PoS

Bitpay Enables Bitcoin Cash Payments at 100,000 Point-of-Sale Devices

13/02/2020 by Idelto Editor

Bitpay Partnership With Poynt Enables Crypto Payments at 100,000 Point-of-Sale Devices

On February 11, the Atlanta-based payment processor Bitpay announced the firm’s recent partnership with the company Poynt. Now retailers will be able to support cryptocurrency payments using point-of-sale devices and crypto users will be able to pay with digital currencies at more than 100,000 Poynt retailers worldwide.

Also Read: Ethereum vs Tron: Comparing Data, Defi and Stablecoins from Both Chains After Viral Tweet

Crypto Payments Available at 100,000 Poynt Retailers

Bitpay has revealed the company is collaborating with the open commerce platform Poynt in order to bolster crypto payments worldwide. On Tuesday, Bitpay announced the integration of Bitpay’s cryptocurrency payments service with Poynt’s Smart Terminal point-of-sale (PoS) devices. “With just the scan of a QR code at checkout, consumers can now pay merchants using Poynt’s devices with the currency of their choice, including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, and three dollar-pegged stablecoins,” the firm disclosed. Bitpay already processes over a billion dollars in crypto payments every year and the firm’s CEO and cofounder Stephen Pair is excited about expanding with the new partnership.

“We’re thrilled to team up with Poynt, who’s proven to be a real driver of point of sale innovation,” Pair noted during the announcement. “It’s a massive growth opportunity for Bitpay and an important milestone in our now nine-year mission to make payments faster, more secure and less expensive for people and businesses.”

The Poynt point-of-sale (PoS) smart terminal.

Poynt Believes Crypto Will Help Expand the Firm’s Growth

Poynt is known for building it’s Smart Terminal PoS device that works with an app and can “easily email receipts, refund transactions, and settle with the tap of a button.” Devices have a hybrid MSR/chip reader and the machine supports major NFC/contactless schemes. It also has a front and back camera like a smartphone and connects to WiFi, with optional features like LTE/3G cellular modem support as well. Poynt PoS devices further support audio and they come with a stereo speaker and built-in microphone. The firm thinks expanding payment options to include digital currencies is simply a natural progression.

“Poynt was built on the idea of open commerce,” the company’s founder and CEO Osama Bedier said. “Poynt OS lays the foundation for developers and merchants to collaborate and drive limitless growth. The addition of open-source, decentralized currencies like Bitcoin is a natural fit in our open-commerce environment.”

Bitpay and Poynt’s partnership enables cryptocurrency payments at point-of-sale at 100,000 locations worldwide.

According to Bedier, Poynt recently touched a milestone of nine billion dollars in gross payment volume in a twelve-month period. The open commerce firm believes expanding to crypto payments will keep that trend going forward.

What do you think about Bitpay partnering with Poynt’s open commerce infrastructure? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Poynt, Bitpay, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, and Pixabay.

Did you know Bitcoin.com offers a slew of merchant solutions for online retailers to brick-and-mortar shops? Check out the web portal bitcoin.com/merchant-solutions and start accepting bitcoin cash (BCH) today.

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Everybody’s Staking But Who’s Using Proof of Stake Blockchains?

26/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

Everybody’s Staking But Who’s Using PoS Blockchains?

The primary use case for staking blockchains is staking. That is their raison d’être, and thousands of cryptocurrency holders have utilized this provision to increase their holdings by earning staking rewards. As the total amount of staked tokens trends towards 80% for some blockchains, however, it raises questions as to what other utility these chains provide.

Also read: The Fallout From Onecoin’s Ponzi Scheme Continues to Impact Investors

Two Thirds of All Staking Coins Are Locked Up

The total market cap of all Proof of Stake (PoS) coins stands at $12.6 billion, of which $8 billion is locked up in staking wallets. Much of this occurs imperceptibly to cryptocurrency holders due to exchanges managing staking on their behalf. Store tezos on Binance, for example, and you will automatically be eligible for staking rewards. The top five staking networks by market cap have the majority of their circulating supply locked up: Tezos (77%), Cosmos (73%), Decred (51%), Synthetix (81%), and Waves (53%).

