At its heart, cryptocurrency as an industry is the biggest experiment in money since the creation of the original standardized coins thousands of years ago. Since then, it hasn’t been a case of slowly changing one system into another, but rather it has been creating something that didn’t exist before whatsoever. As far back as historical records go, the currency has always been strictly controlled by the ruling state, and having a currency independent of nations was untouched ground.
Crypto has achieved the recognition and spread in a couple of decades that standard currency only managed over a hundred years all that time ago. With that said, even the largest crypto coins have found themselves stalling when it comes to the last hurdle of being used as widely as the traditional versions.
Where Does Crypto Stand Currently?
As of right now, crypto acceptance as a whole is at an all-time strong point. With a handful of exceptions related to big crashes or major events, the number of places where crypto can be used as currency has only ever been increasing.
Certain industries have wholeheartedly embraced crypto, most notably in video gaming and casino gaming. The former has seen an entire subsection of the industry dedicated to crypto and NFT-based video games, and in the case of the latter, we’ve seen near-universal acceptance across major sites. In fact, Bitcoin casino payment methods for deposits and withdrawals are now seen more as the standard than the exception, a rarity outside of Web3 communities.
Beyond this, major online retailers such as Amazon have put systems in place for handling the major crypto coins at the very least, even if smaller coins lack the same coverage. Where crypto is mainly lacking still is in brick-and-mortar stores, with only a handful of retailers taking crypto payments directly without some kind of medium that puts it through a traditional VISA or Mastercard.
What Is Slowing Crypto Down?
While acceptance is at a peak, further progress to extend coverage has been extremely slow, not just in the US but globally. One of the biggest issues has been public perception, with the average person around the world both culturally entrenched in their own national currency and also often seeing crypto as either a fad or just unnecessary. The logic is very much that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and for the most part national currencies are still dependable.
Similarly, governments around the world have been hesitant about crypto, again seeing it as a less reliable version of something they already have. There have been a few tentative steps like the British government’s proposed national digital currency but, with the outlier exception of El Salvador, finding a country willing to wholly embrace Bitcoin or anything else is nearly impossible.
Beyond this is a fundamental lack of understanding at the retail level as well as a lack of infrastructure. Bear in mind that despite being established for decades already, we still have smaller shops that don’t accept card payments, so widespread usage of crypto-payment systems is even less likely.
How Long Will Acceptance Take?
The short answer is that we don’t know. Crypto may have emerged from its ‘Wild West’ stage but it is still an extremely new market that fluctuates constantly. Sites like BitPay maintain a list of sites accepting crypto that goes well over 1,000, but this is a fraction of businesses in the US alone and statistics can be hard to come by.
Outside of the very biggest coins, recent history has shown that a single day or major event can completely wipe out a coin. Retailers are understandably hesitant to invest in providing a payment option that could potentially lose half its value or even vanish tomorrow. The constant creation and dissolution of rival coins are unlikely to help either, and while regulations are set to come in to limit the trading in more frivolous coins, right now that volatility will put people off.
Ask ten experts on crypto about when you can expect to use Bitcoin in your local grocery store and you’ll get six different answers and four shrugs. The only thing we can reliably say for now is that progress is still being made, even if it’s only inch by inch.
