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Is It Wise for E-Commerce Stores to Accept Crypto As Payment?

Everyone is aware of crypto these days. Once obscure, these digital assets are rapidly integrating into the mainstream, particularly in the realm of e-commerce. The industry is predicted to grow from its previous perception as a niche investment for tech enthusiasts to $2.9 billion by 2030.

The increasing digitisation of various aspects of life demands the recognition of virtual currency as an authentic asset, not merely a passing fad. This article will examine why the e-commerce industry is open to accept crypto as a viable payment solution, as well as what benefits it presents.

Potential of Crypto Payments

The unpredictable adoption rates of cryptocurrencies make it challenging to estimate the size of the market. The Global Crypto Adoption Index indicated that adoption peaked in Q2 2021. However, affected by economic concerns and market instability, cryptocurrency ownership proceeded to witness significant fluctuations.

According to stats, adult crypto ownership rates in the United States fell slightly from 33% in 2022 to 30% in 2023. However, with 60% of respondents saying they are familiar with the idea, there appears to be a good chance that the use of digital currencies will rise as technology becomes more widely available.

Though, the use of cryptocurrency is still quite low. According to the same survey, 38% of cryptocurrency users were lured to the technology, whereas only 13% of users bought crypto for usage in online transactions.

E-commerce aims to overcome the drawbacks of conventional payment methods to enhance the consumer experience. As the needs for online commerce change, cryptocurrencies present a viable way to conduct transactions more quickly. This and decreasing trust in conventional institutions suggest that future perceptions and usage of cryptocurrencies may change.

Advantages of Cryptocurrency in E-Commerce

Using cryptocurrency for payments gives e-commerce companies a number of advantages over competitors:

Improved Global Reach

E-commerce sites can reach a wider audience worldwide with cryptocurrencies. Conventional payment options are not always accessible everywhere and may have regional limitations. Companies looking to conduct cross-border business often choose to use cryptocurrencies because of their ease of use and absence of global regulation.

Lower Expenses

Businesses can avoid the high fees associated with using credit cards by accepting cryptocurrencies. Customers and businesses may save money as a result of the typically lower fees connected with digital asset transactions, which would cut the price of goods and services.

Greater Safety

Transactions using cryptocurrencies are highly secure since they are decentralised. As a transaction is almost impossible to undo after completion, the likelihood of fraud is greatly decreased. Adopting blockchain technology provides an extra layer of protection against chargebacks and fraudulent actions, protecting merchants and customers in the online marketplace.

Cryptocurrency Applications in E-Commerce

With cryptocurrency, a wide range of e-commerce applications are feasible:

Loyalty Programmes: The innovative and safe benefits that customers may now enjoy as a result of blockchain technology increase the allure of loyalty programmes. Benefits like loyalty tokens are ensured to be fair and secure due to the immutability of blockchain technology, which increases engagement and confidence.

Web 3.0 and Metaverse: With its immersive purchasing experience, cryptocurrency is a key component of both Web 3.0 and the metaverse. It enhances user engagement by facilitating transactions for virtual money and collectables.

Supply Chain Transparency: Supply chain integrity and product manufacturing can be transparently verified by using blockchain for tracking. This highlights a brand’s dedication to integrity in the fight against fake goods and unscrupulous business methods.

Specialised Marketplaces: With the emergence of virtual assets, specialised peer-to-peer networks marketplaces have been established. These platforms give merchants new chances to reach larger audiences and increase their market presence by providing safer transactions and lower operating costs.

Final Remarks

Companies that accept crypto as payment have a unique opportunity to gain a lot from this technology and other innovations in the industry. In addition to the advantages mentioned earlier, using cryptocurrency for payments has enormous potential to grow the e-commerce sector.

Image source: Shutterstock

Why Facebook's Libra Is Not A Real Cryptocurrency

First of all, the Libra white paper does not mention anything about the United States. There is not a single reference to the dollar, US regulatory system or legal structure. This is ironic because the founding members of Libra come from an American company. In the past, Soros sponsored hedge funds had caused trouble in the United States and were warned by the United States government for their unconventional (and unethical) practices. In other words, the hedge funds could operate in other countries but were banned in the USA. Because of this Soros had nearly destroyed the pound and resulted in the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997.

