Crypto Needs a Facelift

Cryptocurrency has come a long way since its debut back in 2008 but there’s no denying the fact that it maintains almost as much mystique today as it did a decade ago. The much-heralded payments revolution has yet to happen and the number of major brands that support transactions in Bitcoin seems to have decreased. Let’s not forget that Elon Musk’s Tesla swapped the popular token for Dogecoin, despite holding around a billion dollars in Bitcoin. So, is it still worth believing a decade of hype?

The Public Perception

Crypto has always been a difficult sell. It’s volatile, bafflingly expensive, complicated even for the financially literate, and has little to no high-street use (Starbucks, excepted). However, its potential is also vast, largely due to the number of problems that could be solved by the underlying technology, blockchain. The concern is that the public perception of both blockchain and crypto has been tarnished by other, related technologies such as NFTs, which have caused a great deal of anger online.

Tech and science website The Verge now reports intense dislike for crypto within certain groups such as gamers, as a consequence of recent misuse. Inevitably, this kind of dissent has a tendency to drag in everything nearby, potentially sinking blockchain as a solution within video gaming. As companies like Facebook hope to leverage blockchain to create the metaverse, a virtual world that combines all sorts of modern tech, a popularity slide now is a worst-case scenario.

It’s not all bad news, though.

Digital Providers

Crypto has enjoyed some minor success in recent months, with the biggest boost happening in digital payments. PayPal now allows crypto enthusiasts to purchase, sell, and store Bitcoin. Reports from the wider web do indicate that this shift didn’t happen without a few teething problems, something that a ZDNet writer covered in plenty of depth earlier in 2022. That latter development was part of a loosening of payment restrictions on PayPal, which also included a newfound affection for casino payments.

While this article tells you all you need to know about playing in PayPal casinos, the main takeaways are that the platform is now on track to become one of the UK’s largest payment providers in the iGaming niche. In fact, digital providers, in general, have begun to offer stiff opposition to traditional plastic, now that casino bonuses can be collected on PayPal deposits. Some, arguably more niche operators do accept crypto as well, often via PayPal rivals like Skrill and Neteller.

Use-Cases

It’s this strange dichotomy of good and evil in the crypto space that continues to hold the technology back and keep it from mainstream acceptance. Yes, there are plenty of possible use-cases for every crypto technology but, with no regulation and a distinctly DIY approach to creating new coins (there are many hundreds out there, made for all kinds of weird and wonderful purposes), it remains difficult to see how Bitcoin and its cohorts will ever find their way into the average person’s e-wallet.

For now, with £20,000 knocked off Bitcoin’s value since November 2021, crypto seems to have a bit of an image problem.