Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
October 22, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- If you know anything
about Alibaba and WeChat at this point, then you probably also know
that they have made big plays to capture their own shares of the
Digital Currency market. The difference between these companies and
the typical Crypto project is simply that even though they have
done so, they have made sure to maintain a level of distance from
the Blockchain space up to this point.
In most cases, this means calling their offerings digital payment
systems as well as not using the Blockchain, at all. Even so, it
does seem that a paradigm shift has been occurring, as Alipay and
WeChat Pay continuously evolve and take over more of people’s
lives, especially in China and Japan.
To put things into a bit of perspective, it appears that as of May
15, one report found that the primary areas in WeChat pay has been
used are what are called “offline environments.” According to the
same report, at the same time, the second most popular usage of
WeChat pay has been for general online shopping.
In looking at both of these findings, it may easily be said that
the first is far more significant, given that it shows that a
digital payment system has penetrated areas of people’s lives that
typically involve fiat currencies on an overwhelming
level.
With Alipay, the situation appears to be essentially the same.
Business Insider even goes as far as to claim that these payment
systems have ended up so pervasive that cash is almost non-existent
on the streets. Inside of this discussion, it is claimed that
street performers even accept digital payments
regularly.
In an overarching sense, anyone is a business with a simple
download of an app.
From a financial perspective, the sky is the limit for such
companies with Chinese mobile payments hitting $5.5 trillion, even
back in 2016. In the case of the United States, at the same time,
they were sitting on only a $112 billion market and the gap has
only been getting wider. In short, China has found a way to do what
the rest of the world does not seem to have accomplished yet by
pegging digital money to real world items so that people understand
the prices of needed items in terms beyond fiat
currencies.
Furthermore, in China, everyone can accept payments for any service
without the involvement of any middleman. With all of this
under consideration, it is hard not to speculate what this growing
trend will mean for the continued scaling of the Blockchain
industry, over time. On a surface level, both spaces seem to be
able to exist comfortably hand in hand for the time being. Upon
further analysis, simply given what Cryptocurrencies are in
connection with what digital currencies are, eventually something
has to give.
Even though one uses the Blockchain and one does not, both are
looking to replace traditional money. Because all of this is going
on, one could conclude that it has never been more important to
establish strong use cases for Blockchain technology beyond its
central function as a decentralized ledger.
If we do not do this in time, then this year’s market slump might
get even worse before it gets better. To do this right, as business
schools tell their students time and time again, true customer
needs should be answered by companies that are actually solving an
important problem. If, on the other hand, both Alipay and WeChat
Pay move into the Blockchain space before the year’s end, then the
whole industry might change drastically.
By: BGN Editorial Staff