The competition between various marketplaces and retail networks has reached its peak. Each company is looking for a way to become more comfortable for its end users expectating this will increase their sales level and help to distinguish themselves from competitors. Therefore, as the most convenient and efficient way of paying on the Internet cryptocurrencies could help both in promoting young companies and helping giants establish themselves at the height of their influence. This top is created to list the most popular cryptocurrencies among the global marketplaces.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the first and the largest cryptocurrency appeared in 2009. Its valuation reaches now an incredible sum of $275.1 billion. Being a parent to all the other options existing today, bitcoin started to win markets long before them. That’s why it’s no wonder this cryptocurrency was a pioneer in marketplaces’ adoption and now is the most widespread in the world.
The first retailer who supported bitcoin payments was Overstock.com. Jonathan Johnson, the company’s executive, confessed he doesn’t understand those competitors who don’t accept bitcoin. Moreover, Overstock was so excited with cryptocurrency concept that in August they announced that will start to accept payments in about 40 other coins. Among the most known of them are Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and more.
eBay Inc and PayPal Holdings users can pay in bitcoins for a long time already. The integration with their daughter company Braintree allows these platforms to accept bitcoin payments.
Microsoft also takes part in cryptocurrency adoption. Since 2014 they introduced bitcoin payments in Windows and Xbox stores, and now are working on their Excel 2017 modification which will allow analyzing bitcoin.
Shopify Inc is a platform for e-commerce stores quick build. By introducing bitcoin payments through BitPay they allowed all the merchants having e-stores on this platform akin to Etsy utilize the digital assets power.
Ethereum
Ether isn’t so popular as bitcoin, however, it also owns a big audience (market capitalization: $71.1 billion) and is claimed to be the second largest coin. Being focused on the smart contracts, it’s accepted in a less number of online marketplaces. Nevertheless, ether is the second popular digital coin to be accepted for goods. In addition to the Overstock.com mentioned before, AlphaBay Dark Web marketplace started to accept ether payments in May 2017.
Bitcoin Cash
Last year bitcoin split into two separate cryptocurrencies. Such a “hard fork” resulted in the Bitcoin Cash appearance (market valuation: $33 billion). The main difference between them is in the transaction processing efficiency. Bitcoin suffers from low speeds and dramatic rally, which makes it difficult for customers to buy goods with bitcoins. Bitcoin Cash has an enhanced underlying system eliminating these problems and makes transactions cheaper. The owners of bitcoins accepted free Bitcoin Cash coins. So, it seems quite natural if those companies accepting bitcoins will soon add Bitcoin Cash to the list.
For example, the recent Steam announcement about ceasing bitcoin payments at the platform claimed its blockchain was too slow to process transactions while the stock price skyrocketed. The prices grew faster than the blockchain processed the transactions, thus shortening the fees. In response to this claim, Roger Ver of Bitcoin Cash advocated for using Bitcoin Cash to eliminate the problem while allowing customers pay with digital money.
Litecoin
Litecoin is the closest to Bitcoin in terms of the use case. Having market valuation of $16.5 billion, it launched four times more coins into circulation. Quick transactions make this cryptocurrency desirable for merchants. That’s why they use numerous platforms like Coinify, BitPay, and Bitrefill to integrate it with their marketplaces.
Ripple
Mainly, Ripple is a blockchain solution for big financial institutions. XRP (Ripple digital currency) allows them to transfer cross-border payments without huge fees and get instant liquidity. In addition, this cryptocurrency is also one of the favorites among the marketplaces.
Conclusion
As it’s known, no guts, no glory. New payment options open brand new opportunities to business, attract more clients, and are the way to get and hold cryptocurrency. To start making digital money, research on the platforms supporting the coins you want to collect and the ways they could be integrated into your marketplace. Be sure: all the manipulations are definitely worth your while.
