers somewhere over 100,000.
What do you think that number will be at 6 months from now? What about a year from now? 5 years? 10 years?
What is perhaps even more exciting to me than the revolution that *could* take place in the first world is the opportunity to bring modern financial services to not yet developed countries who lack essentials like banking and financing.
Literally billions of adults still are void of services like these. Billions.
Who will be there to serve this untapped market?