by Clive Williams, Limonetik & Trevor Bowcher, Bitnet
We are in the midst of a technology revolution and it is well documented that we are moving towards to a more CASHLESS society. As one of the leading cashless innovations, digital currency has been considered as the leading tool to eliminate cash and move us further down this road.
At Money 20/20 just last month, cashless payment and its blockchain technology took one of the stages at this most progressive payment and financial services industry event. To develop deeper understanding about how the so-called “novelties” become the hit topics, here is the insight we uncovered.
Blockchain protects and facilitates digital currency transaction
Blockchain is a distributed public ledger technology, predicted to revolutionize financial services and payment. It is the foundation of all digital currency transactions, and processing is almost costless, with transactions confirmed quickly and efficiently within a matter of seconds. More uniquely, the transactions become auditable, transparent, irrefutable and time-stamped, like an IP-based currency, which is impossible to de-fraud and counterfeit.
At Money 20/20 this year, blockchain technology was again a fashionable topic, arousing frequent discussions. The commentators are predicting that this technology will play an important role in the upcoming future. Merchants implementing this revolutionary technology need not worry about crime and fraud, because the blockchain tracks all transactions with full transparency, protecting privacy and personal information at the same time. Some traditional payment players, including banks and credit cards corporations, are also looking to leverage blockchain technology, with many high profile global organisations recently announcing blockchain projects
According to the data on the http://www.blockchain.info platform, they have 500,000 visitors per day and over 100 million per month. The high volume of web traffic primarily comes from bitcoin holders, who tend to be affluent, tech, young, socially aware.
Consumers embrace digital currency worldwide
With the technological advancements mentioned above, digital currency is enjoying an increasingly high acceptance worldwide. Digital currency holders love to use it to transfer funds cheaply and store value, more importantly, to make electronic payments on merchants’ sites.
Through a recent survey conducted by PwC, most of respondents stated that they would pay with digital currency, especially in the entertainment industry. And there are already nearly 100,000 merchants worldwide that accept this digital currency, including huge enterprises like Rakuten, Microsoft, Dell, Overstock and Expedia.com (Click here to know the advantages for merchants to connect digital currency).
According to the data, there are around 9 million bitcoin wallets in circulation. And at the beginning of this month, the transaction price of bitcoin breaks $450, reaching nearly $500, hitting the highest price first time since last November.
Borderless digital currency keeps pace with the cross-border trend
Cross-border commerce was another ‘hot button’ topic at Money 20/20 this year. To keep up with this global trend and adapt to the global connectivity, innovation also needs to be boundary-less as well.
Global digital currency, like bitcoin, is an appropriate and effective payment method for cross-border transactions, enabling users to trade in multiple currencies, free from the shackles of Government’s currency regulation. And with this IP-based money, users can load the amount into their digital currency wallets and make transfers anywhere, anytime.
Meanwhile, to help re-engineer the current cross-border shopping model, large payment institutions already plan to incorporate digital currencies into their new projects, in order to improve their global customers’ shopping experiences.