I have seen it time and time again: smart, young African entrepreneurs, who have the potential to turn their independent online businesses into the next big thing, being held back by fears of uncertainty and failure.
By Nic Haralambous, chief marketing officer of Coindirect
Whenever I speak to young entrepreneurs about the challenges they face, the same questions always come up; how do we service a global market in such a fast moving world?
Yet the technology to transform their business from local to global is at their fingertips: cryptocurrencies enable entrepreneurs to reach customers anywhere in the world, and accept same-day payments easily and painlessly.
With the advent of digital currencies and global shipment networks, entrepreneurs can accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment and ship their products anywhere in the world, with very little (if any) technical know-how. The fees are lower, the process is simple and the method of payment is cross border and often instant.
Within the next decade, cryptocurrency is going to be the key to starting or scaling an online business in emerging markets. Crypto gives entrepreneurs unfettered access to global markets and turns the red tape associated with cross-border transactions into a distant memory. It is not a passing trend. It is quite literally the future.
From increasing market-share to enabling affordable cross-border payments for their customers, the time is now for digital businesses which want to embrace a new financial system. Startups can, today, eliminate the banking fees associated with cross-border sales, such as for currency conversion and remittance, and settle international purchases on a same-day basis.
Paying with cryptocurrency is quick, cheap, transparent, safe, and decentralised. Modern cryptocurrency payment systems include, as part of their standard offering, multi-currency operations (support of both digital and fiat currencies), custodial services, mobile conversions from crypto to fiat, and instant transactions. Cryptocurrency as a payment solution is the answer to nearly all of the crucial challenges businesses and users face in e-commerce.
A critical question I keep coming back to is why, when major corporations have seen the value of cryptocurrencies (and are scrambling to ensure that they can capitalise on the innovation), are smaller businesses and startups not jumping at the chance to increase their margins by lowering the fees they pay to archaic banks?
I’d argue that the answer lies mostly in a lack of education