Since Libra is fully controlled by Wall Street we can strongly predict that Libra will not be popular in the USA as many Americans are discouraged by Wall Street corporations. However, Libra will be popular in other countries, especially those with unstable currency.

Secondly, Libra’s white paper, and their reserve assets and operating models say they are based on gold, euros and the Hong Kong dollar without a single mention of the US dollar. Early use of several currency deposits, as well as credible government short-term bonds, were used as Libra’s reserve assets. Libra also aims to establish stability and reputation, but it will transform into a completely open system over time.

In other words, in the early stages of replacing the fiat currency with Libra, we need to guarantee credible reserve assets but gradually will form its own value system. In the future, Libra will decouple from reserve assets and become a new independent world currency. This should be very similar to the 1971 US dollar. After the completion of internationalization, the US dollar separated from gold because of the need for more flexibility.

Thirdly, Libra can be understood as the Hong Kong dollar model. Hong Kong does not have a central bank. Banks can issue money directly, but if you want to issue Hong Kong dollars, you must pay a fixed percentage of the US dollar to the Hong Kong government. Libra will be the same in the next few years. The global cooperation agencies can obtain Libra by paying fiat currency to Libra. Then these cooperatives, like market makers, can carry out two-way exchanges between fiat currency and Libra with ordinary users.

It should be noted that Libra’s reserve assets are not a single currency, so the exchange rate is not solely the rate of the US dollar and your country’s fiat currency, it is a basket of exchange rates. But the dollar will still occupy a large portion of the entire reserve thus continuing to stimulate the exchange among global users. If the development is relatively rapid, the currencies of small countries may accelerate the depreciation or disappear, some governments may even accept Libra to pay taxes and expenses.

Libra has a very similar mission with Bitcoin. When we read the Libra white paper it is as if we read an expanded version of the 2008 Bitcoin white paper, it’s almost as if the two came from the same group or team.

If the white paper on Bitcoin in 2008 was to use a blockchain approach to create a technical currency that transcends sovereignty, then today’s Libra white paper is actually a comprehensive commercial application, based on a blockchain technically credible issue proved by Bitcoin. This is similar to the trending 5G network, starting from a long-term test of one or two base stations and then entering the large-scale commercial phase.

Bitcoin and Libra both try to solve the same problem, high transaction costs of daily micro-payments. This problem seriously affects the popularity and inclusiveness of financial resources around the world from these developers.

Libra’s mission is to enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of users.

This document outlines our plans for a new decentralized blockchain, a low-volatility cryptocurrency, and a smart contract platform that together will aim to create a new opportunity for responsible financial services innovation.

Working together, technology companies and financial institutions have found solutions to help increase economic empowerment around the world. Despite this progress, large swaths of the world’s population are still left behind — 1.7 billion adults globally remain outside of the financial system with no access to traditional banks, even though one billion have a mobile phone and nearly half a billion have internet access.

Whereas today, access to financial service is limited or restricted to those who need it most — those impacted by cost, reliability, and the ability to seamlessly send money do not have access to necessary services.

All over the world, people with less money pay more for financial services. Hard-earned income is eroded by fees such as remittances, wire costs, overdraft, ATM charges, and many others. Payday loans can charge annualized interest rates of 400 percent or more, and finance charges can be as high as $30 just to borrow $100. When people who are “unbanked” are asked why they remain on the fringe of joining the existing financial system the answer is usually the same. Those who remain “unbanked” indicate that not having sufficient funds, high and unpredictable fees, banks being too far away, and lacking the necessary documentation are the main reasons for this.

Micro-payments in developed countries such as the United States must pass through banks and credit card systems making transaction costs very high. This is not the case in China as this problem has been solved by the implementation of mobile payment. China’s mobile payment can maximize efficiency by transferring a red envelope, while the United States has to mobilize its bank settlement systems in order to transfer funds. Because of these problems and the delay of mobile payments by traditional financial institutions, it has directly stimulated the birth of Bitcoin and Libra.

