Why crypto payments are too complicated for ecommerce giants like Alibaba and Amazon

Photo credit: Volodymyr Shtun

This is a Discuss post, where we feature short but insightful opinions from the Asian tech community on startup, entrepreneurship, and tech topics.

It looks like shopping online using cryptocurrencies is far from being mainstream, with ecommerce giants like Alibaba and Amazon saying no to accepting crypto payments. What does this mean for consumers and the future of cryptocurrencies?

Tushar Aggrawal (blockchain podcaster) and Andrew Prasatya (iPrice Group) share some insights.

Editor’s note: Answers have been edited for clarity.

Tushar Aggarwal, podcaster at Decrypt Asia

Any currency has three properties:

• Medium of exchange: allows for frictionless exchange of goods and services unlike the barter system
• Store of value: keeps its value over a period of time (even though its value may go down mildly over time due to inflation)
• Unit of account: prices are quoted in it, that is when we buy goods or services, the prices are quoted in SGD, USD, etc. and not in apples!

It can be argued that Bitcoin fulfills, to some extent, the first two properties. But it’s far from fulfilling the third one as prices are not quoted in Bitcoin in most online and offline stores.

Bitcoin, as followers of the crypto space may already know, has a limited supply. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins. These bitcoins are mined with a fixed supply (as shown in the diagram below), which is mildly inflationary in nature.

Photo credit: Coinivore

Let’s discuss