Why aren't cryptocurrencies successful as a medium of payment

[jatoman]

The global economy is nearly 80 trillion USD per year.  Payments using any type of cryptocurrency as a medium of payment is a tiny fraction of this total.

What are some of the reasons preventing cryptocurrency from being more successful as a medium of payment?

Mostly it comes down to some of the same reasons as to why bitcoin is so popular compared to a majority of the coins that exist today. The other method came first, more people use it, and thus there is a general consensus to use the currently existing system rather than something else. Plus cryptos aren't exactly the most intuitive payment system compared to what everyone else can do, but that's just part of the territory.

So, perhaps one of the most important obstacles to overcome is delivering a user experience that allows consumers to easily understand how to use it.  Perhaps a close second is a user experience that allows retailers and other sellers use it, and integrate payments with their financial systems.  It has to be an experience that is similar to paying with a credit/debit card.

That requires a series of applications designed for both consumers and retailers.

[omitusaf]

Would you say getting governments and their regulators such as tax authorities and custom agencies to support crypto payments is a requirement before there will be widespread use?

Well, not necessarily. But it can hasten the widespread use. One of the biggest reasons why cryptocurrencies have not seen wide adoption is because of the stiff policies of the governments. Some governments ban it, some impose heavy taxes on it and the likes.

[Umuoji]

Cryptocurrencies are not successful as a medium of payment because of the government of the countries, but there are some few countries that accept bitcoin as a means of payment

[honex2]

This is a good question..I read an article "why bitcoin down when its the future" there is still a lot uncertainty about crypto . the major problem is that its not regulated. Because of that someone can decide to sell his token any price he wants not minding the effect its going to have on the market

[iRakic]

People are afraid of things that are new and complex. BTC is a revolutionary technology and many people have little or no trust when it comes to it. I am talking only about BTC because that is only relatively known and accepted cryptocurrency. Others have a pretty long way to be accepted.

[kendra1107]

The global economy is nearly 80 trillion USD per year.  Payments using any type of cryptocurrency as a medium of payment is a tiny fraction of this total.

What are some of the reasons preventing cryptocurrency from being more successful as a medium of payment?

Well, only a small portion of the world's population knows about cryptocurrencies. So it is most likely that most individuals and establishments would not accept something they don't know about. Putting ourselves in their shoes, I believe we'll be thinking the same way! And even with those who are well informed are still skeptical about accepting crypto as payment due to some complications and risks involved in the system.

[Gekkoo]

In my everything is a matter of necessity and moment, so if the digital coins be adopted completely, it would soon become a means of payment. Yet we know of the speed in transactions and through it the world can become more globalized, but i still insist on the interests of humanity. To add the developers should read this topic.

[kinzey]

The global economy is nearly 80 trillion USD per year.  Payments using any type of cryptocurrency as a medium of payment is a tiny fraction of this total.

What are some of the reasons preventing cryptocurrency from being more successful as a medium of payment?

I think mainly because cryptocurrency is new, the awareness of how cryptos work to the public is still unknown to most people. People probably heard about bitcoin but how it works and how it could change our future is still unknown to them. I think the govt should or another agencies and we the crypto community should raise awareness on the possibilities of cryptocurrencies and educate more people on the uses.

[crenfrosck]

At the moment, crypto is not being taken that seriously as it should to become a global way of making payments. As you said, the market is very small and volatile. Who would like to make his earnings disappear in a matter of seconds? The projects are being developed at the moment, so we can not really predict the value of particular goods and services, which means that the market is driven by speculations. But is there a way?
I would say that there is, but give those innovators some time. I know that they will eventually come with a reasonable solution that would be able to change the whole sector .

[jatoman]

You might not see cryptocurrencies being used on day to day basis on the train or movies as a medium of payment but they are increasing in amount and transactions for international medium of payment. The international transactions are costly, and larger transactions are subject to paperworks which cryptocurrencies have successfully solved.

I agree that the best use case for cryptocurrency as medium of payment is cross-border payments.

While a SAP Concur, I designed Concur Pay, a global B2B payment platform allowing businesses located  in nearly 100 countries to reimburse their employees and pay their vendors.  Concur Pay can do only in-country payments where the payee is located in the same country as the payer.  We did this because cross-border payments are complex and expensive.

Now, what makes cryptocurrency revolutionary is what I call, Instant Value Transfer.  It can move any value of money from anywhere to anywhere in the world in moments for essentially no cost.  For those in global B2B payments that seems like magic!