So what do we reflect on, what are we losing after we gain the advantage of mobile payment?

Image source: Unsplash

Crypto for Sex: Blockchain Takes Off in the Adult Entertainment Industry

Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular in the adult entertainment industry, as it can guarantee a high level of anonymity to its users, especially for pornography-related businesses.

Anonymity and Privacy

Many adult entertainment websites have created new ways users will be able to protect their identity details through crypto payment systems. In a research conducted by the studio VogoV last year, 470 adult video sites, 50 webcam platforms, and 35 sex shops worldwide now accept cryptos as a form of payment. Dash, Monero, and Zcash are considered to be the best coins for private transactions for adult content sites.

Cryptocurrency transactions are recorded anonymously on a decentralized public ledger, making it challenging to track a person’s pornography habits. For the adult webcam industry, transparency and privacy are the most valued features of crypto, as provides authenticity and parties are known only by online handles and payment addresses.

There is a fear that people in banks or homes will be able to tell which kinds of adult materials a user consumes through their credit card bills. Getting caught viewing or purchasing adult content may cause significant legal and social risks, especially in certain jurisdictions.

The increasing interest in cryptocurrencies being used in the adult entertainment industry is a signal that cryptos are here to stay.

SpankChain

SpankChain is an Ethereum based cryptocurrency payments processor and is focusing on building blockchain-based economic and technical infrastructures for the adult entertainment industry.

SpankChain recently partnered with the adult entertainment industry fan platform, JustFor.Fans and an anonymity service that connects models with clients via Skype, SkyPrivate. The partnership allowed for a new service, SpankPay, which will enable users to pay with instant transactions with different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, ZCash, and Monero. The merchants will receive a 0.5% processing fee when users use the service.

JustFor.Fans creator, Dominic Ford, said: “Using SpankChain, we don’t have to worry about being shut down due to the fact we are an adult company. We’d much rather support our fellow adult solution providers than use outside solutions that are potentially not adult-friendly.” CEO of SkyPrivate also stated that this partnership ensures individuals are accorded equal rights and payments for their services, mostly focused on sexting services and adult models service e-commerce platforms.

Pornhub

Appealing to the privacy concerns of its users, the leading adult entertainment website Pornhub also started accepting crypto payments and began a partnership with Verge, as well as adding TRON and Zcash as payment options.

“Here at Pornhub, it’s important that we cater to our users’ ever-changing payment preferences and, as such, that means accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment method, which provide users with anonymity and security,” Corey Price, vice president of Pornhub, said at the time.

Pornhub also partnered with PumaPay to enable recurring cryptocurrency payments for its subscription service.

CamSoda

Known as one of the world’s most popular adult entertainment websites, ranking in the top 4000 websites, CamSoda started to accept cryptocurrency payments for various features on its platform.

Users on the platform can purchase tokens on the website using a variety of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, TRON, Monero, and Zcash. Data shows that 1% of CamSoda users already use cryptos as a payment solution, which was more than initially expected.

Bitcast, one of the platforms developed by CamSoda in December 2018, allows users to combine interactive sex toys with the performance of the best cryptos. CokcBlockchain, which was launched in March 2018 by CamSoda, is a platform that allows users to earn cryptos in exchange for their nude photos.

Strippers & Bitcoin

The Legends Room, a strip club in Las Vegas made the first move allowing clients to be able to pay secretly with cryptocurrencies. The strippers have temporary tattoos of QR codes where clients can scan and pay electronically by using cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin. The Legends Room also launched their own ICO, the token known as LGD.

Images via Shutterstock

PayPal Exposed of Overcharging Clients: Can Bitcoin be the Remedy?

The news has been making the rounds again as grievances have been seen expressed about the exploitative conversion fees being charged by PayPal.

The e-payment giant has been receiving some attention from social media as well as its community page about the incorrect conversation fees it charges its clients, one of its users is of the notion that the US government probably makes about $100k every day by selling one fiat currency for another at about 3-4% higher rates.

