How Emerging Fintechs Are Bringing Convenience to Bitcoin

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Bitcoin has become one of the most exciting entities in modern finance. Become in 2009 as an alternative decentralized digital currency, it was hoped that BTC could eventually replace fiat finance like the dollar to provide fairer global economic ecosystems.

While Bitcoin has rarely strayed from the headlines over the past 12 years, it still seems hard to imagine a future where we pay for our morning coffees in BTC. However, fintech and the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem may soon bring much more convenient levels to Bitcoin and the wider world of crypto.

Over the past year, great strides have been made to enable BTC payments to become more prevalent around the world. It became possible to buy a Tesla with Bitcoin, and to shop using BTC wallets. Recently, El Salvador chose to adopt cryptocurrency as legal tender at the national level.

However, despite recent advances in Bitcoin use cases, many experts are still skeptical of the practicality of BTC beyond being a store of wealth.

(Image: CoinGecko)

One of the main concerns about the practicality of Bitcoin is that the cryptocurrency is simply too volatile for everyday use at this point.

“If you bought a $ 50,000 Tesla with four bitcoins on October 1, that purchase now has an opportunity cost of $ 212,000 because the dollar price of bitcoin has gone from $ 10,000 to $ 53,000 in the past. During these four and a half months, Robert Minter, director of investment strategy, Aberdeen Standard Investments recently told Markets Insider. This type of volatility is not suitable for trading in an economy. “

However, BTC can still be a great asset if users are looking to prioritize the convenience of a decentralized currency widely used across borders before more stable fiat financial units. With that in mind, it might not come as a surprise that emerging fintechs are already actively helping to bring much more usability to Bitcoin on a global scale.

Integrate BTC into daily use

While practical use cases for crypto are still relatively rare, investing in cryptocurrencies is spreading – with at least 6% of Americans owning or having traded with crypto tokens in the last year.

We’ve also seen early adoption happening in some of the largest organizations in the world, and many large companies are entering the cryptocurrency space by offering crypto cards, which can pave the way for faster and more transactions. fluids.

As PayPal has stepped up efforts to accommodate BTC and various altcoins, emerging fintech firms like Marqeta have taken the lead in pushing Bitcoin into the world of physical finance by fueling the launch of various crypto payment cards.

Responsible for the U.S. launch of the Coinbase card, the Shakepay card in Canada, and Fold – a Bitcoin rewards debit card – Marqeta is an example of how fintechs are helping pave the way for cases of much more convenient use for decentralized cryptocurrencies like this one from Bitcoin.

Ethereums DeFi Dominance

Bitcoin remains the most notable example of decentralized crypto finance today. As the first player on the scene, the world’s most famous digital currency is still going strong today. However, BTC faces stiff competition in terms of usability from Ethereum.

The more adaptable Ethereums blockchain has inspired a range of decentralized applications (DApps) that can capitalize on newer and more advanced features of cryptocurrencies.

DeFi and fintech can go hand in hand when it comes to providing advanced financial services such as blockchain-based loans and smart contracts that can instantly negotiate complex transactions between companies without the need for an intermediary.

DApps make heavy use of the Ethereum blockchain network, but that doesn’t mean Bitcoin doesn’t have its own functioning DeFi ecosystem.

(Image: DeFi Pulse)

With over 200,000 BTC locked in DeFi today (around $ 8.7 billion at the time of writing), there is a clear and thriving ecosystem surrounding the world’s oldest cryptocurrency.

The Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem is populated by many fintechs that rely on DeFi solutions to make BTC much more accessible to everyone.

Notably, Bitcoin hosts the Lightning Network, a decentralized network that uses smart contract functionality in the blockchain to enable instant payments over a large network of participants. The range of DeFi projects within Bitcoin is wide and analytics services like Token Terminal have also come to the fore, which consists of a dashboard providing more traditional financial metrics for crypto assets and DeFi products.

Significantly, many projects have grown to bring much greater convenience to Bitcoin for users, including a wide range of crypto wallets like Trust Wallet, Enjin, Bitpie, and Eidoo. We’ve even seen the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem provide LN Markets, a margin trading platform for individuals to trade derivatives on the Lightning cryptocurrency network.

The rise of these DeFi assets has the potential to combine with emerging fintech projects in the wider world of finance, such as Connectum, which is a platform that helps deliver borderless finance through multi-processing. -currencies, one-click payments and secure 3D transactions to help money travel around the world on a transparent scale. Connectum uses an artificial intelligence security anti-fraud system called Securita while always updating security measures with the latest technology to reduce fraudulent chargebacks.

As the DeFi and fintech ecosystems continue to grow, the practical applications of BTC and other cryptocurrencies are likely to grow at an exponential rate, making everyday use much more likely in the future.

Despite the erratic performance of Bitcoin prices over the chaotic and successful 12 years since its initial launch, advancements in fintech and DeFi may mean that one day we may still find ourselves buying regularly this morning coffee in BTC.

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