Two Issues with fiat that crypto payment is solving right now

Introduction

Fiat payments would still remain the most popular in years to come. While crypto is making advancements across various fronts, the speed of adoption remains slow and that continues to make fiat popular. But there definitely would be a time in the future no matter how far it is, when crypto would have almost completely replaced fiat. But for now, fiat rules.

Fiat payments come with lots of challenges that crypto has already solved with ease. Everyone in the crypto space already enjoys these benefits. In this article, I want to talk about the Pros of crypto payments and why the world should try to embrace it as fast as they could.

Fiat versus Crypto payments - a compelling choice

So let us look at some of the challenges associated with fiat payments and then consider how crypto has overcomes such challenges.

1. Privacy has become a great need: The security situation in many parts of the world has made privacy a valuable requirement for many users. Many instances of identity theft which led to massive loss of assets have made users increasingly wary of their privacy. Some decades ago, people relax about sharing personal details with total strangers. But today, everyone wants to be sure who they are dealing with. Fiat transactions perform poorly when it comes to privacy.

When two parties transact using fiat, they leave a large trail of personally identifying information which cyber criminals might try to exploit. For example, a simple bank payment exposes the payers personal information like their name, address and phone number. While the transaction is completed, the user's privacy could be endangered if their data somehow ends in the hand of criminals.

Financial institutions usually store sensitive personal data of customers in centralized servers that could easily be hacked and such data stolen. This exposes customers to many privacy issues. These and many others are examples of how traditional fiat payments endanger user privacy, making them vulnerable to attacks and loss of valuable asset.

Crypto payments on the other hand are built to protect the privacy of transacting parties through many features. For example, crypto payments are direct or P2P. That leaves out intermediaries in the process. In essence, it also cuts out the possibility of third-parties having their systems broken into and user data stolen. With end-to-end payments where payer is linked directly to payee, privacy is really enhanced.

Another thing is that signing up to make crypto payments does not require the user to expose too much personal data. Anyone could easily download a crypto wallet with just their email address. There would be no need to ask for passport photographs, ID cards, address, phone numbers or any other personal data. Hence, the user remains the sole custodian of their data and that enhances privacy.

Finally, crypto transactions are often recorded with a cryptographic hash. This is a human non-readable string of characters that does not reveal anything personal. So when someone looks at a crypto transaction using a blockchain explorer, they often cannot find personally identifying information like address or phone number. Also encryption technologies help crypto transactions to be anonymous, protecting the identity of transacting parties.

2. Speed is a modern necessity:

You dont need to look for to see that people have little or no time to spend on things. The general attention span is getting smaller each day. Notifications and digital bells ringing here and there demand ones attention. Some call it the jet age. But then, no one has all the hours to spend in a bank filling papers just to make a simple cross-border money transfer.

Fiat transactions are often delayed because of aging technology. for example, bank networks are often slow or poor since many still operate with obsolete hardware. As a result, customers have to spend much more time than is necessary to complete a simple transaction. Imagine having to spend not just hours but days just to complete an error dispense transaction caused by a bank network.

Generally, one needs a lot more time to complete fiat transactions which is often makes for a negative user experience. But them crypto transactions are so different.

Crypto transactions are often completed in a matter of seconds. The sender and receiver are transacting directly, so there is no intermediary to delay the transaction. There is no need to physically visit a bank branch to make a transfer, apply for a loan, stake your assets or perform other transactions. All these transactions could be done on a blockchain super fast.

Crypto transactions could be performed from any spot and at any time, making it even more faster. For example, banking transactions that were not completed on a friday would be delayed until the following Monday. So addittional 2 days is lost because of the weeken. But for crypto transactions, there are no weekends, no holidays and no breaks. Transactions happen fast and at anytime.

Conclusion

The above are just two of the many challenges that crypto transactions have solved. many still relay on fiat for their daily business. But everyone needs to start considering the advantages of switching to crypto payments. They are not just secure and fast. Crypto payments are also feeless and inclusive. We will look at these and other features in a future publication.