The issue had somehow passed through the nerves of the crypto community as a Reddit user had shared a screenshot showing PayPal’s exorbitant charge of 0.87462 EUR for a US dollar, this rate when being matched by a Google search of current exchange rate had reflected a 4% addition – 0.91 EUR a dollar. Tone Vays a prominent derivative trader later made a tweet using the same screenshot while criticizing PayPal for the unfair rates.

In his tweet, Vays said:

“So messed up for @PayPal to charge a 4% fee on the $EUR to $USD exchange,” he added that bitcoin would eventually destroy the payment company.

Is Bitcoin more expensive?

His tweet was followed by an epistle both for and against Bitcoin, with a majority of the comments saying that Bitcoin was an option which was a lot better given its permissionless, decentralized and immutable characteristics. This argument on whether Bitcoin is a PayPal-killing app went on endlessly. Moreover, Bitcoin seems to be more reliable as it eliminates the need for a third party while giving users full access to their funds.

Although price volatility remains a limiting factor for Bitcoin and those that know their way around it can harness it but till then, let the grievances keep inspiring young entrepreneurs to bring more reasonable alternatives.

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Dash NEXT: Fostering Crypto Adoption in Asian Tourism

Felix Mago is the CEO of Dash Thailand, and has been working in the blockchain space since 2014 and one of the driving forces of cryptocurrency adoption in Thailand. He is the author of the “Bitcoin Handbook” and the co-founder of the Dash Embassy Thailand as well as the co-founder of Futerio, a southeast Asia based gateway to blockchain, ICOs, and OTC brokerage.

We first met Felix Mago in Block Live Asia in April. After an interesting conversation. we realized that Dash’s adoption was far beyond from what we’ve seen in Venezuela. Mago also revealed the 4 key strategies of Dash Thailand in government collaboration, millennials engagement, remittance market and upcoming scalability milestone.

We were delighted to meet Mago again at Next Block Asia in Bangkok, where he shared with us the recipe for Dash’s global expansion: the Dash NEXT and more updates from Dash Thailand.

On and off-ramp for Dash/Thai Baht

One of the topics we discussed with Mago in our previous interview was the rapid changes in financial regulations being established in the Thai market which has now led to more options, such as the ability to trade Dash versus Thai Baht. Mago said, “Prior to these new regulations, one of the limitations we had been consistently coming up against was that many of our onboard merchants didn’t really want to hold cryptocurrency because of the risks in volatility, indicating to us that Thai merchants needed easier on-ramping and off-ramping to leverage Dash.” He explained, “With the changes in regulation, we are able to bring a new group of customers to local services whether they be laundry, hospitality or financial, really anything. The money paid by customers could be in crypto but it will be converted and appear in the merchant’s bank accounts as Thai Baht, which has eased most merchants’ concerns.”

Mago and his team have been primarily working on implementing Dash cryptocurrency in Thailand from two angles—the user activation side and the merchant adoption side. Mago illustrated, “We have had a mixed strategy from the beginning. The first step was actually establishing the ecosystem from the ground up as no crypto-payment system existed in Thailand. We ultimately want people to be able to come to Bangkok and be able to rely solely on crypto for purchases and secondly, we would like every merchant to have the capacity to exchange in cryptocurrency as well.” Converting every merchant to cryptocurrency was never a really scalable solution and Mago expressed that they would need to partner with the big industry players. Being in Thailand, it was obvious to Mago which industry should be tapped into first, he said, “Our first focus was to partner with a major player from the tourism industry and POS (Point-of-Sale) systems. Once a crypto been adopted by a POS systems you have access to over 10,000 merchants at once which will foster further adoption.” Dash NEXT: Fostering crypto adoption in Asia and beyond

After successfully establishing a Dash merchant network in Thailand the team created Dash NEXT with multiple global integrations and exchange listings.While Mago is very proud of his work with Dash Thailand, he and his team quickly became aware of the limitations that the name inspired when speaking with potential business partners. He explained, “The reality is that many of these partners are not just local to Thailand and do business throughout Asia and indeed globally. When creating partnerships, you must offer a value proposition and the value we were bringing often got lost in our name.”

