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Australia Crypto Merchant Trade Sets $74K Monthly Record With BCH Capturing 97%

04/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

Australia Crypto Merchant Trade Sets Monthly Record at $74K With BCH Capturing 97% of Spending, Report Details

Cryptocurrency payments in Australia, which have been growing in volume in the past few years, have recently scored another record. Crypto-based merchant trade across the country reached almost $74,000 in February according to a new report. Bitcoin cash has by far the largest share in retail crypto spending and transactions among coins accepted by Australian businesses.

Also read: Australian Court Accepts Cryptocurrency Exchange Account as Security for Legal Costs

Bitcoin Cash Accounts for 97% of Retail Cryptocurrency Spending in Australia

Part of a series of regular monthly surveys, the new edition of Bitcoinbch.com’s Cryptocurrency Expenditure at Retail Businesses report highlights the importance of merchant adoption for any cryptocurrency designed to become a global electronic cash system. The study examines how bitcoin cash (BCH) and other leading cryptocurrencies perform in terms of spending at physical merchants in Australia.

According to the latest numbers, total cryptocurrency trade has increased in February 2020, reaching a volume of $73,769.41, up from $44,087.57 in January. Bitcoin cash usage expanded last month to a record proportion of 97.01% of all merchant trade covered in the study, up from 90% in October and 93% in November respectively. BCH accounts for over $71,500 of the quoted monthly spending volume.

The information about BCH spending is gathered from subscribers to the Hula platform. The Hockings Underwriting Logistics App facilitates instant conversion of bitcoin cash to local fiat currency, protecting businesses from price volatility. Hula pairs BCH investors with merchants to enable a simple way to accumulate BCH over the counter. Its service is currently available to Australian retailers who want to accept the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoinbch.com collects data by polling physical merchants across the nation as well. This approach allows the web portal to create a more precise picture of their turnover, which in the case of BCH is often of a peer-to-peer nature. Many of the retail locations also use other products developed to facilitate bitcoin cash storage and payments, such as the Bitcoin.com Wallet and the Bitcoin Cash Register app.

Over 81% of Australia’s Retail Crypto Transactions Conducted in BCH

The report also tracks the usage of other major cryptocurrencies sourcing information from Australian crypto payment processor Travelbybit. Author Hayden Otto, CEO of Bitcoinbch.com, concludes that their proportions in the mix have shrunk last month. Bitcoin core and Lightning Network, ethereum, litecoin, and crypto exchange Binance’s BNB token collectively accounted for only $2,205 of the estimated sales total.

Bitcoin cash leads in terms of retail crypto transactions too, with 193 or 81.09% of all registered in the month of February, followed by BTC with 17 transactions (7.14%) and Lightning Network’s 14 (5.88%), BNB with 10 (4.20%), ETH and LTC with two each (0.84%), while BSV and DASH have not been spent with the surveyed merchants. BCH transactions have spiked on the 13th and towards the end of the month with a period high on Feb. 27. The volume of bitcoin cash spending topped $12,000 on the 24th.

Australia has become an important crypto destination with an increasing number of online merchants and physical stores accepting decentralized money thanks to services such as those described in the report. Cryptocurrencies have also gained recognition through the registration of hundreds of digital asset exchanges and a recent court ruling describing them as a form of investment. Bitcoinbch.com’s regular monthly surveys show that bitcoin cash is a major driver of adoption with a growing list of businesses accepting it as a payment option that works for them and their customers.

What do you think about the numbers in the Bitcoinbch.com’s cryptocurrency expenditure report? Do you expect the positive trend from February to continue into March? Share your thoughts on cryptocurrency adoption in Australia in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bitcoinbch.com.

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5 Mining Operations Command More Than 50% of BTC’s Network Hashrate

03/02/2020 by Idelto Editor

The cryptocurrency community has been discussing mining centralization after a report was published that disclosed five mining operations command more than 50% of the BTC hashrate. At the time of publication, between F2pool, Poolin, Btc.com, and Antpool, the pools are hashing more than 59% of the BTC network hashrate.

Also read: Bitcoin Verde’s New Project Aims to Promote Bitcoin Cash Node Diversity

Data-Driven Report Says BTC Hashrate Distribution Is Centralized

On January 31, researchers from the firm Tokenanalyst published a report entitled “Centralisation in Bitcoin Mining: A Data-Driven Investigation” which covers the BTC hashrate distribution in 2020. The latest Tokenanalyst study stresses that BTC is decentralized and a trustless system, but researchers believe hashrate distribution is quite centralized.