Everybody’s Staking But Who’s Using Proof of Stake Blockchains? — The amount of staked coins as a percentage of total issuance has been growing steadily

Just as masternode coins were so-named because running a node was their defining feature, many staking coins now exist primarily to disburse staking rewards. It’s healthy to have coins distributed as widely as possible, and through locking up tokens, holders have a vested interest in seeing the network flourish. If the only users are stakers, however, not only will everyone’s staking rewards be diluted, but the network will wither away after failing to attract the developers, dapp users, and businesses that are its lifeblood.

Build First, Stake Later

Tellingly, the PoS chains that have achieved wide adoption were slow to add staking rewards, preferring to build a community and establish a diverse ecosystem of network participants. Two examples of this are Matic Network and Waves. The former has spent the past year onboarding dapp developers, forging partnerships, and gaining liquidity through multiple exchanges including Whitebit, where matic token-holders can claim lower trading fees and additional bonuses. Matic is now applying the final touches to its staking program which will see validators stake tokens as collateral and become part of the network’s PoS consensus mechanism. A partnership with South Korea’s Coinone exchange will enable users to lock up matic tokens for monthly periods in return for an APR of 30.29%.

Waves, meanwhile, operates Leased Proof of Stake, whereby holders can earn a return through running a full node and generating blocks or by leasing waves tokens to a full node. The current annual reward for staking waves stands at 6.23%, or 3.1% when adjusted for inflation. Like Matic, Waves has more to offer its community than merely staking; recent developments have included interoperable blockchain protocol Gravity Hub, which can communicate with networks such as Waves and Ethereum and serve as an oracle for non-blockchain data.

Waves also has a blockchain games marketplace created in conjunction with The Abyss where digital goods and in-game items can be traded. A strong developer community, complete with hackathons, online courses, and workshops, supports third parties creating and launching dapps using the Waves platform.

How Sustainable Are Staking Rewards?

Crypto networks that offer high staking rewards have no trouble attracting users willing to lock up their tokens to make ‘easy money.’ It is hard to see how staking rewards that run into double-digit percentages are sustainable, however. The rapid increase in the circulating supply dilutes everyone’s holdings, while the lack of features beyond staking deters adoption. Livepeer (LPT), for instance, which has 24-hour volume of just $40K, provides a staking reward of 64.8%, but when inflation adjusted, this drops to 18.8%. Fantom promises 57.7%, adjusted to 33%.

As mining has become commercialized and the days of easy altcoin profits have faded, staking and lending have become the primary forms of passive income. Exchanges that provide staking as a service have obviated the need to spin up a node, and the monthly payouts provide a steady source of revenue. Stakers nevertheless have some tough choices to make. Locking up tokens over an extended period increases the risk of loss when measured in BTC. It’s possible to be up in tokens for the month but down in BTC, rendering the whole exercise pointless from a commercial perspective.

The Future of Blockchains Lies in Staking

Despite empirical evidence that Proof of Work makes for a more robust blockchain, the days of new PoW coins are over. Grin was the last major mineable coin to launch; today it’s all PoS chains entering the market. Stakingrewards.com lists dozens of Proof of Stake coins that are scheduled to launch, ambitiously including Ethereum 2.0, whose launch date is anything but certain. When the new improved ETH blockchain does see the light of day, it’s expected to offer staking rewards of 3.7%. Other staking options scheduled for 2020 include Polkadot (5%), Cardano (3.7%), and Matic (10%). These blockchains promise to solve a range of problems including scalability, fast payments, and interoperability. Their greatest use case, however, is likely to be staking.

Do you think staking rewards of 20% or higher are sustainable? Do you intend to stake any of the PoS coins that will launch this year? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry.

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Bitcoin Cash Represents 93% of November’s Crypto Spending in Australia

08/12/2019 by Idelto Editor

News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on web portal Bitcoinbch.com’s in-depth report, which detailed BCH outshining BTC retail spending in Australia by a wide margin during the month of September. The next month, BCH captured 90% of October’s crypto spending in the country. Now the website has published its November report that discloses all the crypto-based expenditures at retail businesses and once again, BCH is “dominating the Australian retail scene.”

