ㅤ

[hatshepsut93]

But at the same time, it's understandable the numbers are low, who would use bitcoin to buy stuff in a bull run? It's damn normal, even I would do the same.
The poeple who don't care about BTC have long sold their 30$, the rest are keeping them or if they buy on top of that hold that also, so I assume that just as in other countries the percentage factual daily-weekly user would be around 1% of the ones holding coins.

So, when Bitcoin is in bull market, no one wants to pay with it because it will go higher, but when it's in bear market people either panic sell it for fiat or double down on hodling because now it's too low to spend it. This is why volatility is so harmful to Bitcoin's adoption as a currency.

[timerland]

This is fantastic news.

But Moneygram and WU were downhill and unsustainable businesses from the get-go. Crypto was probably just a catalyst in doing this.

Honestly, I'm not even sure why WU stock is still around and why it has a $8.5bn market cap. It's quite clear that their business model is archaic even by normal banking standards in the 21st century and most of their customers are fraudsters.

[Silberman]

El-Salvador is just a tiny bit of the whole world and the result there can not be use as a reference point here, it is a great news that El Salvador have embrace the use of btc as a legal means of payment but there are millions of people in different part of the world who are using the traditional payment system, majority are unaware of crypto, I think there is still a long way before we can say this.

I think it is the opposite, El Salvador will be used as a point of reference to see how other countries decide to interact with bitcoin from now on, if the results of the experiment we are seeing at El Salvador are successful then I would not be surprised if we see some countries accelerating the process of making bitcoin legal tender or at least give to it a regulatory framework which is friendly to the industry as they will not like the idea of El Salvador monopolizing that source of income.

[nur rochid]

El-Salvador is just a tiny bit of the whole world and the result there can not be use as a reference point here, it is a great news that El Salvador have embrace the use of btc as a legal means of payment but there are millions of people in different part of the world who are using the traditional payment system, majority are unaware of crypto, I think there is still a long way before we can say this.

I think it is the opposite, El Salvador will be used as a point of reference to see how other countries decide to interact with bitcoin from now on, if the results of the experiment we are seeing at El Salvador are successful then I would not be surprised if we see some countries accelerating the process of making bitcoin legal tender or at least give to it a regulatory framework which is friendly to the industry as they will not like the idea of El Salvador monopolizing that source of income.

indeed later elsalvador will become a reference for other countries to legalize bitcoin, this depends on the success of elsalvador to answer doubts from other countries to legalize bitcoin. especially for countries that are experiencing a crisis, so this can be a solution. but what we hope is that developed countries will start to legalize it, so that it will have a broad impact

[Abiky]

El Salvador became the first country where bitcoin was accepted as a means of payment. How has this affected centralized payment systems and what will be the trend in the future as more countries follow the path of El Salvador?

I recently came across an article https://www.kevinrooke.blog/el-salvador-and-bitcoin-two-weeks-in/. It talked about how bitcoin adoption proceeds in El Salvador, and there I discovered interesting facts.

Thanks to El Salvador, the Lightning Network received a powerful impetus in development. This happened thanks to the popularization of the Chivo wallet and the incentives that the government of El Salvador guaranteed when it was installed. In total, the Lightning Network gained about 2 million new users:

...

Many users began to actively use bitcoin payments and money transfer using the Chivo wallet and support for the Lightning Network. Consequently, the Salvadorans increasingly began to use bitcoin services instead of the usual banking or payment processors:

Most of El Salvador's banks and payment processors have user ratings of 2-4 stars, while Bitcoin related apps have user ratings of 3-5 stars.
Specifically, El Salvador's largest bank, Banco Agricola has among the worst user reviews on the top 20 charts. El Salvador's leading mobile money transfer platform, Tigo Money, has reviews that are just as bad.

The use of the Lightning Network has exploded, creating a powerful network effect with the infusion of several million new users into the ecosystem. People see the benefits and potential of fast, low-cost transfers and are choosing to use the Lightning Network over the usual centralized transfer methods. This is evidenced by the official data of the stock market.

...

As we can see, since July (when El Salvador's plans to accept bitcoin were announced), Western Union and MoneyGram began to fall, and continue their downward trend. While bitcoin is growing and gaining strength.

The era of traditional money transfers is coming to an end and this business, if it does not disappear completely, will significantly reduce its influence in the world. Other countries will follow in the wake of El Salvador, and millions of new users will join the ecosystem. What do you think about this?

I don't think this will be the end of traditional payment processors. Fiat is still "King" when it comes to making payments on a daily basis. Crypto is volatile, and at times, expensive to use, making it unsuitable as a currency you can use for day-to-day payments. Some may say that Bitcoin's Lightning Network could rival traditional payment processors, but you'd still have to deal with volatility issues. The day when crypto becomes stable, blazing-fast, and cheap to use, will be the day when traditional payment processors will come to an end.

