Crypto Academy Season 3 Beginners' course - Homework Post for Task 3: About Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as the payment method by @papi.mati

Bitcoin is the very first cryptocurrency (digital token) - it was created in 2009 by the person (or group of people) under the nickname Satoshi Nakamoto. It's decentralized for of payment based on the Blockchain technology.

Bitcoin is very safe and easy to use alternative to the traditional funds. It was created as the alternative to centralized, bank based system which was (and still is) very fragile, what causes financial crisis from time to time.

Year before the invention, in 2008, world was struggling with a big financial crisis which motivated Nakamoto to look for the solution and discover the payment method which wouldn't be dependent on any government or institution. At first Bitcoin was not much popular as most of people didn't understand how does it work, with the time it became more recognizable, it's value grew up and the dream about decentralized token came true.

Cryptocurrency, besides being decentralized, is also very safe (there is no way someone would steal your crypto unless they steal the password to your wallet), cheap in use (mostly transactions in the banks requires much higher fee payment) and visionary. I have described advantages and disadvantages of decentralized cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin in this post.

Bitcoin can be stored, saved, used for every day transactions and mined by everyone. Well, right now mining requires a lot of energy and in many cases cost might be higher than the potential earnings, but it wasn't like that since the beginning. The first bitcoins were mined very easily, the difficulty of mining increases with every other mined token.

With the time, thousands of other cryptocurrencies were created. Some of them already bankrupted, other grows constantly and become more and more popular. Bitcoin still remains the biggest and the most popular of all of them. Many shops and websites allows to pay in it (like Subway, Virgin Mobile or Microsoft, but also in smaller companies. I have even found a hostel in Valparaiso where Bitcoin was accepted as the payment method). Recently first country in the world, Salvador, recognized Bitcoin as the legal currency.

Why crypto is a good payment method for your business?

I will give you seven good reasons to accept the payment in cryptocurrency in your business right now:

1️⃣ More payment methods means more customers

It's very simple. It's always good to give the alternative to your customers: paying in cash, credit and debit cards, PayPal AND cryptocurrency is a great way to get some extra customers. In case your company sells the products to several countries, paying in crypto might be the most comfortable method for the customer. It doesn't require expensive and time consuming currency conversion, not to mention how problematic bank transfers between some countries can be.

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2️⃣ You can use cryptocurrency in every place around the world

I already wrote that it might be more comfortable to pay for the foreigners to pay for your service or product in cryptocurrency because it doesn't require money exchange. It might be also more comfortable to you to earn in crypto, in some countries more than in another. Currently I'm living in Argentina, country which limits the access to USD as the tool to fight with the inflation. Every Argentinian is allowed to buy only 200 USD per month and even that is charged with two separate taxes (30% and 35%). Of course, there is black market too, but not always USD is disponible and even when it is, it's very expensive. Now, imagine that some Argentinian family wants to go for the vacations to Tokyo or New York. As 200 USD is often the price for one night in the hotel, it's basically impossible for them to do that. If they would accept the payment in Bitcoin, SBD or any other cryptocurrency, they could use it later to pay for their vacations or exchange for any currency they would need.

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3️⃣ Cryptocurrency is cheaper in use

Like I mentioned before, the transactions made with cryptocurrency are much cheaper than most of the bank transactions. It also takes less time - with crypto you don't have to worry that it's Sunday or public holiday and wait until the next day to send cash to another person. Isn't it brilliant?

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4️⃣ Crypto is safer

There is no way that hacker will steal your money. Well, maybe if you are giving your personal password to the wallet to every person you have met, there is but who does that? Stealing crypto tokens requires enormous amount of the energy and is practically impossible. I consider it much safer than keeping the money in conventional bank.

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5️⃣ You look progressive

Look of your company is very important. It makes it trustful and attractive in the eyes of your customers. Cryptocurrency is the future and when you accept it as the payment method, you build the image of your company as the modern and progressive place.

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6️⃣ you have a chance that your savings will be bigger with the time

By accepting crypto as the payment method and giving the example to the other companies to do the same, you increase the value and popularity of that token. It authomaticaly increase the chance that mentioned token will be worth more with the time and your savings will grow. Look at Bitcoin - it was worth a dollar over 11 years ago. Now one Bitcoin is enough to buy a car or even two if you like Chevrolet Spark.

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7️⃣ It doesn't cost you anything

Usually when you want to accept the credit and debit card in your shop, you need to buy special terminal machine and sometimes pay to the bank for every transaction. It's not the thing with the cryptocurrency. All you need is the wallet which you can register for free. If it doesn't cost you anything, why not to try?

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Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati

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