“In 2020, bitcoin has also become a highly centralised system that places an increasing amount of trust in a small number of large entities,” the report notes. Not only is the mining landscape “dominated by a small number of entities,” but Tokenanalyst also thinks “a few large crypto exchanges” dominate the industry as well. Tokenanalyst analyzed 276,000 distinct addresses that have received coinbase rewards and they “meticulously” QA’d their metrics and found 148,000 miner addresses “across the whole history of the bitcoin blockchain.”

“Of these 148k labeled addresses only 6.3k have ever received a coinbase reward,” the report details. “The other addresses are used by miners for other purposes, such as internal routing and change wallets to facilitate payments to mining pool participants.” The report continued by adding:

Of the 276k addresses that ever received coinbase rewards, 270k are unlabeled, and of these, 225k addresses (81.5% of the total) were only ever used once. Of the 6.3K labeled addresses that received block rewards, just 517 addresses received block rewards on more than 1 occasion (0.2% of the total). However, these 517 addresses are responsible for receiving a vast proportion of the block rewards in recent years.

Five Mining Operations Command More Than 50% of BTC's Network Hashrate — “Today, 95% of the blocks mined are by mining pools that Tokenanalyst has labeled,” the study notes. “The proportion of hashrate attributed to different mining pools. The miners who contributed the largest proportion of the hashrate over the last 12 months are labeled.”

The Stratum Protocol and Joining Smaller, Independent Pools

Tokenanalyst researchers detailed that the firm Bitdeer, a company that sells customers hashrate, leverages the five unique pools to do so. Currently, Bitdeer utilizes the top five mining operations hashing on the BTC network — Antpool, Btc.com, Btc.top, F2pool, and Viabtc. “On 27th January 2020 these 5 mining entities controlled 49.9% of the hashrate of the bitcoin network,” the study reveals. “Collaborating and cooperating would allow involved mining pools to hedge against risk — the risk of a single mining facility going offline, the risk of customers switching between pools, the risk of energy price fluctuations in particular regions,” the Tokenanalyst researchers insist.

A few BTC supporters are not too concerned with the current mining pool distribution situation and they believe the network will work itself out. There have been discussions of fixing the problem with a mining protocol called Stratum v2 as well, which allows software users to choose which BTC transactions get mined.

Stratum v2 allows protocol users to choose which BTC transactions get mined.

Tokenanalyst believes the “original model of bitcoin mining was to have a large number of independent miners which would make it all but impossible to attack the network by reversing bitcoin transactions.” So the researchers are telling the public to research the number of pools within the industry and to search for independent mining operations.

“Do your research before you connect your hardware to a pool, or pay for a hashrate plan on a particular pool,” Tokenanalyst’s report concludes. “Joining a more independent mining pool or a pool with a smaller proportion of the hash rate will help ensure the integrity of the network.”

What do you think about Tokenanalyst’s report that covers BTC hashrate distribution and dominant mining operations? Do you think it is concerning or do you think the network will work itself out over the long run? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Blockchain.com, Stratum website, Tokenanalyst, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, and Pixabay.

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Companies Keep Flocking to Swiss Crypto Valley, Over 1,000 Jobs Added in a Year

25/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

Companies Continue to Flock to Swiss Crypto Valley, Over 1,000 Jobs Added in a Year

Crypto Valley, a fintech-friendly region centered on the canton of Zug, has been expanding to other parts of Switzerland and neighboring Liechtenstein. Despite all the challenges facing the blockchain industry, favorable regulations and improving access to banking and legal services are attracting more and more crypto companies. Their number has increased for a third consecutive year and many new jobs have been created.

Also read: Leading Swiss Stock Exchange Offers 12 Crypto Exchange-Traded Products With One That Shorts Bitcoin

More Than 800 Crypto Firms Based in Switzerland and Liechtenstein

Almost 100 new businesses established a presence in the Swiss Crypto Valley last year, shows a new study. Its findings were released during the CV Summit in Davos on Thursday, a blockchain-focused event that takes place during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. The total number of companies working with digital assets and blockchain technologies in the Crypto Valley has reached 842, the survey reveals, compared to 750 in its last year’s edition. Jobs in the sector have also increased substantially – from 3,300 in 2018 to 4,400 by the end of 2019, the Swissinfo news portal reported.

The news comes despite a slowing growth rate across the industry, a trend that started after the boom of 2017 and continued into the first half of 2018. The number of “startup casualties,” the outlet notes, is also mounting. Failed projects include crypto company Alethena, tokenization platform Tend, real estate startup Swiss Real Coin, alternative banking project Oyoba, and digital payment provider Monetas. Some of these companies simply failed to persuade investors as to the viability of their business plans.