At least, El Salvador's move has benefitted Bitcoin's mainstream adoption. It'll be up to other countries to do the same in order to challenge the very existence of payment processors like PayPal, Western Union, and MoneyGram. Just my thoughts

[Silberman]

I don't think this will be the end of traditional payment processors. Fiat is still "King" when it comes to making payments on a daily basis. Crypto is volatile, and at times, expensive to use, making it unsuitable as a currency you can use for day-to-day payments. Some may say that Bitcoin's Lightning Network could rival traditional payment processors, but you'd still have to deal with volatility issues. The day when crypto becomes stable, blazing-fast, and cheap to use, will be the day when traditional payment processors will come to an end.

At least, El Salvador's move has benefitted Bitcoin's mainstream adoption. It'll be up to other countries to do the same in order to challenge the very existence of payment processors like PayPal, Western Union, and MoneyGram. Just my thoughts

The good thing about bitcoin is that it is not only a payment processor but also a form of money, this means there is another way for bitcoin to deliver a knockout blow to payment processors and this is by becoming a widely adopted currency despite its high volatility, I have always thought that since people are so used to use their fiat and they do not see the need for something like bitcoin we will need a huge crisis to show them why bitcoin should be the king, and with how things are going I would not be surprised that such crisis could happen during our lifetimes.

[Vaculin]

These traditional businesses have to compete with bitcoin in terms of fees, and that can be done by reducing the fees. However, since El Salvador promotes bitcoin, I doubt MoneyGram and Western Union will be able to survive in this business competition, and you are right, it could be the beginning of their fall as some countries are also considering to legalize bitcoin and follow the path of what El Salvador has taken.

[qwertyup23]

The era of traditional money transfers is coming to an end and this business, if it does not disappear completely, will significantly reduce its influence in the world. Other countries will follow in the wake of El Salvador, and millions of new users will join the ecosystem. What do you think about this?

I think the shift to a cryptocurrency-based payment is still far from a global-scale implementation.

Given the fact that majority of the countries are either third-world or underdeveloped, such implementation would heavily prejudice these countries due to forcing them into a position where payment method would require some sort of technology. Though I can see that the future transactions would heavily depend on the technology behind BTC (blockchain), fiat would still dominate.

[tbterryboy]

It is hard to see anyone that knows about Bitcoin and what they can do with it, still making use of MoneyGram and Western Union when they are doing transactions. I myself, since I discovered bitcoin, I can’t remember the last time I have had to go to the bank to carry out an international transaction, because people who I am doing the transactions to abroad are all making use of bitcoin and I can easily stay at home and send whatever amount of money they need to them instantly.

So, why would I have to make use of the bank, when I have enough bitcoin and altcoins in my wallet and I can do that same right from the comfort of my home? So, they lost a customer already.

[Silberman]

The era of traditional money transfers is coming to an end and this business, if it does not disappear completely, will significantly reduce its influence in the world. Other countries will follow in the wake of El Salvador, and millions of new users will join the ecosystem. What do you think about this?

I think the shift to a cryptocurrency-based payment is still far from a global-scale implementation.

Given the fact that majority of the countries are either third-world or underdeveloped, such implementation would heavily prejudice these countries due to forcing them into a position where payment method would require some sort of technology. Though I can see that the future transactions would heavily depend on the technology behind BTC (blockchain), fiat would still dominate.

You are right in the sense that traditional remittance services took care of that aspect and the only thing people needed to do was to go to their installations and pick up their money, however taking into account how cheap smart phones are right now and that a great deal of the population around the world has one then it is not as if this is going to be a huge issue as now if someone does not have a smartphone with a social media application they are leaving a lot of money over the table if they have their own small business.

[Fortify]

El Salvador became the first country where bitcoin was accepted as a means of payment. How has this affected centralized payment systems and what will be the trend in the future as more countries follow the path of El Salvador?

I recently came across an article https://www.kevinrooke.blog/el-salvador-and-bitcoin-two-weeks-in/. It talked about how bitcoin adoption proceeds in El Salvador, and there I discovered interesting facts.

Thanks to El Salvador, the Lightning Network received a powerful impetus in development. This happened thanks to the popularization of the Chivo wallet and the incentives that the government of El Salvador guaranteed when it was installed. In total, the Lightning Network gained about 2 million new users:

Many users began to actively use bitcoin payments and money transfer using the Chivo wallet and support for the Lightning Network. Consequently, the Salvadorans increasingly began to use bitcoin services instead of the usual banking or payment processors:

Most of El Salvador's banks and payment processors have user ratings of 2-4 stars, while Bitcoin related apps have user ratings of 3-5 stars.
Specifically, El Salvador's largest bank, Banco Agricola has among the worst user reviews on the top 20 charts. El Salvador's leading mobile money transfer platform, Tigo Money, has reviews that are just as bad.

