Mass adoption will play a crucial role in cryptocurrencies. This can prove that a cryptocurrency does have a practical use other than just for quick profits. Litecoin, for instance, went after small businesses with their #paywithLitecoin campaign. Litecoin offers fast transactions and minimal fees, something that Bitcoin has been having issues with. In addition to this, Ripple claims that it can decrease the cost of cross-border transactions. It has partnered with banks and even Western Union.
In fact, even countries are now going after cryptocurrencies to save their economies. These countries include Iran and Venezuela.
If you will be asking Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, he believes that people are giving too much attention to Bitcoin ETFs. Instead, he believes that the crypto market should be focused on mass adoption instead.
Square Patent For a Payment Network Approved
Digital payments company, Square has won a patent for a payment network that can potentially help popularize the use of cryptocurrencies. What this will allow is for businesses to accept payments using different currencies including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
On August 21, The US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) approved Square’s application for this particular technology. Once rolled out, it can allow merchants to accept cryptocurrencies and even cash out in the currency of their choice.
According to the patent: “The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for a payment service capable of accepting a greater diversity of currencies…including virtual currencies including cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ether, etc.)…than a traditional payment system in a transaction between a customer and a merchant, and specifically for a payment service to solve or ameliorate problems germane to transactions with such currencies. Specifically, the payment service described herein can facilitate real-time (or substantially real-time) transactions, allowing a customer to pay in any currency of their choice, while the merchant can receive payment in a currency of their choice”.
This isn’t exactly the first of its kind. The first payment processor that allows merchants to accept crypto payments and automatically convert the crypto back to local currency is BitPay. It has been around since 2011 and Square is looking to go face to face. However, it is undeniable that Square has a great market penetration. This could allow millions of merchants to accept Bitcoin in their payments without going to other payment processor or manually going to a crypto exchange to change the digital currency back to fiat.
Eliminate the Lag Time
One of the things that has slowed down adoption of cryptocurrency is latency. With Square, the patent allows the POS system to get rid of lag time on crypto transactions. In fact, even Bitcoin transactions can be processed just as fast as a credit card transaction.
How will this be possible? The payment service will have a private blockchain that records the transactions from Square-managed wallets. This allows the POS system to identify any changes in the balances before the transactions are then written to the blockchain.
But of course, there are still risks that you have to be aware of. This doesn’t mean that it eliminates double spend attacks. However, this transfers the risk. This can protect merchants and leave the payment service vulnerable.
