bitcoin
Bitcoin can reach a million merchants. Why aren’t people spending it?
Bitcoin payments have reached more than a million U.S. sellers through Square, yet the group behind much of the network's payment software says everyday spending remains scarce.
Spiral's October 27 report is an unusually frank assessment from a Block-backed developer: seven years of easier Lightning tools have expanded the places Bitcoin could be used without giving most holders a reason to use it there. The contrast is visible at the register.
A seller can display a Bitcoin option and still take no Bitcoin payments all day. A customer who acquired the coin as a long-term holding may see little reason to spend it on lunch when a card draws dollars from an account already used for expenses.
Square can remove the merchant's exposure to Bitcoin's price by converting receipts, but it cannot decide which money a customer is willing to part with. In a reported titled The Long Road to Bitcoin Payments, Spiral calls the gap mainly a demand problem. Its conclusion deserves a close look because “enabled merchants” and “transactions completed” are often placed side by side as if one followed from the other.
