Cryptocurrencies have crept onto the international economic agenda following the spectacular revaluation of approximately 1,500 percent that bitcoin experienced in 2017. Bitcoin, created in 2009, is the best-known and most valuable cryptocurrency, but there are more than 1,400 virtual currencies, such as Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin.

Cryptocurrencies have become a fairly common means of payment in countries such as Japan and the United States, where you can pay with bitcoin even in supermarkets, so they could soon take off in Spain, the fifth country in the world by the number of bitcoin ATMs, according to ATM Radar.

What are the benefits of bitcoin for businesses?

Streamline transactions.

If you work with different markets and have clients from other countries, the delay of financial transactions can be a headache. In that case, buying and paying with bitcoin is a very interesting financial tool for SMEs since it speeds up economic transactions. Transactions with bitcoin are almost instantaneous and there is no possibility of reversing the payment or issuing it without funds.

It reduces transaction errors.

Transactions in bitcoin are very secure and are always recorded in an extensive decentralized network that does not depend only on a few important nodes, as is the case with banking networks. This considerably reduces the possibility that the money does not arrive or that the transaction needs to be repeated. In addition, Bitcoin can detect typos and prevents sending money by mistake to an invalid address.

Lower fees.

The costs involved in financial transactions are not negligible, both for large companies and for SMEs and freelancers. Each transaction not only involves paying bank commissions but also losses when converting from one currency to another. With bitcoin, the cost of transactions is reduced to a minimum because the commissions are very low.

Possibility of attracting new customers.

The interest aroused by bitcoin, a cryptocurrency accepted worldwide, can help you attract new customers. Buying bitcoin and using them in your commercial transactions will allow you to get ahead of the competition by conveying an image of business innovation. It could also boost the growth of your business by allowing you to set more competitive prices.

The incentive for workers.

Some companies have already started to pay part of their employees’ salaries in bitcoin, which can be an additional incentive to retain those who want to invest in this currency in the long term.

How to manage the volatility of cryptocurrencies in your business?
Before including bitcoin in your business, you should be aware of the risk of volatility inherent in cryptocurrencies, which means that they can suffer large drops. In fact, there is still no exchange rate hedging insurance for cryptocurrencies.

Companies that use bitcoin, such as Miner Skinz, explain that they do not take any risk because they do not store it. Basically, they use it to offer an additional payment alternative to customers, because of its potential to reduce the risk of fraud to zero and because of the speed of transactions, but they do not use it as an investment tool.