FIAT gateways are desperately needed for crypto-platforms to go mainstream
Prague is a beautiful city, the capital of the Czech Republic. Imagine you pay the city a visit and want to buy a souvenir portraying the magnificent Charles Bridge. The owner of the shop paid 100 CZK for the souvenir, and now he wants to sell it for 150 CZK. And there you walking into the shop, looking at the price tag – 150 CZK. You take the object to the counter and ask: How much is that in Euro? Can I pay with Euro?
The man in the store is well prepared and answers: “Of course you can pay with Euro.” Two minutes later, I leave the store with the new souvenir in my hand that I have just bought using Euro.
What does this have to do with the relationship between cryptocurrencies and FIAT currencies?
Cryptocurrencies will go mainstream when the normal person on the street wants a product powered by a cryptocurrency. Maybe it will be needed to book a hotel room using the LockTrip platform, to order a taxi using a cryptocurrency powered “Uber-like” platform, or maybe to save money using a cheaper blockchain powered airport transfer service in Vienna.
Let us say that you have found a blockchain powered airport-transfer service that you like. Their service is 20% cheaper than all the others are, and you want to order. The price for the service is set to 100 APTS (not a real token), which should be approximately 80 USD. The only problem is that you need 100 APTS to buy the service. In order to get those tokens, you need to register at an exchange (and maybe go through a KYC process), transfer the tokens to a standalone wallet, and then you can start the process. Nobody with a sane mind would ever do that. They would use the more expensive service instead. It is simply too complicated!!
That is why we need to learn from the tourist store in Prague. They have understood that to sell more, they need to accept more currencies and payment methods. It needs to be easy! And that is why FIAT payments are here to stay in the crypto-world. Only by accepting such payments can we see that cryptocurrency platforms go mainstream with their products.
I did not really care about the local currency when I bought the souvenir in Prague (which was used for all the other transactions), all I cared about was my purchase. In the same way, a mainstream buyer doesn’t care about the blockchain powering the system, nor the token actually used in the system… he only cares about the Euro price on the tag!