[enhu]

It would take time for jnstitution to realize cryptocurrencies are better to use. The government are still opposing its use although there are countries already adopting it.  The more countries that will be accepting bitcoin, the more will be opening themselves for it also. It will take time.

[jatoman]

I think you are thinking pessimistic about the future of the cryptocurrency market. For the next 10 years, cryptos will become famous and become the global currency of the entire world. At that time, cryptocurrency will replace real money to become the most popular currency in the world.

Actually, my thinking quite optimistic.  Cryptocurrency will change the world because it will dramatically improve the efficiency and fairness of global commerce.

I have been involved with global payments for over 20 years having created several global payment platforms including being the designer of one of the largest, most successful global B2B platforms, Concur Pay.  I can see clearly how cryptocurrency will someday replace traditional payment technology.  

I started this thread because I'd like to learn how the cryptocurrency community (bitcointalk.org being the most respected community) perceives the obstacles preventing it from being more successful as a medium of payment.

[jmlona]

Cryptocurrency is a fairly new to our economy and it will need some time before it really takes over how we use it in our economy. It isnt stabilized yet and also governments would like to be in more control of it before it can flourish. Like I said, its going to take some time before it can become adopted as a major use in our economy worldwide.

[leynylaine]

The crypto market was introduced before 2010 but the hype or the trend came only the past few years that's why it's not yet used for medium of payment in the real world. Some of the countries or websites accept crypto but most of it are not yet accepting those because on how volatile the market is and it will be too risky.

[arthotdog]

The global economy is nearly 80 trillion USD per year.  Payments using any type of cryptocurrency as a medium of payment is a tiny fraction of this total.

What are some of the reasons preventing cryptocurrency from being more successful as a medium of payment?

Because people find it hard to trust this cryptocurrency since it was

1.virtual money
2.Decentralized
3.volatile

This three characteristics is the reason why this was being denied from various countries and being banned

Maybe we will take some times before the wrold finally find this as beneficial and not crucial

[YTBitcoin]

The global economy is nearly 80 trillion USD per year.  Payments using any type of cryptocurrency as a medium of payment is a tiny fraction of this total.

What are some of the reasons preventing cryptocurrency from being more successful as a medium of payment?

It is actually the start of the cryptocurrencies that is why you are seeing like this and even in the start you can see that how much faster the process of adoption is going. The cryptocurrency itself is being used as asset too by the traders which make the price of it fluctuating which also made the process a little slower but that is not a hurdle it will spread all over the world as payment sooner.

[jatoman]

The global economy is nearly 80 trillion USD per year.  Payments using any type of cryptocurrency as a medium of payment is a tiny fraction of this total.

What are some of the reasons preventing cryptocurrency from being more successful as a medium of payment?

It is actually the start of the cryptocurrencies that is why you are seeing like this and even in the start you can see that how much faster the process of adoption is going. The cryptocurrency itself is being used as asset too by the traders which make the price of it fluctuating which also made the process a little slower but that is not a hurdle it will spread all over the world as payment sooner.

So, an obstacle is cryptocurrencies are used as store of value, like a security, instead of a method of payment, which is an attribute of a currency.  The result is because it is a security there is a lot of price volatility.  Price volatility makes it difficult to act as a method of payment.

This is another "Catch 22 Problem" in that until there is widespread use of cryptocurrencies as medium of payment it will largely be a security, which means price volatility.  Price volatility is an obstacle to adoption as a method of payment.

[Pumuckel21]

at the moment they are simply not as fast as they need to be and of course they are not ready for the broad mass adoption. A lot of older people i think would not be able to use them properly

[DikkieD]

It took many years to move from cash (fiat) to cashless fiat (bank cards, internet banking and such). Current banking systems make a shitload of money off all transactions + interest of being able to hold all that money.

If banks would support crypto, it would be without us knowing it in the sense that to the consumer, it doesn't really matter what the underlying technology is, as long as we can 'press a button to buy'....

I think in the near future it will be very successful as payment option, but not in the way people would probably want it to be (I do not see a bank suddenly disappear within a few years, unless you believe things like a mortgage or a business loan will be something of the sharing economy too anytime soon).

[TeraBitHoven]

I think it is because of lack of information or knowledge and security. It is also because crypto currencies are not yet fully adopted, not the whole world agrees with these mode of payment. Decentralize nature and volatility also affects adoption of these crypto currencies.