To combat the perception, Dash NEXT is being established as the brand name for the company’s global business partnerships arm. Mago commented, “The fact is that our team is the only company for Dash cryptocurrency business development in Asia, we are the people on the ground, attending the events and establishing the network. We are doing business in Asia for Asia and in the global ecosystem.” He added, “For example, if we onboard a travel platform who is based or registered as a company in Singapore, we are more than happy to partner with them. And through the partnership, we can provide the whole world with a service for booking hotels in USA, in Australia, in Japan or in Singapore. It really won’t matter where, all that matters is that the hotels have a business connection with us.” Dash NEXT has onboarded two hotel platforms XcelTrip and Hotelier Mart in September 2019, gaining access to over 1.5 million hotels and 400+ airlines worldwide.

The sky appears to be the limit for the expansion of Dash throughout Asia, however, each country presents its own unique standards of fiscal compliance. Once again, Mago believes the solutions is having the right partners. Mago said, “You need to make partnerships, such as the example of POS systems which gives us access to 10,000 merchants across the region. We have just signed a partnership with a company called WisePass which is a multi-merchant service that offers you rewards in the form of points when you spend using the Wise Pass Card. These points can be used for discounts or special offers with Wise Pass merchants. They are based in Singapore but they also provide services to Vietnam and Thailand. We have also partnered with Blucon.io to launch 2 million Dash branded debit cards and public transport cards in Korea, which are linkable with Digifinex and other crypto exchanges in the future. So to summarize, our strategy is to find partners who are localized but who also have an international network in their business model.”

(From left to right) Sascha Jochum of Dash NEXT, Matthew Lam of Blockchain.News and Felix Mago of Dash NEXT

Dash Investment Foundation

The Dash Investment Foundation is a very new initiative at Dash and at the time of this interview, they had only recently voted to establish their board of governors.

Speaking to the initiative, Mago said, “Basically 10% of all our generated revenue is invested back into the Dash core and this is done by all teams around the world. Besides this, there has always been a discussion about investing in companies to enhance the speed of crypto adoption, or to fund companies that are doing new and interesting things that we would like to be a part of.” He continued, “We wanted to avoid just giving money which they would use to eventually do their own thing away from Dash. We wanted to build in a type of equity, where the companies would promote Dash through some type of leveraging of our technology and perhaps bring us in as shareholders. In return we would essentially loan them capital for investment or for scaling and to launch their business.”

Credits to Sascha Jochum for his support of this interview.

Worldwide Payment Provider Adopts New Crypto-to-Crypto Buy and Sell Feature

Skrill, a notable worldwide payment provider, has revealedits latest move of integrating a new option that permits the buying and selling of all cryptocurrencies into its platform.

This strategy is intended at eradicating the urge of converting cryptocurrencies into fiat so that a purchase can be made.

Skrill’s cryptocurrency journey

Skrill established the cryptocurrency service in July 2018, enabling users to buy different digital assets.

Lorenzo Pellegrino, Skrill CEO, noted that crypto was crucial in their operations. As a result, it was essential for the company to devise ways of simplifying the way customers interacted with these digital assets. Expressly, users have the opportunity to buy even less known altcoins, such as ox and Ethereum Classic.

Pellegrino acknowledged: “Cryptocurrency is an important part of what we do in digital wallets and using our scale and vast experience of the payments industry, we’re continually enhancing our service to help our customers get the most out of the crypto ecosystem.”

As reported by Blockchain.News on Nov. 26, the Crypto Price Index (CPI) is anticipated to be an ideal crypto market indicator because it will include over 200 of the top traded cryptocurrencies based on market capitalization. It is expected to function like the Dow Jones Industrial Average by offering insights about the trading history of the major blockchain projects.

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Financial Conduct Authority, the Pacemaker of the UK FinTech Revolution

Established on Apr. 1 2013, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates the conduct for 59,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK. Given that the UK financial service sector employs over 2.2 million people and contributes GBP 65.6 billion taxations in the UK economy, the FCA strives to ensure a fair, regulated payment market for customer protection and maintain the UK’s reputation as a major global financial hub.

