Everybody is excited about Altcoins, but nobody is using them!
The intention of this post is not to bash Altcoins. There are a lot of exciting projects out there, with vibrant communities, tirelessly working on advancing Blockchain projects and the fascinating world of cryptocurrencies. But let's face the truth: Nobody is using Altcoins. And by Altcoins, we mean projects that use a tradeable token to incentivise the sturdiness and resilience of its blockchain - because without a token, a blockchain don't make a whole lot of sense. So we're talking about pretty much all projects that are listed on CoinCap.
Wow! We are accepting more than 40 Altcoins!
We were pretty excited when we announced Bitwala's partnership with Shapeshift a couple weeks ago. All of the sudden, we could accept more than 40 Altcoins! We have written posts on some, like Ethereum, Dash, Monero or LBRY. Some of those were never intended to be used as means of payment while others explicitly try to improve or even replace Bitcoin.
But nobody is using them.
So here's our experience with Altcoins: Nobody is using them! We had heard this rumor before, from other Altcoin accepting sites, like BitcoinCommodities. It takes some work to implement the option to accept them, and more work to market them. We weren't exactly sure if it would be feasible to do so. We decided to go ahead anyways. We got some decent coverage and encouraging responses, especially for our announcements regarding Steem, Monero and Dash. The announcement that we'd be accepting Dash got us at least an additional 1000 unique users, which is pretty good for our current average traffic. The announcement about our support of Steem even made us 500 USD in Steem (which will be given away to charity, as promised). The post about Monero resulted in the most engaging tweet in August.
Bitwala is now accepting Monero! Pay bills, bank accounts or top up your Debit Card using #XMR. https://t.co/PUZFeIVPAo @monerocurrency
— Bitwala (@bitwala) August 29, 2016
Just to give a few examples. So, our efforts to put the message out didn't go unnoticed. We got clicks, we got coverage, but one thing we didn't get: Volume.
Here come the numbers:
You're wondering how much turnover we had with Altcoins in the past two months? A little more than 3 Bitcoin in total. Roughly 2000 USD, if you generously round up. In the same time, we had a total turnover of approximately 2 million USD with Bitcoin. That's 0.1 percent turnover in Altcoins. We charge a flat fee of 0.5% per transaction. Do the math. You'll probably get the point.
So we'll focus on Bitcoin again. We will still accept Altcoins, and we will make announcements once in a while (hint: Steem Dollars). But for now, our takeaway is clear:
So what's your take on this? Do you have similar experiences? Or was our approach to Altcoins completely wrong? Let us know in the comment section, shoot us an email or follow us on Steemit or some of the dinosaur social media like Twitter or Facebook.
Bitcoin was also thought as nothing at the beginning, and no one used it. Same thing is happening to some of the altcoins which have a lot of applications but the people who believe bitcoin only like you don't even bother trying to know them. For example ,Bitshares has done what bitcoin will never do, but still Bitshares doesn't have enough users as expected, because people don't want to know it, just want to speculate the price.
Most of the alts are completely useless and not much beyond a pump and dump. There is a long history of dead coins that proves that. A few have real world applications but something truely special will have to happen to take down bitcoin at this point.
Yes other alts have better tech than btc, but the best tech doesn't always win out. It's just whatever the people decided to adopt, and btc has been adopted enough that it's probably going to be around for a long time to come still. I believe something else will replace it eventually, but not anytime soon.
I think the most interesting altcoins are interesting for what they do outside payment. Many people are using steem here and now (you are receiving it also for your post), but not for making a payment. Same counts for Ethereum and Bitshares for example.
I think there will never be an altcoin beating bitcoin for payments. Bitcoin is a good payment system and upgrades and applications will make it better. If an altcoin will survive it has to do something else than payments.
Regarding Steem, maybe you should have implemented Steem Dollar support instead... people would be more likely to spend their SBD instead of Steem for purchases.
I have actually used your service when you introduced BTC to PayPal transfers... and was really disappointed by the fact that you actually relied on eChecks and that took 3-5 DAYS for the money to actually be available on PayPal... there are much faster services, so I just went to one that did the same thing in a matter of a few hours and not days.
In the world of crypto getting fast response time is a key factor, so you should carefully consider what your target users are and what they want as there are many other alternatives available that may be more attractive for users to spend their altcoins at.
What service did you go to for Paypal transfers? Are they still around? Working with Paypal hasn't been easy in the past.
Thanks for your feedback!
Coinimal, now called bitpanda.
Thanks, @teambitwala! Very interesting statistics!
You have a great service for BTC->SEPA.
But I think, it depends on the focus of your business.
For instance, on http://Changelly.com we have much more turnover for alt coins!
Your whole business is focused on Altcoins, isn't it? Could you provide some numbers?
Definitely! For now we are focusing on alt coins instant exchange for end users and API services for other crypto businesses like yours. Sorry, I can't show the absolute numbers, but it's not far from your fiat turnover. Probably the key point is that Bitcoin is still only one real crypto payment instrument for the mass users. Alt coins stake holders make profit on speculation and usually exchange high amounts to and from BTC. Also I know that shapeshift doesn't support large transactions above 1-2 BTC and have not so clear payment interface. Isn't it?
As proprietor of the site mentioned in the article, I have to echo the sentiment. In the last few years, I might have all of two (in numbers: TWO) altcoin transactions, both of which were using LTC. Hell, more people have used EUR SEPA transfers to buy from us than have used altcoins.
I am, however, still advertising that I accept Alts and plan to implement Shapeshift as well - the demise of Cryptsy has halted Altcoin acceptance for the time being - but noone complains....
Hi, @zweix! I see, that you are looking for alt coins payment instrument.
We can offer some, ShSh like, but with some key advantages.
If you are interested in, just mail me [email protected]
thanks!
It seems that altcoins are still purely speculative rather than commercial.
It's not so long ago Bitcoin was in the same place. I bet if you ask Microsoft or Steam they will say that their Bitcoin sales are negligible today.
By the way, why are you giving your payout to charity? It's yours, you earned it.
Good comparison!
Giving it to charity was Lola's idea. Maybe she wants to help her non-crypto dogs out. We'll see.
Interesting. I'm really suprised that the turn over was so low. Maybe the alt coins are just attracting traders and long term speculators at the moment.
Hello Bitwala
I read this post about your service just now and followed the link to your website.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@matrixdweller/a-steem-debit-card
I have a few questions.
1- What the fee for using the card?
2-what security do you offer if i lose it and someone has a night out?
3- can i see a pic of the actual card I would receive, does it have the Visa hologram on it?
that's all for now. I'm really tnew to cryptocurrency world but very interested in using my steem outside easily with out really diving into the bitcoin world.
So I like the concept you have.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@matrixdweller/a-steem-debit-card
Most alt-coins are held for speculation purposes only... Once Decentro banks on a spike, I convert to BTC of course. Alt Coins are held long term for long term calls on big moves... Not for shopping. You'll see a lot of coins that are 'Thethered' to fiat value starting to get used more for shopping, we reckon.