Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum thinks that adoption is what the crypto industry needs rather than a crypto-related ETF. Though he agrees that it can shoot the price of cryptocurrencies, adoption is healthier for the industry in the long run.
As for Brian Armstrong, the CEO of San Francisco-based company Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, thinks that it is going to be a long time coming before mass adoption occurs.
Coinbase is responsible for helping the growth of the crypto industry. Coinbase was able to trade over $150 billion last year. And though Coinbase didn’t give their numbers for this year, the crypto exchange was signing up 50,000 new customers on a daily basis. Right now, the company has around 1,000 employees and is continuously growing.
Still A Long Way to Go Before Adoption?
According to Brian Armstrong, “This technology is going through a series of bubbles and corrections, and each time it does that, it’s at a new plateau”. Though he mentioned that adoption is going up, he estimated that about 10% of digital coins are used in real life.
According to Armstrong, “I think it will be quite some time before you cross the street to Starbucks in the U.S. and pay with crypto”.
Recently, Starbucks formed a partnership with Microsoft and the Intercontinental Exchange in building a new digital platform called Bakkt. Though this new digital platform can potentially improve adoption, it hasn’t done so much to improve the crypto market. Starbucks later clarified that “Customers will not be able to pay for Frappuccinos with bitcoin”.
Attempts for Adoption
There are attempts by different cryptocurrencies to get adopted. For instance, you have Ripple’s attempt to speed up cross-border transactions. Ripple even partnered with different banks. However, Western Union mentioned that Ripple’s products don’t actually do anything to help lessen the cost of cross-border transactions.
Also, you have the likes of Dash that is being used in countries such as Venezuela. Considering the hyperinflation that is experienced by the country’s economy, businesses relied on cryptos rather than their own currency.
Below $6,000 Once Again
Bitcoin’s price bottomed below $6,000 once again. Many were alarmed as it is getting near its lowest in June at around $5,700. Compared to its all-time high last December, Bitcoin is down by around 70%. The bearish trend was triggered by a number of things in 2018. One of which is the regulatory changes that different countries imposed on the blockchain industry and cryptocurrency market.
One of the reasons for this steady decline over the last weeks is due to the Bitcoin ETF application by the Winklevoss twins getting rejected, not to mention the US Securities and Exchange Commission deciding to postpone their decision regarding the applications.
Is Armstrong correct in saying that adoption is still a long way to go? Considering the cost of transactions, the time needed to process transactions, not to mention the security issues in using cryptocurrencies, these are all things that slow things down. Also, let’s not forget that the volatility of its price also prevents businesses and individuals from using cryptocurrencies in their daily transactions.