Also Read: Bitcoin Cash Captured 90% of October’s Crypto Spending in Australia

October’s Crypto Retail Expenditure in Australia

Bitcoinbch.com’s Hayden Otto has published the third monthly Australian Cryptocurrency Expenditure at Retail Businesses report and bitcoin cash (BCH) usage continues to shine in the region. Otto’s latest report says that October’s numbers derive from “large retail payments” that come from businesses and professionals like “lawyers, accountants, engineers, electricians, and builders.” In order to source the data for October’s report, Bitcoinbch.com used statistics from the underwriting firms Travelbybit (TBB) and Hula (Hockings Underwriting Logistics App).

“The Hula system has expanded and provided valuable BCH visibility on the largely hidden retail peer-to-peer economy in Australia. Surprisingly, less than 20% of the Bitcoin BCH merchants are visible via the Hula data, lending confidence to these Bitcoin Cash retail numbers,” Otto writes. “On the other hand, our source of BTC retail data (and that of other cryptos) is more extensive due to their localisation to a single point-of-sale platform in Australia, the Travelbybit point-of-sale (PoS).”

A few of the highlights from the report note that BCH recorded a “267% month-on-month growth” and bitcoin cash payments accounted for approximately “$51,996.73 of the total $55,725.05 expended during the month.” Otto stresses that while BCH sales are swelling, BTC recorded less than a transaction per day and the Lightning Network (LN) statistics were even worse. Bitcoinbch.com’s expenditure report also emphasized that the “professional sector accounted for a small number of large payments” in October compared to the last two months of data.

Bitcoin Cash Captured 93% of November’s Crypto Spending in Australia

As far as platforms that allow merchants to accept bitcoin cash payments in-store, Otto’s report detailed that Bitcoin.com’s Cash Register PoS shined. The Australian crypto expenditure research underlined:

The Bitcoin Cash platform of choice in Australia is the Bitcoin.com Cash Register App, a simple, effective and very fast point-of-sale system that continues to gain market share from its rivals, recording 93% of expenditure in November up from 90% in the previous month.

The research goes on to say that Australia was the first country to see a large populace of BCH-only acceptance. Because of this, Otto says not only does the region have a high concentration of BCH accepting retailers, the vast majority of these merchants also “walk-the-talk with only a Bitcoin Cash crypto payment option.” Moreover, the report details that in Australia there’s been some BCH development and several of these projects, not immediately visible, are attributing to the expenditure growth. The report concludes that as BCH saw 267% growth and represented 93% of all crypto retail expenditure, Australian fiat turnover saw a measly 0.2% growth last month.

What do you think about the Australian Cryptocurrency Expenditure at Retail Businesses report for November 2019? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Bitcoin.com’s Cash Register, the third monthly Australian Cryptocurrency Expenditure at Retail Businesses report, Pixabay, and Bitcoinbch.com.

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Research Reports Show Positive Crypto Industry Growth in H1 2019

03/08/2019 by Idelto Editor

More than half the year is behind us and the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to move forward, showing relentless growth over the last six months. 2019 has also seen a new theme arise as speculators believe the cryptocurrency ecosystem is experiencing an influx of institutional interest and regulatory crackdowns. A variety of cryptocurrency research reports analyzing the first two quarters of the year show the space has seen a lot of growth, despite regulatory headwinds.

Also Read: Banks Stopped Walmart Bank – Now the Retail Giant Hits Back With Crypto

The Cryptoconomy 2019: Institutionalization, Facebook and Exchange Tokens

Coinshares and cryptocurrency corporation Circle have recently published very detailed research reports concerning the digital asset space over the last six months. Over the last few weeks, the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has ranged between $250-300 billion. The U.K.-based firm Coinshares’ H1 report says that the last six months should be considered a net positive for the young industry. “The continuing professionalisation of the protocol services and corresponding technologies has been impressive and most assets have reacted by recovering substantially from last year’s brutal bear market,” explains Coinshares’ H1 study. It notes that there’s been “no shortage of speculation” when it comes to people guessing what’s driving the rally.

