Bitcoin Dropped as Payment Method by $9 Billion Company

About the Company and it's Decision

Payment provider company Stripe is a large entity in the market valued at just over $9 billion, and it is well renowned for it's service worldwide by customers. The company in 2015 made headlines as it adopted the Bitcoin cryptocurrency in order to facilitate p2p transactions and payments, and was among the first companies to use the currency applicably.

The company is a choosing to no longer use the currency for these purposes citing very high transaction costs, and a lack of speed on the Bitcoin blockchain. They say that they are still overall positive on Bitcoins outlook in terms of an asset, but they do not see the benefit of transaction that was once associated with the cryptocurrency. Cost effectiveness and instant transaction have receded with increased users on the network, leaving many to look for alternative methods.

So What Now for Crypto Payments?

Companies like Stripe and Steam are already utilizing cryptocurrency payments on their platforms indicating the true use cases for them, but bitcoin is proving to be the most impractical solution in the market with it's high fees. Stripe have mentioned currencies Dash, Litecoin and Stellar Lumens as a potential alternative cryptocurrency payment, but have not yet consolidated anything concrete regarding this.

It is absolute that we will see more companies accepting cryptocurrency payments in the future, and of course some or most of them will not be using Bitcoin as a means to do so. But there is still hope for the figurehead currency of crypto's to become more usable in real world situations. The Lightning Network currently being developed allows for transactions to happen near enough instantly and without any cost at all, and will potentially revitalize the "currency" aspect of Bitcoin.

Networks like Lightning will be implemented far more so than before in coming years, with many companies now introducing wireless payment schemes. Such a project is headed by Amazon Go, that aims to create a smart - store user interface that provides a seamlessly efficient shopping service. You can walk into a store and products you choose will be recorded on a ledger upon which you will be wirelessly charged by the company, and there are promising futures for cryptocurrencies able to operate in such an environment in the near future.