Financial experts predict 2017 will be the year of digital payments. An interesting statement, although not entirely unexpected. Digital payments have been on the rise for nearly five years now, and new services continue to pop up every quarter. The bigger question is whether consumers and retailers are willing to embrace these new financial tools.
Digital Payments Will Be The 2017 Trend
The concept of digital payments has been around for multiple years. Solutions such as PayPal, Apple Pay, and even Bitcoin are gaining more traction every month. Affordable payment services have been in high demand for quite some time now, yet Bitcoin seems to be the only solution offering just that. However, cryptocurrency is still in the early stages of adoption, despite a recent price surge.
Current generations of consumers have high expectations when it comes to transparency. None of the more traditional payment solutions provide that service in the capacity consumers is looking for. Moreover, these existing “mainstream” payment options are not necessarily flexible, which opens the door for other emerging solutions to gain market traction.
Combining innovation with cleverness and the “cool factor” is not easy by any means. However, with the tech-savviness of the average consumer on the rise, more technical solutions are in high demand. This is positive news for Bitcoin enthusiasts, as the concept of digital currency is very technical, to begin with.
One thing Bitcoin offers that other solutions do not, is the global accessibility. Rather than being integrated into specific platforms or services, anyone in the world can use and access Bitcoin at any given time. Although companies such as Facebook may not integrate Bitcoin payments anytime soon, it is not hard to exchange the necessary transaction information over the social network.
Instant digital payments are touted as one of the major trends for 2017. During 2016, there was a strong focus on “near instant” payments, although very few providers managed to provide such a service. More importantly, these instant payments need to work across all devices, on any platform, and at any given time. Due to the borderless nature of Bitcoin, it is the only viable contender that very few people seem to take notice of.
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