The area where Bitcoin most seems to be thriving at the moment is in trading. Prices seem to climb and climb, with more and more investors wanting to jump on the bandwagon.
However, many people don’t quite understand the real-world applications that Bitcoin has. Unlike the hilarious Dogecoin, this cryptocurrency could genuinely be beneficial to certain sectors, and these are some of them.
Online Anonymity
Already some of the best poker apps have adopted Bitcoin and to a lesser extent Ethereum as methods of payment. Recognizing the need for the discretion of their players has been a key driver in this decision.
As Bitcoin does not require you to have a bank account, these companies do not need you to disclose your name, age, or location in order to play.
Sometimes when huge wins take place, the player’s name is made visible, which can cause them distress. Members of the public may be struggling to pay medical bills, or fund a charity, and seeing this as a necessary deed they may contact the winner asking for money.
Although there is often a good reason for this contact, having to turn people away can become a burden on the winner.
Further to this, in countries where online gaming in this way is looked down upon, or where the legality is questionable, using cryptocurrencies as a method of payment provides the customer with guaranteed anonymity.
Although these reasons are salient, in a world where our data is increasingly collected, the importance of maintaining anonymity goes deeper than that.
No Central Bank
The other huge benefit of Bitcoin that is yet to be fully exploited is that there is no need for a central bank. Thanks to the pioneering blockchain technology, each coin has its own individual identifier.
This means that transactions can be made from Bitcoin wallet to Bitcoin wallet directly, without the need for an intermediary. With the price of Bitcoin as it is at the moment, the transaction costs would seem minimal to anyone who owns them.
However, with the growing cryptocurrencies that are more affordable, the removal of transaction fees could make big differences to companies who decide to do business with them.
Currently, online companies that take numerous small payments have to build transaction fees into their payment structure.
This means that when making microtransactions on, for example, a mobile game, the customer pays a small amount to the bank that performs the transaction.
If cryptocurrencies were to be adopted, there would be no central bank to make a payment to, meaning that these transaction fees would disappear.
The other huge benefit to having no central bank is that transaction times can be minimized. Whilst banks authorize payments, and in some countries can take up to 10 working days to do so, with cryptocurrencies none of that is necessary.
This could make simple tasks like paying rent, or buying things online far quicker for those in developing countries, where traditional banking can be incredibly time-consuming.
