The Cryptocurrency Adoption by Leading Marketplaces: What Do We Have So Far

TALLINN, Estonia - Jan. 24, 2018 - PRLog -- Cryptocurrencies are one of the most discussed topics in the world economy. Indeed, the decentralization can bring a lot of benefits to both Internet commerce and ordinary people (such as lower transaction fees, faster transfers, top-of-the-line security and complete anonymity). On the other hand, the development of decentralized financial tools is unprofitable for any state, since in the future it can form a huge gap in its budget. In addition, it is not always easy to introduce a new payment mean into an already existing Internet platform.

One way or another, advantages of cryptocurrencies far exceed their shortcomings. Global capitalization of all the cryptocurrencies exceeded USD 600 billion last year. In this article, we will tell you which ways of the payment gateways' integration with cryptocurrencies was chosen by the Internet trading global giants.

Rakuten: Popularization of the Bitcoin in Japan
Rakuten is one of the world-famous online trading platforms (https://roobykon.com/solution/marketplace) that were first to start accepting bitcoins as means of payment for their goods (March 2015). As for the technical aspect of this event, Bitnet was chosen as the optimal integration platform. A year later, Rakuten also bought rights to use Bitnet Technologies Ltd bitcoin processing technology. Furthermore, the owners of Rakuten invested in the creation of the Rakuten Blockchain laboratory, which explores the concept of the blockchain and helps to discover its practical advantages, in addition to those that are directly related to the bitcoin transfers.

Fergal Downey, the Rakuten Blockchain's engineering department representative, says that blockchain has enormous potential and can positively affect many aspects of the e-commerce (for example, optimize the delivery of goods and expand payment options). In fact, the Rakuten development team has a huge field for activity, as this company owns a large list of brands (including Ichiba and Viber), as well as numerous highly specialized online stores.

Amazon and Cryptocurrencies: a Look into the Future
At the end of the previous year, Amazon registered several domain names related to cryptocurrencies (such as amazonethereum, amazonbitcoin and amazoncryptocurrency). This means that Amazon owners have big plans for the implementation of cryptocurrencies within their trading platform. Earlier Amazon representatives stated that they do not plan to allow using the digital currencies to pay for goods. Despite this, recently Patrick Gauthier, vice-president of this platform's External Payment Services department, said that adopting the cryptocurrency payments would allow the company to retain its competitiveness in the market and ensure the relevance in the eyes of their customers. Indeed, only a few years ago the claims that any crypto-coin would ever gain any value in the economy were considered laughable at best, whereas today we can personally observe the rapid growth of its most popular varieties (bitcoin, ether, lightcoin, etc.) in relation to real money.

Therefore, we can assume that the moment when this world trade giant will provide additional services linked to cryptocurrencies, is not far off.

eBay: Will the Integration of the Crypto-exchange Gateway be Justified in this Case?
The next organization that decided to integrate a payment gateway supporting crypto-transactions was eBay. The first statements about such innovations arose only towards the end of the last year and were not as much about cryptocurrencies themselves but the desire to develop and master new technologies. Senior Vice President of eBay - Scott Cutler - said that with the introduction of the new payment system, the company will have to solve the problem of strong exchange rate fluctuations that occur within very short time intervals. In particular, the cost of a product in bitcoins can change significantly even during the payment processing period. And this means that commission fees can grow up to a third of the value of the product itself, which is extremely unprofitable for both buyer and seller. By the way, this problem became critical in the case of the Valve's Steam service that is selling video games online. As a result, Steam withdrew bitcoins out of available payment methods.

However, unlike Steam, eBay plans to use bitcoins not to ensure the reliability of anonymous transfers. Owners of eBay simply seek to offer their customers another quick and convenient payment method. And even if the bitcoin rate fluctuates, eBay can easily translate all these costs, for example, into fiat money. Thus, the issue of exchange rate instability is completely resolved, which means that the introduction of a payment gateway with bitcoin support is justified.

Summary
In fact, the popularization of the cryptocurrency is a tremendous threat to the centralized economy, so some media controlled by state authorities are trying to convince people that cryptocurrency market is just a soap bubble that will burst one day. On the other hand, such world-famous trading platforms as Amazon, eBay, and Rakuten, guided by the recommendations of leading financial analysts of the planet, have already employed payment gateways supporting bitcoins and some other popular types of crypto-coins. This serves the clear evidence of a huge cryptocurrencies' potential that will only grow with time.

Source: https://roobykon.com/blog/posts/81-adoption-of-cryptocurr...