Unicorns Integrate Cryptocurrency Payments, Showing Blockchain Is Far From Done Posted on : Sep 21 - 2018

At the end of last year, more established companies began accepting cryptocurrency as payment for goods and services, with companies such as Overstock and PayPal coming to mind. By adopting cryptocurrencies, these companies create a strong foundation and support, pushing blockchain towards mainstream despite recent drops.

It has also recently been announced that Wix, a publicly traded unicorn allowing small businesses and individuals to create web sites, will be adding a crypto payment method as one of its billing methods. This is done by a blockchain payment company called PumaPay, which have raised almost 120 million dollars in a private sale.

The premise of this collaboration, specifically, is that it isn’t only about Wix users being able to pay in crypto, but that Wix users will have the possibility to implement said payment scenarios on their own websites, thus enabling their customers to pay in tokens.

After cryptocurrency reached a record high at the beginning of the year, the past six months have been less than stellar for the cryptocurrency and blockchain world. It seems that following a dip and downturn in cryptocurrency, the backing of digital assets in the mainstream world is wobbling. Users are feeling more apprehensive than ever, as to whether crypto will have a consistent place in our future.

Some claim that the hype surrounding this space is dying down as its temperamental nature has begun revealing it true self, others are asserting that all emerging tech deal with this type of uproar, before settling into its groove.

While both sides of the argument have basis, Gartner recently gave its position on the debate with the release of its 2018 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, naming Digitalized Ecosystems as a technology that will “deliver a high degree of competitive advantage over the next decade”, even claiming that we are only in the beginning stages of adoption, with Gartner “estimating [that] hundreds of millions of things will have digital twins within five years.”

While Gartner’s predictions do seem promising for the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency, the research company does state that “emerging technologies in general will require support from new technical foundations and more dynamic ecosystems.” Generally speaking, emerging technologies are dominated by startups and smaller companies, as they seem to be more willing to take a chance on the unfamiliar.

It's clear that support from new technical foundations will be required in order to take blockchain and cryptocurrencies into the future - and these foundations will come through more established companies. View More