The Ultimate Way to Popularize Bitcoin

     Bitcoin prices continued to be under pressure in the Asian session on Tuesday (October 13), continuing the previous decline. Industry insiders wrote an article to analyze the best way to popularize Bitcoin.

The quotes released by BITSTAMP show that Bitcoin/US dollar (XBT/USD) fell from a high of 248 to the 245 level yesterday. In this Asian session, it further fell below 244 and is currently trading around 245.

(Bitcoin/US dollar time-sharing chart Source: Bloomberg, FX168 Financial Network)

The quotes released by KRAKEN show that Bitcoin/Euro (XBT/EUR) fell from around 218 to 215.50 yesterday. Although it rebounded afterwards, it was again under pressure to 215 in the Asian session of this trading day and is currently trading around 216.

(Bitcoin/Euro time-sharing chart Source: Bloomberg, FX168 Financial Network)

The quotes released by Huobi.com show that Bitcoin/ RMB ( 6.3332 , 0.0122 , 0.19% ) fell from around 1597.30 to 1577 yesterday, and even fell to a low of 1566.70 in the Asian session of this trading day. It is currently trading around 1576.

(Bitcoin/RMB 30-minute chart Source: Huobi.com)

On the industry side, Blade CEO Ed Boyle and co-founder Daniel Delshad recently wrote an article stating that if Bitcoin wants to cross the gap and achieve large-scale popularization, it needs to be connected to the existing debit card network.

According to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Dynamics Report, 100,000 merchants accept bitcoin payments, but this is only 0.3% of the total number of merchants accepting credit card payments.

The article points out that while Bitcoin’s adoption curve is better than the Internet’s, it is slower than the telephone’s. And it is even more different from the mobile phone’s adoption curve. The latter rises faster and steeper, mainly because mobile phone users do not need a new network. From the beginning, mobile phones can be interconnected with traditional communication channels (i.e. landlines).

Referring to the development and popularization of mobile phones, Ed Boyle and Daniel Delshad believe that now is the time to consider interoperability and connect Bitcoin to existing debit card networks. By linking Bitcoin to these networks, consumers can directly access more than 28 million merchants around the world.

The article points out that while mass adoption of Bitcoin and blockchain may still be several years away, if Bitcoin is accepted for payments almost everywhere, it will greatly increase the utility of Bitcoin and, therefore, its potential value and accelerate its adoption.

At 12:58 Beijing time on October 13, Bitcoin/USD was 245.03, Bitcoin/Euro was 215.83, and Bitcoin/RMB was 1576.10.