Next Evolutionary Step – Plastic Bitcoin

, To continue its path in the mainstream, Bitcoin have to interact with already existing networks of payment cards. This is the opinion of Ed Boyle, CEO of Blade (a payment processing platform). A vast majority of people have never used Bitcoin and do not plan to try it in the nearest time. However, according to the research carried out by the bank Goldman Sachs, the number of open and active Bitcoin-wallets increased in the past year, and as a result, the amount of transactions from these wallets also increased. If to look at the curve of acceptance of Bitcoin by population and the curve of acceptance of Internet in the same stage, so the Bitcoin graph looks better, however, the curve of acceptance of mobile phones over-passed both Internet and the cryptocurrency. Drawing such comparisons is possible only in indirect way as various events preceded these phenomena. For example, for a long time Internet kept in the shadows of public attention; prior to net seizure there was serious preparatory work. As for mobile phones, this novelty was accepted by mankind very quickly because the preparation was more massive in the form of ready-made infrastructure of landline facilities. In other words, mobile phones inherited client-base of its predecessor – a wire telephone. Principal directions the cryptocurrency industry focused on are security, mining and trading on the exchange. In general, this is normal and acceptable for financial and economic formations and it looks rather reasonable. Even with the development prospect for Bitcoin, we have to accept that nobody has succeeded to create an infrastructure capable of replacing in full the existing money and also the fact that no one of 100 largest enterprises accepts Bitcoin as a payment for goods and services. Looking at the latest CoinDesk report we can see the following numbers: 100,000 commercial companies accept Bitcoin as a payment instrument, that is only 0.3% from all companies accepting transactions via plastic credit cards. With all respect to this financial invention, we have to note that businesses are getting more interested in Bitcoin, not as quickly as we would like despite the attractiveness of cheap implementation and a wide array of various payment instruments, such as Bitpay or Coinbase. Thus, if currency cannot be used for payments, why do we need it? This is rather reasonable question to the address of Bitcoin. People aren’t interested in Bitcoin just because they do not see the ways to use it. The competition in the market of e-payments is very strong. Such giants like American Express, Discover Card and PayPal experience a great deal of non-acceptance, and the level of Bitcoin acceptance is 200 times lower! What measures should we undertake to overcome obstacles of nonacceptance? Obviously, to enter the public market Bitcoin has to earn confidence of larger trading corporations. As of now Bitcoin is a niche developing financial instrument, and till it will be widely used as a payment instrument for consumer goods it will stay in the embryonal stage. The idea of integrating Bitcoin into existing system of credit cards sounds real, moreover, it can be considered as a next evolutionary step for Bitcoin. For the present this application is in the stage of idea, however, there is every reason to believe that this idea will be supported by many investors. In case the hybrid of plastic cards and Bitcoin is successful, so Bitcoin will get access to 28,000,000 trading organizations worldwide. If to make analogy with mobile communication and wire telephone, then Bitcoin will become a potential successor of a preceding system inheriting the entire database of used to plastic cards users. Taking into account decentralized nature of Bitcoin, there are difficulties with integration of these systems. Rules and regulations in legislation of different countries are unstable and change continuously – that contradicts to the blockchain ecosystem; moreover, cards are issued by request, therefore, in this case Bitcoin may become centrally-controlled currency, depending on manufacturing enterprises. Hence, there seemed no escaping the conclusion that Bitcoin shall have its own plastic card; but it is quite a task. Genius investors and business-like people noticed a rational kernel, so there were attempts to create Bitcoin plastic card; unfortunately, they weren’t successful due to legal issues and incompetence of manufacturers who made a lot of mistakes while launching cards in the market. If there are attempts, so there will be results. Do you remember how Edison invented a lamp? He conducted 5,000 experiments, but only 5001th experiment produced a result he was expecting. That is why first unsuccessful approaches to setup plastic card payment system based on blockchain shall be considered as baby steps. We can only guess how Bitcoin will approach mass consumer, but it is clear that bank cards will help Bitcoin to accelerate this process.