At the same time, funding for the top 50 entities in the report reached $4 billion and these are valued at a total of $25.3 billion. Among the newly established or relocating members of the industry added to the 2019 list are Facebook’s Libra, blockchain developer Casper Labs which moved to Switzerland, crypto exchange Bittrex Global which set up an office in Liechtenstein, Six Group’s digital exchange initiative SDX, licensed crypto banks SEBA and Sygnum. The last two companies, along with Bitcoin Suisse which also expects approval to become a bank, are leading employers as well.

Established Startups Attract More Venture Capital Funding

The Crypto Valley is home to five unicorns, or projects valued at more than $1 billion. These are Ethereum ($14.4B), Dfinity ($2B), Polkadot ($1.2B), Bitmain ($1B), and Libra ($1B). Another list names unicorn contenders like Tezos ($924M), Cardano ($869M), and Cosmos ($818M). The authors of the analysis, Swiss business incubator Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CVVC), PwC subsidiary Strategy& and other organizations, point out that “the report highlights the diverse ecosystem in blockchain and cryptocurrency consisting of startups, corporates, and government” as well as its “maturity and substance.” Mature startups that are at later, more advanced stages of their lifespan typically attract more venture capital funding, which has generally increased in the past few years.

A positive development in that respect is the gradual opening of the banking sector that comes with increasing regulatory certainty. While large banks and central banks recognize the potential of crypto-related technologies, they often create difficulties for crypto businesses. Smaller financial institutions, however, are more likely to engage with the industry. Swiss banks involved in the crypto space include Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, Maerki Baumann, and Arab Bank (Switzerland). “With regulatory certainty in Crypto Valley, private banks have been leading the adoption and provision of services,” the researchers note. Access to legal services has also improved markedly with an ever expanding number of law firms offering advice to crypto companies in both Switzerland and Liechtenstein. More than two dozen of them have been listed in the report.

During the summit, CVVC CEO Mathias Ruch noted the increased interest from large Chinese banks, government agencies and investors in Swiss blockchain know-how. Last year, Switzerland introduced broad changes to its existing laws in order to incorporate rules for the crypto space while Liechtenstein adopted a new Blockchain Act meant to attract crypto businesses by providing more regulatory clarity. This progress has led to the formation of multiple crypto hotspots – not only Zug, which is home to over half of all companies based in the Crypto Valley (425), but also Zurich, Geneva, Ticino, Vaud, Lucerne, and Bern. Liechtenstein has 80 registered blockchain businesses in its jurisdiction.

What are your thoughts on the expansion of Switzerland’s Crypto Valley? Tell us 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.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Market Rebound Boosts Adoption of Cryptocurrencies for Payments

27/06/2019 by Idelto Editor

The use of digital assets to make payments is growing, according to a recently published study. It reveals that cryptocurrency’s role as a viable means of payment has been expanding and this year’s market rebound has increased the turnover of crypto payments. The report suggests that debit cards linked to digital currency wallets will remain an important tool until wider adoption of direct cryptocurrency payments.

Also read: BCH Can Be the Global Coin for Daily Spending, Says Italian Crypto Executive

Crypto Payments Industry Expands With Growing Markets

The study highlights a general correlation between upward market trends and the expansion of the crypto payments industry. Its Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) increased 21% between 2014 and 2015 and jumped over 600% two years later. But even during the bearish 2018, when the price of major cryptocurrencies took a hit, the sector’s CAGR expanded by around 90% year over year. The recovery that started this year has had a positive effect and the rising volume of payments this spring indicates that the recession is over.

The industry assessment has been conducted by Crypterium, a payment solutions provider that recently launched a crypto debit card, one of the few products in this niche that’s available globally. The analysis examines the performance of leading cryptocurrency payment providers such as Bitpay, Coinsbank, Cryptopay, Spectrocoin, Wirex, and Xapo. It covers two main types of services offered on the market: those allowing merchants to accept digital currency directly and solutions enabling customers to pay with crypto assets through conversion to fiat.

Statistical data gathered by Crypterium shows that the average value of transactions processed by the payment platforms stabilized during last year’s decline in a relatively narrow range between $1,000-2,000. The volume of crypto payments and the average amount have increased in 2019, reaching a seven-month high in April. The researchers believe that, helped by the crypto market recovery, the increasing number of payment providers in the sector which offer new solutions for both merchants and customers will help the industry achieve “gradual and sustainable organic growth.”

