The pros and cons of accepting Bitcoin

The world is constantly changing. Go back far enough and people were bartering with each other to trade goods. Then money became a thing and people exchanged that for the same goods and services as before. And the future could well be heading in a similar direction, as we move away from traditional money and move toward cryptocurrencies. But why would people move to something like Bitcoin (BTC) instead of continuing to trade in traditional currencies?

Well, let’s take a little look at the Pros and Cons for accepting BTC.

5 Pros for accepting Bitcoin

• Accessibility

Since 45.4% of the world’s population are predicted to have a smartphone, that means in theory, BTC is available to a whole chunk of the world’s population who may not have access to traditional banking systems.

• Mobile Payments

Coming off the back of accessibility, people can make payments from their computer or mobile devices, much like they already do with contactless payments. They can also transfer funds between crypto wallets too, meaning they can get access to funds there and then, and don’t have to go away and come back because they need to visit a bank.

• Elimination of fees

Talking of banks, when you use a traditional one, as a business you’ll have to pay rates for account maintenance, and you may even be required to have a minimum balance or at the least a regular income. Whereas you don’t have as many of the fees or restrictions when it comes to having a crypto wallet where you would store your BTC.

You may have to pay deposit and withdrawal fees like with stocks and shares, but these are much cheaper. And on top of the banking fees, because the currency is international, you don’t have exchange rate fees either. For example, if you use PayPal and have an account with GBP in it, but need to pay someone in dollars, you’ll be charged an exchange rate fee. As Bitcoin is available and can be accepted everywhere universally, you never have to worry about that again.

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• Security

The way many cryptocurrencies work is via Blockchain. Blockchain technology is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. So you’re not going to be mugged like you would on the street, and it would be near impossible for someone to hack your account.

• Profitability

Because the value of BTC and other cryptos can change so quickly, it does mean that by accepting them, you could make more money. Just look at how BTC has gone from averaging between $7,000-9,000 for 1BTC to now over $61,000 in just over a year. One industry taking advantage of this is the betting industry, both accepting and paying out in cryptocurrencies. It offers both the company and its customers the chance to make more money than with traditional currencies. Because if you want to cash out your BTC the best betting sites are a great option to make your profits grow, as what you withdraw could be worth double or triple what it was in a matter of days, weeks or months.

4 Cons of accepting Bitcoin

As with everything there are good and bad points with every decision, and many of the Pros of accepting Bitcoin have downsides too. So let’s have a look at them.

• Security

Ok, so we said security was a good thing. And it is, people being unable to take what’s yours is fantastic. However, the security is that good, that if you forget your own login details and lose them, there is no way to recover your wallet. So you could lose everything. And if someone did find a way to get past the security, the world of cryptocurrencies would likely come crumbling down.

• Volatility

If the security of Bitcoin and other cryptos was breached, as stated the world would come crumbling down and values would plummet. But that’s not the only thing that causes their value to fluctuate. We’re currently at an all-time high in terms of BTC value, reaching $61,000. But there have been crashes in the past, and they could just as easily happen again. Meaning they are less stable than your traditional currencies you accept.

• Lack of recognition and regulation

Whilst traditional currencies are regulated, cryptocurrencies are not. This means they lack the protections that the Government will give national currencies. Due to the lack of recognition, it gets from places like the World Bank, this means there is an increased risk of investing and a worst-case scenario of the cryptocurrency imploding and everyone losing everything.

• Scalability

Whilst we said that Cryptocurrencies like BTC are extremely accessible, with more and more people using cryptocurrencies each day, the number of transactions made compared to traditional banking systems operated by VISA and Mastercard is miniscule. And part of that reason is the infrastructure is not in place to be on the same scale as those big names. Now that will likely change in the future, but it is something to consider for now.