The use of Bitcoin for retail payments decreased dramatically in 2018 | Crowdfund Insider

[ad_2][ad_1]

Although Bitcoin has reached some of the defenders of price stability, has long said it would facilitate its adoption at the retail level, Bitcoin's retail use has decreased by 80% in 2018, he says Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis company.

Currently, many Bitcoin transactions are settled directly on the blockchain, which means that every "node" in the world must validate, accept and archive such transactions.

The network must also come to consensus on which transactions are valid and this can be very slow and expensive, especially when network traffic is high.

Companies such as Blockstream and Lightning Labs have implemented transaction processing technologies at the secondary level to accelerate processing time for participants.

Until Bitcoin or other chains can process payments quickly and reliably like a credit card network, however, their use for payments can remain a relatively specialized and boutique business, however.

Another payment solution has been offered for some time by the Atlanta BitPay company.

The Bitpay system provides instant fiat conversion services to resellers that accept Bitcoin.

Second Reuters, Bitpay was one of the 17 Bitcoin payment processors interviewed by Chainalysis who confirmed that their numbers are not available.

Reuters He also says that data on the OXT blockchain analysis site regarding the Vancouver Coinpayments firm show that transactions have fallen by 50% this year. The company has not commented.

Lex Sokolin, Global Director of Fintech Strategy at the research company Autonomous Next, said that the Coinpayments numbers show: "The processing of payments in Bitcoin is seeing a slow but substantial decline".

On the other hand, the 1ML site, Reuters says, is now demonstrating that a record of 4101 "nodes" now houses the Lightning Network software.

In addition, Ed Cooper, who manages the cryptocurrency business at the Revolut digital bank, believes the prospects for the Lightning Network are rosy.

He said Cooper Reuters, "Lightning solves some of Bitcoin's downsizing problems and is receiving payments in kind in the Bitcoin network."

[ad_2]Source link