Apart from regulating the financial service market, the FCA is also the pacemaker of FinTech in the UK. We arranged an interview with Maha El Dimachki, Head of Payments of the FCA during the Singapore FinTech Festival,which El Dimachki shares with us the contribution of the FCA for the UK as the thriving FinTech hub, opportunities and threats of e-money firms from the current digital disruption.

Could you please give us a brief summary of your background and how you first became interested in the potential of Financial Technology?

Payment is an area that has interested me for a long time, having spent quite a number of years in the front line, operational, strategy, governance and risk management roles in and around payments, domestic and global. You cannot talk about fintech without talking about payments. We see a lot of FinTechs operating in the payments space and bringing to market new ideas that in some cases, like e-money, are now part of the fabric of our society. These new propositions have the potential to make our lives safe, seamless and secure. It can also disrupt them, damage our finances and destroy our trust.

The FCA, through its innovative work, seeks to encourage innovation in the interest of consumers. The question is how can we help innovative firms operate in a regulatory context, getting their products to market faster? And crucially, how can we ensure that the ones who get there do this in a safe way with the consumer at the heart of their propositions?

We are now at the point where the things that used to be seen as a niche can be seen as a mass market. Serious, sophisticated technologies operating in the financial system for real public gain.

By harnessing new technologies and turning them to the public good, we’re able to do things that just weren’t possible before. We’ve heard of examples where eye-gazing technologies help people with cerebral palsy to operate a laptop, communicate and make decisions or the use of biometrics across multiple disciplines and sectors. It’s exciting to see fintech firms looking to find solutions to address society-wide concerns like financial inclusion, or supporting various sectors of society with niche and specific needs.

What do you think has driven the FinTech revolution in the UK to make it one of the world leaders in this field?

London has become a thriving fintech hub. There are over 1,600 fintech firms in the UK and this number is predicted to double by 2030.

This state of affairs depends on some important contributory factors like entrepreneurial talent, availability of capital, the availability of technology and a supportive regulatory environment.

For payment firms, the implementation of the second payment services directive (PSD2) and open banking have become key enablers to driving innovation. The FCA’s Innovate and Sandbox – and all the initiatives that go with it such as our TechSprints – have played their part in this. For example, we have seen a large number of propositions coming through the FCA sandbox using DLT and blockchain technologies to find innovative solutions in financial services, notably applied in cross border payments with the aim to make them faster and more secure.

Whilst the UK has enjoyed a strong position as a fintech hub, we should never take our fintech sector for granted – but if we understand what supports it and has led to it developing, we stand a better chance of nurturing it.

How can institutions of different sizes benefit from the challenges of digital disruption today?

We’re now far down the road of the fourth industrial revolution – one dominated and defined by transformative technology – and the pace of change is only going to get faster.

Digital disruption provides opportunities to small and new players, as well as incumbent firms. All firms with know-how can provide new services to customers or to other providers. They may also be able to cut costs and partner up to create more compelling offerings for customers. Meanwhile, digital disruption can also offer opportunities to simplify or reduce compliance-based costs using RegTech. The M&A activity among payments firms continues to be strong and more and more organizations are seeing the value of partnerships. All this brings value to consumers and contributes to economic growth.

Payments and E-money firms epitomize our point that this kind of innovation brings great opportunity, but potentially create even greater threats if not done right. They have the potential to make our lives safe, seamless and secure; but can also disrupt them, damage our finances and destroy our trust.

These are not notional risks. Many of the firms we supervise have business and operating models that are evolving and adapting in ways that traditional businesses can only dream of. But oversight and risk management within these firms need to keep up to ensure that the sector develops in a safe way and in the interest of consumers.

Could you please tell us about your position, responsibilities and some day to day activities that you are involved with at the FCA?

My team is responsible for supervising over 1,150 payment and e-money firms in the UK Payments Sector, as well as supporting our retail banking colleagues. Our firms span small start-up technology companies to the UK’s largest merchant acquirers with established global footprints.

