At the moment, however, only a few of the 500 largest e-commerce retailers accept Bitcoin - and in fact the number has fallen over the past few quarters, according to the below table from digitalcommerce360.
Support of Bitcoin low among top 500 e-commerce retailers Article continues after advert | |
Quarter | Number of retailers accepting Bitcoin |
Q1 2016 | 5 |
Q2 2016 | 5 |
Q3 2016 | 5 |
Q4 2016 | 5 |
Q1 2017 | 3 |
Q2 2017 | 3 |
Q3 2017 | 3 |
Ms Ward believes the risks and rewards are equally visible when it comes to cryptocurrencies. She adds: "At this stage, there may be a significant upside - for example the freedom of choice to transact in a currency that is entirely transparent, but it comes with significant downsides as well."
Mr Carter adds: "The potential for coins like Ripple to integrate with big banks and create efficiencies is certainly there. But those evangelising about blockchain may be forgetting how important it is to forge personal relationships in finance - even today.
"I’m interested in helping develop clear regulation and legislation, more transparency from lenders, and a market that rewards innovation and improvements to services.
"But in a sector that is facing challenges on multiple fronts, the importance of these fundamental elements seems to have bypassed the swelling numbers of cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiasts."
Yet Mr Pieper believes the various risks outlined can more likely be challenges, and if you ignore the hype of the aforementioned "enthusiasts" and look at the underlying functionality, cryptocurrency, he believes, will play a much larger role in the future and lead to more innovation and technological development.
He says: "As people seek to fix the transaction speed issues and scalability issues, not to mention regulatory issues across different jurisdictions, as well as different tax treatments, so there will be applications developed to solve such issues for future users."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
