Crypto Payments Closer to Going Mainstream as PayPal Opens Doors

Cryptocurrency adoption in the mainstream financial markets is gathering pace. Several enterprises online and offline have now embraced the disruptive force of the cryptocurrency market by accepting bitcoin, ethereum, ripple, and litecoin among others as a mode of payment. In the spirit of disruption, several startups have sought to launch their own cryptocurrencies.

Even traditional banks like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, as well as, technology giants led by Facebook have decided to launch their own cryptocurrencies. As such, several platforms that accept crypto payments now have dozens of cryptocurrencies listed on their platforms as acceptable modes of payments. This, according to financial security experts, creates potential security threats.

The need for crypto wallets

This has triggered an insatiable need for secure solutions to store and transfer cryptocurrency assets. Various technology giants led by PayPal, Apple, Samsung, and Google have managed to design fool-proof mobile wallets, which many consumers have embraced with a considerable sense of security. However, their expertise does not cover cryptocurrencies and this leaves a wide gap for disruptive crypto startups to capitalize.

This has resulted in a rapid rise in the number of crypto wallets being launched with each looking to offer the best features at reasonable pricing without compromising security protocols.

One of the most notable players in this compelling segment of the cryptocurrency market is Coin.Space, a modern cryptocurrency wallet founded by Jonathan Speigner in 2015. The creator of this innovative wallet is a deep technical expert in security, cryptocurrency, mobility, cloud computing, and related technologies. The wallet is designed with a special focus on beginner cryptocurrency investors and people with no bank account.

Coin Wallet is looking to fill a gap in the banking industry that has been exploited by the emergence of decentralized financial solutions. In traditional banking, many people are left out of the system because they do not meet various know-your-customer (KYC) requirements that central banks have put in place. This makes it difficult to bank a substantial amount of money in the mainstream financial system.

However, with the emergence of cryptocurrencies, people can now convert their fiat currencies by investing in bitcoin, ripple or other popular cryptocurrencies. They can then store these assets in a crypto wallet and watch the value grow, at times, more than the average deposit rate that traditional banks offer.

Resistance is futile

Several financial institutions have noticed the insatiable demand for cryptocurrency wallets and are now launching their own versions to try to claim a share of the rapidly growing marketspace. US-based Mastercard and Bank of America are some of the notable companies to make this move. In Japan, global financial banking giant Rakuten has also joined the queue of those launching a cryptocurrency wallet.

However, PayPal has so far been the missing piece in the journey to take crypto wallets mainstream. The online payments giant boasts hundreds of millions of online users, making it the ideal vehicle to boost crypto wallet adoption. Several people who make payments online prefer to use PayPal because of its online security firewalls as compared to using a credit card. As such, when the online payments giant said last month that it was working on bringing cryptocurrency capabilities to its platform, several media publications ran stories fronting the idea as an important step towards taking crypto payments mainstream.

The company follows in the footsteps of fellow technology giant Alphabet Inc., which also announced earlier this year that its Google pay wallet will begin to accept cryptocurrency payments.

Way forward

Crypto wallets have a huge potential in the cryptocurrency market. They are not just a subset but a key player in what is turning out to be one of the most disruptive forces of innovation since the turn of the millennium. Crypto wallets are linked on online crypto lending platforms, cryptocurrency exchange platforms, crypto CFD trading platforms, international money transfer platforms and even point-of-sale (POS) systems.

They are becoming more popular in the market because people are increasingly choosing to transfer money in the form of crypto rather than fiat currency. They are also choosing to use crypto payment systems because of lower fees compared to traditional money transfer services. Companies that initially resisted the temptation to embrace crypto are now beginning to show interest. Some of them like PayPal, are without a doubt going to play a crucial part in taking crypto payments mainstream.