Crypto evangelists can be proud of the 63,782 websites worldwide that accept bitcoin. Crypto haters may counter that only 176 of the top 10,000 sites accept bitcoin. No matter if you see the glass as half full or half empty, data from SimilarTech has something for you.
SimilarTech, an off-shoot of the popular gauge of web traffic SimilarWeb, uses bots and spiders to track the technologies used by websites. Strategic Coin looked at categories called Payment Acceptance and Cryptocurrency for the top ten thousand, top million and entire universe of sites. Payment Acceptance is led by Visa (7.78%, followed by MasterCard (4.96%) and American Express (3.40%). At 1.76% bitcoin is the top cryptocurrency accepted, while litecoin (.36%) and monero (.20%) are far behind.
176 of the top 10,000 sites accept bitcoin; 778 accept Visa. Most sites do not accept money at all.
Bitcoin’s lead versus litecoin and monero is not because it is actually easy to quickly use for commerce. In fact, according to a January 2018 report by How Much, litecoin can handle eight times as many transactions a second as compared to bitcoin. If speed were the only consideration, Ripple’s XRP is by far the fastest coin among those investigated. While technical merits are important for adoption, brand awareness and distribution to merchants are also key.
A recent survey of 500 online merchants by Morgan Stanley made an even stronger case that crypto is not being used to conduct business. The results showed that 79 percent accept PayPal but only .8% accept bitcoin. Despite eBay’s move away from PayPal and rumors that Amazon will accept cryptocurrency, major ecommerce sites are still on the sidelines. However, a survey of Square merchants — most of whom can be considered early adopters — indicates a willingness among real stores to accept bitcoin. In the long term is likely that companies will accept whatever money their customers want to use as long as the technological and legal hurdles are easy to overcome.
That brings us to whether or not consumers will use bitcoin or other cryptocurrency to buy stuff. Many surveys have opined on the subject, but we believe it is too early to make predictions about this topic because most consumers do not have enough knowledge to have an informed opinion.
We will continue to investigate how laws, regulation and transaction speeds inhibit blockchain adoption. But for now, until crypto goes mainstream, a primary incentive for large companies to accept bitcoin and its cousins will be cost savings and business optimization.
Last February, Recorded Future went beyond the SimilarTech’s scope and analyzed 50 of the Dark Web’s most prominent message boards, marketplaces, and illicit services. Its analysis showed that all investigated vendors accept bitcoin, with 30% accepting litecoin, followed by dash (20%), Bitcoin Cash (13%), ethereum (9%), and monero (6%). Based on a totally unscientific survey, Recorded Future concluded that although Dark Web denizens recognize monero’s privacy capabilities as superior, that has not translated into merchants accepting it.
Originally published on Strategic Coin, a website that is no longer operational.
