As outlined by the article, the highly publicized test underway by Walmart of driving payments away from the Visa branded network provided an opportunity for adherents to the more universal use of Bitcoin to make their case in the court of public opinion.
In recent times, bitcoin market cap has been increasing and is larger than the total valuation of the Western Union or Twitter. This has made many stores to accept bitcoins as a payment method. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, an American retail company Target are among others that accept bitcoin payments.
While the rise of the market capitalization of bitcoin may be in part to its higher profile, much of that has been driven by wider discussions of blockchain technologies and the pending ‘halving date’ due to transpire next month where bitcoin miners will earn half as many bitcoin for their successful efforts. The article goes on to point out the acceptance of bitcoin by a widely prevalent merchant such as Walmart would dramatically raise the cryptocurrency’s profile.
The petition will be passed to the superstore once the supporters count becomes 100. If chain of superstores like Walmart starts accepting bitcoins, it would enhance the adoption rate of the cryptocurrency in the U.S. and Canada.
The gradual migration to digital currency is indeed underway, with some regions (Northern Europe with the Nordics in particular, and Japan) making the move more aggressively than others. Having central governments involved in the regulation and oversight of cryptocurrency will be a necessary hurdle for cryptocurrency to improve wider use and trust by consumers.
Overview by Joseph Walent, Senior Analyst, Emerging Technologies at Mercator Advisory Group
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