Research Reports Show Positive Crypto Industry Growth in H1 2019 — Coinshares’ study shows data on H2’s top five BTC markets by volume, volume by fiat pair, and volumes by geography.

The research also shows that retail interest in BTC is “relatively tepid compared to 2017.” This makes Coinshares’ believe the H1 recovery was “largely driven by the long-awaited entrance of institutional money.” The firm says that the company’s sales division has “anecdotal evidence” that supports the institutionalization theory. Coinshares mentions financial incumbents like Fidelity and the Intercontinental Exchange (Bakkt) as institutional examples. Moreover, in terms of legitimizing the industry, the company’s report also highlights Facebook’s Libra coin attempt. The report’s authors opine that even though the digital currency may be centralized, it could be beneficial.

“While Libra is centralised, permissioned, trust-based, not censorship-resistant, not scarce, and arguably not even a cryptocurrency at all (though this term is poorly defined),” Coinshares’ H1 report notes. “It does offer potential benefits to the world’s unbanked that currently don’t have access to services we take for granted in the West, such as online shopping.”

congrats to @Bakkt on the beta launch of their physically settled bitcoin futures contract!

the market for bitcoin is changing, and quickly. futures, derivatives, and synthetics will fundamentally change the nature of the bitcoin market. see below what happened to gold 👇 pic.twitter.com/PI8KKadjFY

— Meltem Demirors (@Melt_Dem) July 22, 2019

Record Open Interest and Volumes in CME Bitcoin Derivatives and Defining Crypto Regulations

Circle’s 80-page report is far more in-depth, and also notices the growth of institutionalization within the crypto space. The company’s research says that some notable signs of institutional interest stem from data like inflows into Grayscale’s products and CME’s futures open interest and trade volumes reaching all-time highs. To Circle’s researchers covering 2019’s Q2, the announcement from Facebook was a watershed moment for some people although others have been skeptical. As far as stablecoins are concerned, the company said it witnessed its own USDC regulated stablecoin market cap rise a great deal.

“Grayscale recently provided a second-quarter update, showcasing continued strength since market lows at the end of 2018,” Circle’s report notes when researching the distinguishing signs of institutionalization. “Assets under management were up 125% quarter over quarter (q/q), driven by an increase in underlying prices, among other factors. The portion of inflows from institutional investors has been experiencing step function growth, rising from 59% in 3Q18 to 84% in 2Q19 — Grayscale notes this figure was dominated by hedge funds.”

As far as CME Bitcoin futures interest, Circle notes that Gareth MacLeod, partner at Gryphon Labs, suggested that the recent surge in CME’s crypto futures volumes is likely due to “traditional finance taking a greater interest in bitcoin.” Circle’s research also claims that defining regulatory developments may be strengthening institutionalization within the cryptoconomy.

The report shows established regulatory changes like the SEC’s framework for investment contracts (April 3), China’s proposed ban on crypto mining (April 9), Ohio representative Warren Davidson reintroducing the “Token Taxonomy Act” (April 9), NY’s Attorney General announced investigating Ifinex (April 26), FinCEN issuing guidance on BSAs and digital currencies (May 9), the SEC postponing Vaneck/Solidx ETF (May 20), IRS announcing new tax guidelines for cryptos (May 16), and the Egyptian central bank proposing digital currency regulatory action (May 29). Other regulation topics include the SEC’s action against the Kik initial coin offering (ICO), India’s recent crypto discussions, the G7 taskforce, and the recent A+ token offerings granted approval by the SEC in mid-July.

Crypto Funding Gathers New Tailwinds, Noncustodial Trade Volumes Increase, and Lightning and Maker Network Usage Declines

After the rise and fall of ICOs, the new trend Circle sees is the “rise of exchange tokens.” Exchange tokens are sold similarly to ICOs but are exclusively used on the trading platform for various benefits like discounted trading fees, rewards, governance systems, and token burns. The researcher highlights 2019’s prominent exchange tokens including Binance (BNB), Huobi (HT), Coinflex (FLEX), and the LEO token launched by Bitfinex. Even though these tokens are slightly different to the prior ICO model, Circle researchers say that the issuers may face regulatory hurdles. “A major challenge that exchange tokens face is around how they should be classified by regulators — as utility tokens or security tokens,” the authors of Circle’s Q2 study remark.

