Graft • Effecting change in Digital finance

Its not news that cryptocurrency is speedily gaining grounds and reaching global adoption which was the intension upon creation. Digital technology now rules the world with amazing innovations springing forth on a daily basis. We grew gradually from the trade by batter exchange system to gold as an exchange then to the usage of FIAT currency and then to credit cards debit card which has landed us with the use of cryptocurrency.
The crypto platform is built usibg the blockchain technology which has allowed for the scalability, security and transparency of cryptocurrency and also positively affected digital finance. Traditionally one of the problems faced With cryptocurrency is the issue of its direct tradability just like the credit card system to execute daily transactions. User have to first convert into FIAT via exchange platform before the are able to pay for goods and services using cryptocurrencies. This as affected the acceptability of cryptocurrency by various nations, merchants and users globally. With the foundation laid by Bitcoin which kick started the new face of digital finance (crypto) various cryptocurrency platforms are springing forth and aso applying new methods to help crypto gain global acceptability.
Cryptocurrency currently faces problems like, cost, speed, accessibility e.t.c.

These main problems such as speed, cost and reliability bugging the cryptocurrency payments system can be divided into these;

•Cost

•No true decentralization due to; thus no security and independence

•Long confirmation times

•Scalabilty

•Lack of a fully functional trust mechanism

•Issues related to processing micro payments

•Poor user interfaces

•Lack of essential transaction types

•Lack of various cryptocurrency accepting outlets

•Volatility

Firstly, customers are always at the receiving ends of the expensive cost. Depending on the blockchain, customers end up paying from $0. 01 to up to $30 in commission which pushes away regular customers. This system is fashioned to create inconvenience to the customers in terms of cost than any other person in the system, notwithstanding the slow pace at which these transactions are carried out which affects the customer more. RTA(Real Time Authorization) which is a system that can check whether a customer’s credit card is acceptable in a few seconds, so that an Internet shop or store merchant can process an order immediately is not available in the cryptographic payment system now.

More so, notwithstanding the fact that some cryptocurrencies have improved confirmation times, they are still unable to process essential transactions types such as authorization and completion of a transaction in a short time therefore it is impossible for retail, hospitality, and convenience store industries to adopt them without using intermediaries that is, payment processors to fill the gap.


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Therefore, the very presence of these payments processors which are likely centralized commercial institutions controlled by the government or stakeholders contradicts the core targets of the cryptocurrency ecosystem which are decentralization, privacy and independence.
Moreover, there are very few merchants that accept a wide range of cryptocurrencies and most are not even interoperable with their wallets or apps. Most times, these merchants find it hard to integrate cryptocurrencies on their devices and more often than not, we realize that most of these public cryptocurrencies are not flexible for easy integration. Sometimes one can still find sources or services on the internet that directs one to merchants that accepts certain cryptocurrencies but the problem with such services, is that you can’t be sure that a certain merchant still accepts cryptocurrency which leads to customer dissatisfaction, makes cryptocurrency unreliable in times of emergency and thus, decreases the level of trust in the blockchain.

Also, most times merchants always feel uncomfortable to trade cryptocurrencies at an affordable price to customers because they fear losing out if the price fluctuates and the price comes down. Thus, they raise prices of goods and services for customers thereby making users to lose trust in cryptocurrency and would rather stick to the popular traditional fiat currencies than opt for cryptocurrency.

If the cryptographic payment system is to compete or be accepted into the traditional payment system with traditional online payments and the fiat banking system, it has to deliver at least the same features that people are accustomed to:

•Easy integration of cryptocurrencies for merchants
•Easy regular payments
•Wide range of currencies acceptability
•Fast transactions
•Security and privacy
•Cheap transactions commissions and probably a virtual marketplace, like an app.

Some of the networks available have only few of these features and there’s no unified open platform yet. Now Imagine a world in which consumers have control over their money and are connected directly to their payments mechanism of choice no matter where they are. In this world, shoppers pay anyone anywhere.

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