CryptoCurrencyWire
Editorial Coverage: According to a new paper from researchers at Imperial College
London that suggests digital currencies are now primed for mass
adoption, Bitcoin (Crypto: BTC) and other cryptocurrencies will
become mainstream forms of payment within the next decade for goods
and services on the strength of their increasing suitability for
the role.
- Outsiders and even insiders struggle to maintain accurate
understanding of rapidly evolving space
- Ratings agencies, indexes and industry analyst sites cropping
up to address information verifiability deficits
- “Spendability” and usability emerging as acid tests for
cryptos, ICOs and blockchain tech
Key factors driving the mainstream adoption of digital
currencies, such as the ability to act as a store of value or
function as a technologically superior medium of exchange amid the
rapid rise of contactless and mobile payments, have already
cemented crypto as a permanent fixture of the payments landscape.
However, it is difficult for even well-versed investors to
understand and evaluate the legitimacy of individual
cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings (ICOs) and blockchain
technology companies. This challenge has led to the emergence of
ICO rating agencies and market analysis sites such as Cointelligence. Some of the key players helping
to make sense of this increasingly complex space include payment
solution developers such as Virtual Crypto Technologies,
Inc. (OTCQB: VRCP) (VRCP
Profile), Worldpay, Inc. Class A (NYSE:
WP) and Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ), as well
as online credit marketplace developer LendingClub Corp.
(NYSE: LC) and investor-focused fintech leader
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:
BR).
The Evolution of Money
The Imperial College London paper argues that crypto is the next
logical step in the evolution of money. This argument makes sense,
especially as improvements to scalability, design and regulatory
certainty help shore up the other main factor driving crypto’s
adoption: its ability to act as a unit of account and measure of
value in the economic system. This key function of money is an
important factor underwritten by store of value and medium of
exchange, and it has led to the emergence of “spendability” as a
new and dominant criterion for evaluating the legitimacy of a
cryptocurrency or ICO. This standard makes sense because one of the
fundamental tests of whether a given crypto is money — and
therefore a sound investment for those on Wall Street — is whether
consumers can go to the main street and actually use the currency
to purchase goods and services.
It’s no secret that people outside the industry barely
understand the ongoing Cambrian explosion of cryptocurrencies,
payment systems and blockchain technologies. This rapidly evolving
ecosystem is difficult for even industry insiders to keep accurate
track of. However, several agencies and analyst sites have cropped
up to provide more reliable, actionable and transparent information
to investors. Bloomberg recently teamed up with digital asset
management firm Galaxy Digital Capital Management to launch the
Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI), which tracks the largest,
most liquid portion of the cryptocurrency market. ICO rating
agencies and sites — such as ICORating, ICO Champs and Crush Crypto
— are continuing to develop more comprehensive rating methodologies
designed to weed out the inherent subjectivity of such ratings.
However, the problem of corruption continues to plague this ongoing
process, and the crypto community is growing increasingly wary and aggressive.
Crypto-Rich, But Can It Be Spent?
Many ICOs today fail to actually meet the criteria required to
be considered viable long-term contenders by many analysts. These
offerings are stuck in the idea phase with what amounts to a cool
concept and vision but no functional proofs to move to the next
level. Hence the increasing prominence of spendability (and
practical usability for technologies) as a hallmark of legitimacy,
because this single factor is typically one of the strongest
indications that a company can truly transform an idea into
reality. This is where advanced point-of-sale (POS) technologies
such as those being developed by Virtual
Crypto Technologies (OTCQB: VRCP), which can allow any
crypto to become spendable, stand to make a significant
difference.
With the unveiling of VRCP’s upgraded version of its
bidirectional (buy and sell bitcoin) NetoBit ATM at the TechCrunch
Tel Aviv event in early June, as well as an update to the NetoBit
Pay application and its latest participation in the Crypto Economy,
Regulation and Banking panel at the Bit2C Crypto annual conference
in Israel, the company has further established itself as a leader in the sector. Alon Dayan, the CEO of
Virtual Crypto, explained that the pilot launch of the new machine,
which mimics the ATM and credit card processes familiar to
consumers, has thus far received an “extremely positive” response.
