Love it or loathe it, consider yourself an expert or a novice; there is no denying that crypto is here to stay. It might once have been on the fringes of finances and investing, but when the likes of founder and managing partner at New York investment firm Anthony Scaramucci are writing books called “The Little Book of Bitcoin: What You Need to Know that Wall Street Has Already Figured Out”, you can probably tell that it has hit the mainstream.
Scaramucci is best known globally for his eleven-day tenure in the White House as Communications Director during Trump’s first presidency. Describing himself as a nouveau riche Italian from Long Island, he considers crypto to be a market disruptor like Apple and Amazon in their respective industries. While his entrance and exit as a Government official might be one of the fastest in history, the multi-millionaire is much more interested in the processing speed and power of Bitcoin.
He regards crypto as akin to Netflix or the iPhone and describes it as “the inevitable pull of progress that will level everything in its wake.”. He writes, “You either ride that wave or get ridden”. Scaramucci admits to being a latecomer to Bitcoin, and his desire to make it palatable to Wall Street could frustrate many crypto “maximalists”. The maxis or purists are allured by the ideology of crypto, not just as a technological and financial revolution.
However, it is not just investment firms that are waking up to the possibilities of crypto. West Virginia has proposed a Bitcoin reserves bill that would allow the state to allocate up to 10% of publicly held funds into Bitcoin.
Regardless of your reason for being interested in crypto, one thing that ‘wave’ has shown the world is that no one needs to hang around waiting for payments to be processed. The time involved in moving money, whether traditional or cryptocurrency, is crucial for users when making a purchase, paying friends, or investing. It used to be commonplace for it to take days (or even weeks) for money to clear from one person’s bank account into another’s. Now, we expect almost instant (if not instant) transactions.
No one wants to be hanging around waiting for payments to clear. Crypto has transformed the way we think about transactions and money. While some remain sceptical, is crypto really any different from any other form of currency (other than it being completely traceable)? For people who have grown up in a computer age, is a currency linked to a notional weight of gold or one linked to a completely traceable currency stored on your phone more reliable? A decentralised currency in a globalised world, where governments seem increasingly unable to govern, seems like a wise ‘hedge.’
While many preppers might advise us to build up cash supplies and avoid digital transactions, the truth is, many of us do not handle cash anymore. Nearly three in four young people use mobile payments when making purchases. Globally, online commerce accounts for 20% of all transactions, and if you look at an industry like gambling, this figure jumps sharply. Mobile iGaming is booming, with people playing on the go on their smartphones. In this environment, everyone is looking for the fastest payout online casino. You do not want to be hanging around if you hit the jackpot.
When playing at land-based slots and pokies, the thrill of the win is instant. However, while online replicates often improve the playing experience, payments can be frustrating. E-wallets have had to catch up with cryptocurrencies, where payments can be almost instant and, at worst, take 24 hours.
One of the ways to ensure payments are quick is similar to what happens with crypto. When you set up a crypto account, you must provide an email address to verify. That means that the email address is linked to the specific platform. The wallet and email address are not tied, and you then get a safe crypto address to display anywhere as the verification process is complete. For online gambling platforms, the transactions are sped up when the e-wallet links to the email address used to register for the casino account. It just means that less verification is required at a later stage.
However, while crypto is incredibly fast, it is not always instant. Most users are looking for speed and simplicity. The aim is to have transactions completed without any issues in a timely manner. However, some things can slow transactions down, like exceptionally high demand on the blockchain network. The time it takes can also depend on transaction fees. It can be frustrating if users are unaware of this, especially if it is a time-sensitive transaction.
Fortunately, most digital transactions are relatively straightforward but do involve a few steps behind the scenes. The purpose of those steps is to ensure security. The single most important thing for any online transaction is security. If this slows things slightly, it is worth any minor delays. The alternative could well be a transaction that disappears into cyberspace. Even worse, a security breach from one transaction could open a chink that then allows criminals to drain people’s resources.
Looking specifically at Bitcoin, when you send and receive it, the transaction is broadcast to the network. It then has to be verified before being added to the blockchain. Those steps take time, and how long they take depends on what else is happening at the time. At times of heavy network activity, the transactions with higher fees get processed faster – rather like priority boarding on an aeroplane. Everyone will get on and get a seat; only those who paid the premium will get to take their seats first.
The old adage ‘you pay your money, you take your choice’ springs to mind. However, at quieter times, paying a premium could be considered a waste of money because everything moves around the network efficiently. Non-cryptocurrencies offer similar services. There is often an option of ‘faster payments’ for online transactions. Most of the time, the payments come through almost instantaneously, so most people take the risk. However, on the rare occasions that the networks snarl up, those who have paid the premium fees find they get the premium service.