Richard Costello from MultiPlumb explains the top three reasons why he believes merchants should start accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment method today.

This past year has seen a massive explosion of different digital currencies to the point where we have coins with weird names such as Elastos, Nexty and Tao. Why are there so many? Aren’t most of them scams? Which ones should I accept as a form of payment for my business?

It is a confusing area but one thing is for sure - if you do not do your research and get the right advice then you will get burned.

Why are there so many different coins?

Blockchain technology is the reason why we see so many different coins on the market today. The technology allows developers to create different coins for a variety of functions.

Each coin is built with a different vision or purpose in mind. NEO, for example, has a goal of creating a smart economy based on digital assets and smart contracts. Stellar is focused on providing cheaper international transactions and EOS has been designed to create a decentralised application platform.

Confusing right? Don’t worry, because you don’t need to be concerning yourself with the details at this stage as most of the coins will probably fail in the next few years as the tech is still in its infancy.

1. Major businesses are already accepting them

Companies like Microsoft, Overstock, Expedia, Subway and PayPal are million-dollar businesses who accept crypto currencies. These companies invest millions into research and development so they’re not going to make a decision like this on a whim. They know what they are doing and know exactly what direction the future is heading so they want to stay ahead of the game.

Every day, more and more companies are adopting cryptos because of the benefits they bring:

• You get paid quickly

• Lower transaction fees

• Fraud prevention

• No chargebacks

• Cheaper international payments

2. Millennials Have Embraced Cryptocurrencies!

Accepting cryptocurrency as a payment method for your business opens up many new opportunities for your business. Millennials are crypto savvy and are using crypto to purchase goods and services more and more, so it only makes sense to tap into this customer base before your competitors do.

Paying by crypto might be the deciding factor in them choosing to use you or another company.

Research has also shown that adding more payment methods to your online store reduces the chances of your shopping cart being abandoned. It offers customers more flexibility and is more likely to lead to a sale.

3. Be Part of the Next Digital Revolution

The global market cap for cryptocurrencies at the time of writing this article is only $209461691030.00. That’s $209 billion dollars. Whilst that sounds like a lot it is only a fraction of the size of industries like the US stock market ($30 trillion) and the gold market ($7.8 trillion).

This means that cryptocurrencies are still relatively small in comparison to its ‘competition’. The world is becoming more and more digitalised and it only makes sense that cryptos will continue to play a huge role in this. Some would say that cryptos are the next stage of the digital revolution.

Consider how much they have grown in value over the last few years. It makes a lot of sense that the market cap will continue to rise and that more and more people will adopt them.

Which ones should you accept?

So, you’ve decided to start accepting cryptos in your business. This is a tricky question to answer because there are so many. The truth is that most of them are scams to some degree and will probably not be around in a few years.

My company, MultiPlumb, currently only accept Bitcoin because historically it has been the most stable and has the biggest market share (correct at the time of writing).

We are considering Litecoin, DASH and Ethereum but for now we’re going to stick with just accepting Bitcoin.

I must stress that I’m not a financial advisor and the above comments are of my personal opinion, but I believe that cryptocurrencies are the future. Only time will tell.

Richard Costello

Richard Costello, from Dartford in Kent, is the owner of MultiPlumb and has been involved in the plumbing industry installing bathrooms and boiler systems for over 15 years.