The report further identifies the regions that concentrate the most crypto holders who are using digital assets to make payments. The authors emphasize that the number of wallet addresses has been constantly growing and active wallets worldwide have reached 34 million in the first quarter of 2019, increasing by 44% just in the last 12 months. According to another study that news.Bitcoin.com covered in May, the figure is even higher – 36 million.

High Income Countries Adopt Cryptocurrency Payments Faster

A key finding in the Crypterium analysis is that cryptocurrency payments are more popular in high-income nations in general. Based on data for trading and mining activity from the largest digital asset exchanges and mining pools, Crypterium has shortlisted the top 20 countries. Coins are increasingly used as a payment instrument in the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and China. The company concludes that their adoption is triggered by different factors depending on the jurisdiction. The most common reasons to trust cryptocurrencies include the desire to maximize efficiency in payments and the need to protect assets against hyperinflation.

To better understand why people choose decentralized coins over traditional payment methods like cash, fiat payment processors and bank cards, the researchers have analyzed various factors such as debit and credit card ownership, internet accessibility, mobile phone ownership as well as macroeconomic indicators including gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and share of shadow economy. Based on their qualitative and quantitative assessment, they have grouped the leading 20 countries in three categories: Innovators, Shadows and Survivors.

The United States, Canada, Germany, France, England, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Japan, and South Korea are the so-called ‘innovators.’ They are characterized by deep penetration of banking and digital financial services and unrestricted access to mobile services. According to the authors, they offer the best opportunity for merchants to capitalize on increasing crypto adoption as most customers there have access to the internet and own a mobile device.

Medium to low income countries – Russia, China, Brazil, Poland, and Turkey – have been labeled as ‘shadows.’ Many of their citizens have lost trust in government institutions, banks and national currencies due to economic recessions. They often see cryptocurrencies as an alternative tool to make payments and receive income. The group of the ‘survivors’ includes Vietnam, India, Iran, Venezuela, and South Africa. Their populations have poor access to traditional banking services and they look at digital coins as a way to overcome economic challenges like hyperinflation and save on money transfers.

Debit Cards Remain Viable Option for Crypto Users

Until wider adoption comes around, debit cards tied to crypto wallets are likely to continue to offer the most applicable solution for cryptocurrency users who want to spend their electronic cash on a wide range of products and services. The prepaid cards that can be loaded with digital coins can be used in both brick and mortar stores and online platforms to purchase anything that can be bought with regular bank cards as they convert your crypto assets and merchants are paid with fiat money. They also allow you to withdraw cash directly from regular ATMs.

In its study, Crypterium, the issuer of a new crypto debit card, has mentioned five established platforms that provide this type of product: Wirex, which offers a crypto card in the European Economic Area, Coinbase, popular in the U.K., Bitpay, which is a working option for U.S. residents, Cryptopay, with its card available in the Russian Federation, and MCO, which issues Visa cards in Singapore. However, there are many more options on the market, as news.Bitcoin.com recently reported, such as Paycent, Uquid, Bitsa, and the ADV cards.

The team behind the in-depth analysis of the crypto payments sector notes the strong demand for cryptocurrency cards. Companies that launched such products saw their average monthly turnover figures increase three times, the authors claim. Again, there’s a correlation between the state of crypto markets and the interest in debit cards facilitating cryptocurrency payments. The number of monthly searches for ‘bitcoin cards’ has reached a 12-month high in May 2019. Users recognize the importance of these cards for mass crypto adoption. Almost 70% of the responders in Crypterium’s 2018 Customer Survey indicated that cryptocurrency cards are the best option to achieve that at the moment.

Former Visa Executive Leads Company Issuing Global Crypto Card

The future of crypto cards seems bright, as global payment card ownership in general is growing rapidly. The number of debit card owners is expected to double in less than a decade and according to the World Bank, it will reach 69% in 2020. Crypterium has one of the latest offerings in the market and it’s also one of the few that can be ordered anywhere in the world. The Global Bitcoin card launched recently with support for bitcoin core, ethereum, USD coin and Crypterium’s own token, CRPT. Nevertheless, the fintech company plans to expand their number with over a dozen other cryptos within a year and bitcoin cash (BCH) is one of the currencies it’s considering, Crypterium CEO Steven Parker assured news.Bitcoin.com.