The FCA has a strategic objective to ensure markets work well. To advance this, we have 3 operational objectives:

• To promote effective competition in the interest of consumers

• To secure an appropriate degree of protection for consumers

• To protect and enhance the integrity of the UK financial system

We always have these in mind when speaking directly with firms, and setting our supervisory priorities.

In payments, our work focuses on key priorities designed to ensure that consumers are adequately protected when using the services of non-bank payments and e-money firms and that firms are not vehicles for financial crime and money laundering.

One of the key customer protections in the regulation of payment and e-money firms is the need to segregate and safeguard customer funds from other firm money. If this is not done in a sound way, and the firm fails, consumers may lose their money. It is, therefore, an important priority that firms get this right.

It is in the commercial interest of firms that they don’t fail. Prudential management of firms is a key focus of the FCA. Monitoring firm’s compliance with its regulatory capital requirements, and ensuring they have sufficient controls in place to identify when they may be likely to face financial difficulty so management can take steps to address the harm, or safely close the business in an orderly fashion before it’s too late. We see a clear link between firms facing prudential stresses and the potential for wider regulatory and conduct failings within firms leading to consumer harm and damaging trust in the wider market.

Financial crime is an FCA wide priority – with implications for individual firms, consumers, wider market integrity, and the security of the UK. Firms must ensure that they have the right systems and controls in place to detect and prevent money laundering and financial crime activities.

There is no typical day in the life of a payment supervisor. On any given day, the team may be reviewing intelligence and speaking with law enforcement agencies to identify the potential harm to consumers, investigating issues with individuals and firms, conducting on-site visits, or monitoring remediation activities.

I am keen to ensure that we continue to understand the challenges and opportunities within the sector such that we develop our supervisory work with the ability to respond to an environment of rapid change.

3 Benefits You Need to Know About Cryptocurrency Credit Cards

Many consumers are in the dark about ancillary benefits that cryptocurrency visa card could provide. The latest breaking news indicates that MedeTrade cryptocurrency exchange has now made Dash available for use with its Visa cryptocurrency credit and debit card.

Here are the 3 benefits that crypto users need to know about cryptocurrency credit and debit cards.

1. Making payments

Cryptocurrency Visa Cards like MedeTrade cryptocurrency credit and debit card allow crypto users to make payments for day-to-day activities such as shopping and paying bills.

2. Transferring money

Cryptocurrency Visa Cards allow users to transfer money anywhere and anytime in the world.

3. Holding different currencies

Cryptocurrency Visa Cards allow users to hold different currencies like EURO, US. Dollar, and others.

A Classic Crypto Visa Card

Meanwhile, the MedeTrade Visa card is accepted worldwide and issued via Bank of Vallete in Malta. The visa card is now available to Dash users. It offers both unverified and verified version with better withdrawal and transaction services.

Consumers can deposit Dash digital cash into the service wallet that is therefore available to be spent by the visa card. Furthermore, the card provides a cryptocurrency-back spending reward with every purchase earning up to 3% Bitcoin back on all online purchases.

The MedeTrade visa card serves as a debit card that enables Dash users to spend their money more easily worldwide. The visa card also serves as a credit card that provides verified users with a line of credit of up to €700 on the card. The credit option allows users to have more flexibility in converting their cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies for payments.

Cards pave the way for crypto mass adoption

Dash has been integrated into several gift cards and cryptocurrency debit cards for crypto providers to increase Dash’s appeal to consumers and spread Dash’s usability. This is significantly useful as a bridge between cryptocurrency users and retail businesses who may not yet accept crypto payments directly.

Crypto adoption surveys

Numerous consumer surveys regarding cryptocurrency adoption show different results. Mixed surveys indicate that after 10 years, cryptocurrency adoption is still quite low. Statista study indicates that Turkey has the highest adoption of 20% with respondents revealed to own cryptocurrency, followed by Colombia and Brazil, with 18% of each nation.

