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by Konstantin Lazarev · 3 min read
Bitcoin is mainly used now by those who follow technological advancements and solutions in business and technologies. It isn’t quite geared to the everyday man. But all that could change in just a few years.
It’s getting much easier for consumers to buy and spend bitcoins. Additionally enterpreneures are offering new technology for customers to store and buy bitcoin, send money to your friends or do online shopping.
Bitcoin adoption increases and more consumers start to fully understand and appreciate the advantages of bitcoin payments. Bitcoin is a new currency, known as cryptocurrency, that was created in 2009. There are no transaction fees and no middle men – no banks. Moreover, bitcoins can be used to buy goods anonymously.
As a result, more merchants are beginning to accept them. Additionally it’s cheap and easy to do international payments, as bitcoins are not tied to any of the countries. Most bitcoins are traded on global Internet Exchanges.
It’s getting much easier for consumers to buy and spend bitcoins. Additionally enterpreneures are offering new technology for customers to store and buy bitcoin, send money to your friends or do online shopping.
Last week Robocoin, a Las Vegas based company unveiled its first bitcoin ATM. Both buying and selling of bitcoins are possible from a single machine. Such ATM makes easier for consumers to choose cryptocurrency over cash.
“It’s all about to change over the next 12 to 24 months,” said Marshall Hayner, a San Francisco entrepreneur who this month will introduce bitcoin app QuickCoin. “We are going to see all kinds of people adopt it. It’s going to power transactions on the Internet.”
There is a big number of “bitcoin” people who are investing millions of dollars into their projects. But for the rest of us, a much bigger number, that still use cash and credit cards, bitcoin is something full of mystery. The future of bitcoin is foggy, but no doubt, bitcoin operations are getting appreciated.
“You’ve got people out there who are software engineers who don’t understand it,” said Vinny Lingham, co-founder of Gyft, a San Francisco digital gift card app that accepts bitcoin. “It’s far too complicated out there for the average consumer to understand. But that will change.”
The number of retailers that accept bitcoin is constantly growing: Tesla, an electric vehicle designer and manufacturer, a retailer of computers and consumer electronics TigerDirect, handmade goods seller Etsy.
With the QuickCoin app you can send bitcoin directly to people on Facebook, and Santa Cruz, Calif.-based PayStand, allows consumers to shop from 2,000 retailers using bitcoin. Square, the San Francisco mobile payments company, mentioned last week it would start accepting bitcoin payments on its online marketplace, Square Market.
With each passing week the number of bitcoin apps and websites grow and so does a number of its users. Bitcoin is getting more popular and easier to use, but it doesn’t mean that people have to stop using cash or plastic.
Konstantin has always been at the forefront of the global virtual currency scene since first discovering cryptocurrencies the same year that Satoshi Nakomoto created bitcoin in 2009. Konstantin is the owner of a number of small businesses in trucking and mobile development, and co-founded CoinSpeaker in 2014. He graduated from Belarusian State University in 2009 with a degree in Mathematics and Mechanics. You can contact Konstantin via [email protected]