The use of the Lightning Network has exploded, creating a powerful network effect with the infusion of several million new users into the ecosystem. People see the benefits and potential of fast, low-cost transfers and are choosing to use the Lightning Network over the usual centralized transfer methods. This is evidenced by the official data of the stock market.

As we can see, since July (when El Salvador's plans to accept bitcoin were announced), Western Union and MoneyGram began to fall, and continue their downward trend. While bitcoin is growing and gaining strength.

The era of traditional money transfers is coming to an end and this business, if it does not disappear completely, will significantly reduce its influence in the world. Other countries will follow in the wake of El Salvador, and millions of new users will join the ecosystem. What do you think about this?

I think this may be a case of beware of what you wish for - we're slowly seeing companies like Paypal and Visa wake up to the realities of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. However they do see the threat you're talking about and are more than happy to try to capture the market. They also have huge marketing resources and historical advantages that allow them to shepherd money into cryptocurrency that they would be able to control to a degree. Paypal are getting lots of Bitcoin buyers hooked, however they are all contained within a small ecosystem controlled by one company - you must buy from them and sell back to them at a cost, while being unable to transfer out directly.

[Gyfts]

Now this is the real question. I am sick and tired of people talking about how bitcoin or crypto could replace fiat and that's not what it is all about,  crypto should not be replacing anything in the fiat world, it wasn't even created for that neither. However payment processors have been living a great life for a long time, without much competition and we should have been using crypto for that purpose to begin with.

Unfortunately the amount we are spending on each transaction is too much for most coins at the top, bitcoin and eth costs so much to spend and you can't have payment processors charging that much. However if we could lower that, and make it under 50 cents, then I am pretty sure it could replace most of the payment processors in the world.

I'd be okay with crypto swapping out fiats, that's the end goal for most bitcoiners but I'd settle for Bitcoin acting as a hedge against irresponsible fiscal policy. In the end, Bitcoin most likely will act as a competitor currency which will force government to keep their spending in line. Granted, it'd be easier for government to flat out ban crypto as a currency or alternate payment processing system outright, but their enforcement wouldn't be successful.

On the note of fees - keep in mind, the fees associating with modern day payment processors are not exactly cheap. They're complicated, centralized, and rack up a cost themselves.

[Abiky]

It is hard to see anyone that knows about Bitcoin and what they can do with it, still making use of MoneyGram and Western Union when they are doing transactions. I myself, since I discovered bitcoin, I can’t remember the last time I have had to go to the bank to carry out an international transaction, because people who I am doing the transactions to abroad are all making use of bitcoin and I can easily stay at home and send whatever amount of money they need to them instantly.

So, why would I have to make use of the bank, when I have enough bitcoin and altcoins in my wallet and I can do that same right from the comfort of my home? So, they lost a customer already.

Crypto may have certain benefits for international payments, but the limited transaction capacity and unstable prices is what "kills" it. It's this reason why traditional payment processors are still relevant even with crypto/Blockchain tech in play. I don't see crypto replacing traditional payment processors anytime soon, especially when Fiat is a dominant player in the world's economic system. Crypto will only serve as an alternative monetary system for those who need it the most.

One thing for sure is that El Salvador's decision to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender will greatly boost crypto's mainstream adoption. But it will not signal the end of traditional payment processors. I'm fine with that as long as crypto remains decentralized and censorship-resistant. Just my opinion

[Blue0x.com]

Bitcoin takes way too long and is too expensive as a payment processor.  Other crypto's are suitable (i.e. Ripple, Stellar) but they are setup to profit in fiat from the use of their projects.  They are not structured as competition to fiat.  They are simply a cheaper way to settle large remittances in a shorter time to take advantage of fiat markets.  The technology is there but the motivation behind them is lacking a full vision.

[romero121]

It is hard to see anyone that knows about Bitcoin and what they can do with it, still making use of MoneyGram and Western Union when they are doing transactions. I myself, since I discovered bitcoin, I can’t remember the last time I have had to go to the bank to carry out an international transaction, because people who I am doing the transactions to abroad are all making use of bitcoin and I can easily stay at home and send whatever amount of money they need to them instantly.

So, why would I have to make use of the bank, when I have enough bitcoin and altcoins in my wallet and I can do that same right from the comfort of my home? So, they lost a customer already.

Crypto may have certain benefits for international payments, but the limited transaction capacity and unstable prices is what "kills" it. It's this reason why traditional payment processors are still relevant even with crypto/Blockchain tech in play. I don't see crypto replacing traditional payment processors anytime soon, especially when Fiat is a dominant player in the world's economic system. Crypto will only serve as an alternative monetary system for those who need it the most.

