The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has said that cryptocurrency payments could help facilitate international business while supporting local payments. Buterin said crypto payments were superior to fiat, but this aspect was “underrated.”
Buterin says crypto payments are underrated
Buterin said that crypto payments made it convenient for people to make international payments and payments to different charities. In a Twitter thread, Buterin explained that the resistance of cryptocurrencies to censorship and their convenience made them better options in settling international business, local business, and charity.
The fiat system has several shortcomings, one of which is that it could take a long time for the payments to be processed. The fees paid on fiat transactions are also notably high. These are some reasons why Buterin believes crypto is superior to fiat, even in settling fiat donations.
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One such example is the Aid for Ukraine crypto fund. The war in Ukraine has attracted cryptocurrency donations that have gone to the official wallet addresses of the Ukrainian government. On August 18, the Ukraine Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said that $54 million had been donated to the Aid for Ukraine fund.
Growth in crypto payment adoption
The adoption of cryptocurrencies around the world has grown significantly. In July, a survey by PYMNTs showed that 85% of businesses with an annual income of over $1 billion were using crypto payments to acquire new customers.
There has been a rapid growth in the availability of cryptocurrency debit cards. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes, partnered with Mastercard to launch prepaid cards for Argentinians.
Prepaid crypto cards make it easy for people to spend their cryptocurrency holdings. Most of these cards, including the ones provided by Wirex, reward users with crypto cashback for payments made through them. Some of these cards even support the withdrawal of funds through ATMs.
However, not everyone supports the use of crypto assets for payments. Some reasons why users have been objecting to these payments include price volatility, ease of use, regulatory risk, high fees on some blockchain networks, and the long processing times taken by traditional networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Stablecoins have also become popular in being used as a medium of exchange. Stablecoins, especially those pegged to the US dollar, are not volatile like the other crypto assets, and they have become an ideal store of value in developing countries.
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