Market Rebound Boosts Adoption of Cryptocurrencies for Payments — Steven Parker

“Cards is definitely a key part of the Crypterium proposition. A payment card is still the most convenient ‘channel’ to enter the mainstream payments eco-system and the easiest way to make a payment in the online and offline worlds and also withdraw your money in cash,” Parker emphasized. “So we do envisage a growing number of crypto cards. Our belief is that fiat cards enabling crypto transfers will indeed become a strong segment in cards. However, we do also see a big opportunity for NFC channels such as Apple Pay and Google Pay and we intend to launch those types of service by the end of the year. Also, our company roots are in QR codes and we are still seeing how we can integrate that type of functionality. QR codes are huge in China,” the executive added.

Steven Parker noted there are different flavors across different regions but he believes crypto payments will grow all around the world. “Of course, we see the highest ownership of cryptocurrencies in places like the U.S. and Korea. But as in payments generally, I think we shall see different adoption rates. Asia is already led by mobile payments, so I can imagine crypto payments growing faster there. We see large developing markets such as Brazil or Russia, as a big opportunity. And, of course, some of the more interesting consumer innovations – prompted by the Open Banking revolution – is happening in Europe,” he elaborated. The executive thinks crypto adoption can mirror local financial habits and Crypterium has integrated, for example, the ability to transfer in and out via Iban accounts.

Parker spent over seven years at Visa as General Manager for Central and Eastern Europe and Head of Marketing for the greater region that encompasses the Middle East and Africa as well. He was approached by Crypterium in late 2018 with a simple proposition: to make payments, especially person-to-person and cross-border, faster, more seamless and cheaper. He also recognizes that traditional financial services are expensive and exclude many people who don’t have access to bank accounts. Through services like those offered by his Estonia-based fintech company, anyone with a mobile phone can open up a wallet and immediately receive and make payments. “I think that’s amazing and the borderless nature of cryptocurrencies is what makes it possible,” the former Visa executive stated.

What is your take on the current state of cryptocurrency payments? Do you expect to see more crypto debit cards in the near future? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Crypterium.

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Latin America and Turkey Have the Most Cryptocurrency Users, Poll Shows

18/06/2019 by Idelto Editor

Latin America and Turkey With the Most Crypto Users in 2019, Poll Shows

Cryptocurrency usage has been expanding globally and a new survey confirms that trend. The poll conducted by Statista shows that the citizens of troubled countries tend to exploit the benefits of decentralized digital money far more readily than the citizens of thriving nations.

Also read: VPN Providers Defy Order to Connect to Russia’s Internet Censor

Study Determines Global Cryptocurrency Adoption

The 2019 edition of the Statista Global Consumer Survey offers a worldwide perspective on consumption and explores how consumers think. It covers dozens of industries and attempts to answer questions like “How many Americans have a video on demand subscription?” and “What is the demographic profile of online food shoppers in the UK?” It polls more than 400,000 consumers in 46 countries.

“How common are cryptocurrencies around the world?” is another key question put forward by the authors of the survey. It’s been asked of around 1,000 people in each participating country. The results present the share of respondents who said they used or owned cryptocurrencies.

According to a summary of the study published recently by Statista, Latin America is a region where crypto holders and users form large minorities. Five of the top 10 countries in the sample are located south of the U.S. border. All of them scored in the double digits in terms of crypto adoption. In Brazil and Colombia, 18% of the respondents have admitted to owning and using digital assets. They are followed by Argentina with 16% and Chile with 11%.

Venezuela is a notable omission in the summary. Uncontrollable hyperinflation has created favorable conditions for wider adoption of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin cash (BCH). There are now over 200 businesses accepting BCH payments in Caracas and other cities in the country, according to the Marco Coino app. It’s likely that many more merchants, such as the mining parts supplier Coincoin, accept BCH and other major digital currencies.

Inflation-Hit Turkey Leads the Pack, Spain Scores the Highest in Western Europe

Turkey is the pronounced leader among individual countries included in the study. The nation, which sits on the border between two continents, has experienced high inflation in the last couple of years. The depreciation of the national fiat currency, the lira, has resulted in cryptocurrencies steadily gaining popularity. A fifth of the Turkish participants in the Statista poll declared they own crypto.

Elsewhere in Europe, Spain, which has been trying to overcome its own long list of economic and financial problems, is the Western nation with the highest number of cryptocurrency users at 11%. However, Eastern European countries and some in Asia have ranked higher than most developed nations. These include the Russian Federation (9%) as well as China and Indonesia (11% each).

Among the surveyed First World nations, Denmark has scored 8%, followed by Australia with 7%, the United Kingdom and the U.S. with 6% and 5% respectively, and France and Germany with 4%. Surprisingly, only 3% of the respondents from Japan, which is considered a leader in terms of crypto regulations and adoption, confirmed they have real experience with cryptocurrencies.

Do these results surprise you in any way? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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