One thing for sure is that El Salvador's decision to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender will greatly boost crypto's mainstream adoption. But it will not signal the end of traditional payment processors. I'm fine with that as long as crypto remains decentralized and censorship-resistant. Just my opinion

With international payments bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies truly have a big place. It is highly advantageous over the traditional payment in terms of process as well as with the limits of transaction. It is quite hard to have an unified decision from the governments around. If that happens then we can see the rise in the universal adoption which at present is very minima, but tooking good phase after few countries participation.

El Salvador is under surveillance of every country. Once again it has made use of the dip buying 420 bitcoins. Now the country owns 1100 bitcoin. The success of El Salvador will make a big change in market adoption as it is the one to take a perfect decision at the right time even when there is group opposing the adoption.

[Victorycoin]

The president of the central american country of el salvador has recently proposed the introduction of bitcoin as the second legal tender and if implemented, el salvador would make history as the world's first independent state to introduce the digital currency bitcoin. No country will be affected by the competition even if its business decreases it will rise again. Bitcoin transactions will be temporarily suspended if the value of bitcoin declines to minimize the effects of extreme volatility or price fluctuations the country became the first in the world to officially accept bitcoin as a legal tender.

[Argoo]

The era of traditional money transfers is coming to an end and this business, if it does not disappear completely, will significantly reduce its influence in the world. Other countries will follow in the wake of El Salvador, and millions of new users will join the ecosystem. What do you think about this?

I think the shift to a cryptocurrency-based payment is still far from a global-scale implementation.

Given the fact that majority of the countries are either third-world or underdeveloped, such implementation would heavily prejudice these countries due to forcing them into a position where payment method would require some sort of technology. Though I can see that the future transactions would heavily depend on the technology behind BTC (blockchain), fiat would still dominate.

It is too early to draw any conclusions about the success of El Salvador in introducing bitcoin as a national means of payment. This requires at least several years, and so far it is only the second month. As long as the price of bitcoin rises, everything will be fine. However, we also need to see how the people and the economy of the country will react when it falls in price.
It is all the more premature to conclude that a successful experiment by El Salvador will have a devastating effect on the existing payment system. Cryptocurrency has a number of advantages, but it also has serious disadvantages.

[Gozie51]

These traditional businesses have to compete with bitcoin in terms of fees, and that can be done by reducing the fees. However, since El Salvador promotes bitcoin, I doubt MoneyGram and Western Union will be able to survive in this business competition, and you are right, it could be the beginning of their fall as some countries are also considering to legalize bitcoin and follow the path of what El Salvador has taken.

I think the traditional system can survive maybe if they start adopting the digital means of operations because customers can only patronise platforms that have diversify there operations. PayPal for example has started operation in bitcoin and other altcoins, money gram, banks Western Union need to do this too. Countries have started adoption of digital mode of transaction like Nigeria flagged off digital currency this week.

[Ozero]

But at the same time, it's understandable the numbers are low, who would use bitcoin to buy stuff in a bull run? It's damn normal, even I would do the same.
The poeple who don't care about BTC have long sold their 30$, the rest are keeping them or if they buy on top of that hold that also, so I assume that just as in other countries the percentage factual daily-weekly user would be around 1% of the ones holding coins.

So, when Bitcoin is in bull market, no one wants to pay with it because it will go higher, but when it's in bear market people either panic sell it for fiat or double down on hodling because now it's too low to spend it. This is why volatility is so harmful to Bitcoin's adoption as a currency.

So far, we see that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are very rarely used as a means of payment. We can say that bitcoin, even after ten years, still does not fulfill its main function. Therefore, it is very interesting how effectively Bitcoin will act as a means of payment in El Salvador.
In addition, one state that previously did not have its own national currency and less than two months ago accepted bitcoin as a means of payment on its territory hardly already means the collapse of the payment system that has existed for centuries. To draw such a conclusion, it takes much more time and in any case, more than one state that will follow the example of El Salvador.

[sana54210]

one state that previously did not have its own national currency and less than two months ago accepted bitcoin as a means of payment on its territory hardly already means the collapse of the payment system that has existed for centuries.

Surely we must need some time before concluding anything about what is going to bitcoin do in terms of payments and how existing payment system will do against bitcoins. With the help of few mobile apps based wallets and BTC lightning based payment system, I guess they could enjoy bitcoin payment system and when they save in bitcoins for at least 4 years then they may get power to fight against inflation.

In my opinion, both bitcoin and traditional payment system are going to coexist in El Salvadar which might take time to have only one as both merchants and people must need time to experience and to decide like which is better and which they really need.