2019 saw a bunch of seed funding rounds and venture investments into crypto-based companies according to Circle’s study. This includes startups like Sparkswap ($3.5 million), Cambridge Blockchain ($3.5 million), Flexa ($14.1 million), Chainalysis ($6 million), and Celo ($25 million). The 80-page report also underlines subjects like the number of funds involved in cryptocurrency staking. According to Circle’s study, there’s $6.5 billion worth of digital assets locked up in (proof-of-stake) staking networks. Circle notes that the increase of staking this year is driven partly by projects like Cosmos and V Systems.

Additionally, Circle measured the activity of decentralized applications (dapps) and found there were +43 added per month in 2019 on Ethereum and +16 on the EOS network. Circle’s research also shows that there’s been increasing trade volumes on noncustodial exchanges as this metric has increased by 32% q/q. During the first week of June, Bitcoin.com recently launched a peer-to-peer, noncustodial BCH marketplace called Local.Bitcoin.com, adding another option to the slew of accessible noncustodial platforms introduced in 2019. Additionally, the report explains that there’s been an activity decline on both the Lightning Network on BTC and the declining dominance of ETH locked into the Maker contract.

Overall, both reports show there’s been a lot of cryptocurrency activities and positive outlooks throughout H1 and a good score of steady growth increases quarter over quarter. Coinshare’s report underscores that “nothing is certain in this space and things often feel like they move at a breakneck pace.” However, the company looks forward to seeing what the next half of the year brings. Circle’s research also shows a net positive for 2019’s Q2 and it will be interesting to see if the cryptoconomy’s action and the underlying network development behind these projects continue to rise in H2.

What do you think about the overall activities and market action of the cryptoconomy in H1 2019 described by Coinshares and Circle’s reports? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Circle Research, Twitter, Coinshares, Kaiko, Coingecko, and Pixabay.

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Accept Direct Crypto Payments Using the Rocketr Gateway

16/06/2019 by Idelto Editor

It’s in the best interest of businesses to offer their customers a variety of payment options. Cryptocurrencies can undoubtedly bring more buyers and many merchants have introduced support for digital assets. A platform called Rocketr helps merchants accept payments in crypto, including bitcoin cash.

Also read: Piixpay Lets You Pay Bills and Invoices With Cryptocurrency

Payment Platform Supports Traditional and Crypto Options

Rocketr is a payment gateway that allows merchants to integrate a variety of payment methods including traditional options like credit cards and Paypal, but it has also been supportive of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin cash (BCH). Its services are offered for a relatively low fee of 0.5% on all transactions and there are no other hidden charges for setup or maintenance.

The Rocketr Payments platform lets you accept all kinds of payments and invoice clients directly from a single dashboard. Its API provides you with the opportunity to customize checkouts and it allows for webhooks and instant payment notification. These features notify your Rocketr application when an order is completed.

Companies can also use a product called Storefront which is a complete e-commerce platform. It is designed to satisfy the needs of online businesses specializing in sales and delivery of products and services in the digital space. Many of its integrated features, such as the built-in messaging system and livechat support, are offered free of charge.

Rocketr has also developed a POS application that supports multiple cryptocurrencies including BCH. It lets you accept direct payments in several other major digital coins like BTC, ETH and LTC as well as fiat currencies such as USD, EUR and GBP. The software, which is available in Apple’s App Store, comes with many useful features, one of which lets customers add a tip to their bills.

If you want to process BCH payments you can also check out the Bitcoin Cash Register app for both iOS and Android devices. The simple Point of Sale software developed by Bitcoin.com allows merchants to accept electronic cash at any retail location. Payments are easy, safe and no account or registration is needed to install and use it.

What other applications for direct crypto payments would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to third party companies or any of their affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any third party content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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