But GlobalWebIndex indicates that for those who are 16-64 years old, South Africa has the highest adoption with 10.7%, while Thailand has an adoption rate of 9.9%. But several consumers may still want to use and buy cryptocurrencies and will need to leverage services like cryptocurrency visa cards.

Image via Shutterstock

Payment Giant Visa Sets to Modify PoS Charges to New Business Categories

United States-based merchants are set to see an adjustment in fees to be paid as part of the updates of payment giant Visa point-of-sale (PoS) system.

This situation was made open in a document sent by representatives of Visa to banks notifying them of an upgrade of its system, set to be implemented in the months of April and October respectively. This change in direction is part of the payments giant goals to force merchants to halt the use of checks and to also modify its new fee structure for upcoming businesses.

The potential outcome of the decision

The payments giant is allegedly preparing to implement higher rates for transactions made on e-commerce platforms while lowering the rates for specified service categories such as healthcare, educational system, and real estate. Therefore, traditional holders of Visa cards will pay 9 cents more for the transaction of $100, while holders of premium cards will have to pay 10 cents more in comparison to current rates.

Premium-card holders will see 33% drop rates in interchange fees for the transaction of $50 categories to be enjoyed by supermarkets, as reported by the documents sent by Visa.

The report read, “In the past ten years, there has been no change in the U.S credit interchange structure. This is based on data of the most recent review in the U.S. Visa now tries to modify its default interchange rate structure in order to maximize acceptability and usability, which will then mirror the present value of Visa products.”

Visa also aims to seize the opportunity that abounds in the continuous change in the global financial and payments landscape, which is witnessing drastic changes with the emergence and development of digital currencies.

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Facebook’s Libra Could Do to the Payment Sector What Elon Musk's SpaceX Did to the Space Industry, Binance Research Reveals

Libra has released its updated whitepaper, marking several significant changes towards providing individual stablecoins for major fiat currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, and Libra Coin.

Binance took a closer look at Libra’s recent whitepaper update and concluded that Facebook’s project could potentially disrupt the payment industry.

Taking into account that the Libra Association recently applied to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA for a payment system license, Binance stated that such a payment system may very likely qualify as being “systemically important.” By applying for the payment system license, the Libra payments system would be accessible to the public.

There is an advantage of issuing widely-available programmable currency, which could lead to efficiency gains. As an optimistic comparison, Binance added, “Libra’s envisioned global payment system could do to the payment industry what SpaceX did to the space industry: shake the foundations of a well-established sector with high entry barriers.

Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, was mentioned in the report as an industry leader in the space sector due to its significant step forward in improving speed for rocket journeys.

The report also highlighted that most payment systems are operated by a central bank and of regional scope, as Libra could have an advantage has it could potentially have a wider reach of users. Focusing further on financial inclusion, Binance claims that Libra positions itself as a new financial framework to “enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.”

One of the major updates of the Libra whitepaper is that it explicitly mentions the limits of what users are able to do on the network, including balance and transaction limits, and the network would only be accessible to regulated crypto firms in the beginning.

Binance suggests that Libra would have to comply with even more stringent criteria laid out by the Bank for International Settlements, after enduring months of regulatory scrutiny from global regulators. Regulating Libra has been difficult in many global institutions,

Recently, the Libra Association has welcomed a new member, Heifer International, a nonprofit organization aimed to tackle world hunger and poverty. The addition of Heifer International brings the tally of members in the Libra Association to twenty-three.

The Libra project joins the trend of many central banks turning to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in a time where the birth of coronavirus causes concern for using banknotes. The Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) is now looking to test a blockchain-based clearing system to be used by the country’s major financial institutions. The aim of the blockchain clearing system is to provide efficiencies for fiat payments and enable them to be more reliable and to provide end-to-end traceability. Sweden’s Sveriges Riksbank announced that it had started testing an e-krona, taking one step closer to the release of a central bank digital currency. The e-krona aims to simulate everyday banking activities, including payments, deposits, and withdrawals from a digital wallet on a mobile phone. The pilot testing program has been scheduled to operate for one year, until February 2021 and will be running on blockchain.