The machine is a sleek, compact, dual-monitor solution with an
intuitive interface that allows users to initiate a transaction by
simply scanning an app-generated QR code.
User Experience Key for Consumers and Retailers, Digital
or Otherwise
Real-time transaction verification by VRCP's proprietary
validation algorithm, based on state-of-the-art blockchain
technology that helps set an industry standard of mere seconds for
completion instead of the minutes or hours traditionally required,
continues to make the company’s over-the-counter NetoBit ATM
solution a game changer for both operators and consumers. This kind
of reliable ease of use is the sort of innovation it will likely
take to make crypto user friendly enough for the mainstream and
more readily perceived by both consumers and retailers as a
desirable form of money. The platform’s ability to utilize any
cryptocurrency and provide real-time price and transaction
validation offers sector players a means of directly contacting end
users, building up a reputation and validating their presence as a
legitimate entity to both indexes and ratings agencies.
VRCP is dedicated to making cryptocurrencies accessible to the
public through innovative payment solutions, and the company
represents a diverse IP, software and hardware position for
investors looking to increase their exposure to the
crypto/blockchain space. Of course, VRCP is not alone as a payment
solutions provider, and other players are bridging cryptocurrency,
payments, fintech and blockchain technologies.
Worldpay (NYSE: WP) is regarded as one of the
leading POS operators in the game today and has been making
increasing strides to incorporate blockchain technology in order to
better serve its merchant and financial institution customers. This
is increasingly important for the company, as cryptocurrency
exchanges are forecast to generate upwards of $3 billion in revenue
by 2023, providing Worldpay with a sizeable and growing market for
the company’s services.
Square (NYSE: SQ), which announced it had
secured the necessary BitLicense required to operate in New York
state’s $1.547 trillion (gross state product) market in June, also
recently opened up its wildly popular Cash App to bitcoins via a
partnership with Genesis Global Trading. One of only a handful of
New York State Department of Financial Services-regulated trading
partners, Genesis Global Trading was also one of the first OTC
crypto trading platforms to gain ground among institutional
investors.
LendingClub (NYSE: LC) appears to fully
comprehend that, like the crypto/blockchain space, the online
credit marketplace is an evolving ecosystem. The company’s goals of
leveraging blockchain technology to increase liquidity for
investors and provide advantages such as dynamic pricing
adjustments that will narrow the gap between borrowers and
investors may one day put LC in a position to offer a wide range of
products and services beyond credit and investing. Former CEO
Renaud Laplanche certainly seems to think so, because his rival
company Upgrade has been pursuing the development of an application
on the Ethereum blockchain to track and record loan data for some
time now.
Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), the
fintech giant that successfully completed a blockchain-enabled
bilateral repurchase (repo) pilot last year with Natixis and
Societe Generale sees things in much the same way as LendingClub.
Blockchain-driven innovations have the potential to add significant
liquidity to loan markets, potentially revolutionizing transactions
with complex structures such as syndicated loans, which typically
can take up to 20 days of grueling manual settlement work to
complete. Faster processing like this, as well as the potential to
reduce legal costs and closing fees, could lead to big improvements
in the way certain instruments are handled.
While the factors differentiating a legitimate cryptocurrency
ICO or blockchain technology project from a failure or scam are
still being hashed out, a laundry list of hallmarks has been
established. Chief among those hallmarks is the concept of
spendability and usability. Practical applications with
demonstrably advantageous results in the realm of blockchain tech
and field-proven transaction functionality that brings benefits and
improved user experience to the table in the realm of crypto and
payment tech are quickly becoming acid tests for investors. A
company such as Virtual Crypto stands poised at the nexus of
overlap between the two worlds with an arguably exceptional IP,
software and hardware portfolio that investors should be aware
of.
For more information on Virtual Crypto Technologies, please
visit Virtual Crypto
Technologies (OTCQB: VRCP)
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