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Will bitcoin take off in 2022?

Bitcoin has come a long way since 2009, but will it take off in 2022?

Will bitcoin take off in 2022?Image via Istock.com


| by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace

Early adopters of bitcoin likely couldn't even imagine the virtual currency ever reaching its current state. In fact, some of them lost their wallet keys and have made great lengths to recover huge sums of bitcoin that they originally purchased for a few dollars at most.

Bitcoin has certainly turned a corner in 2021, as countries have begun to loosen restrictions on the currency or in El Salvador's case, adopt it as official currency and began deploying large numbers of Bitcoin ATMs. At the same time, bitcoin has also struggled in 2021 as its value continues to go on a roller coaster ride, currently sitting at just under $50K at the time of the writing of this article.

With this in mind, we have to ask: will bitcoin take off in 2022?

I believe one critical sign to look at is the growing prevalence of Bitcoin ATMs. According to Coin ATM Radar, the U.S. leads the pack with 30,220 ATM locations across the entire country. The next closest is Canada with 2,219 locations and El Salvador with 205 locations.

These Bitcoin ATMs vary in functionalities, but essentially they enable users to buy or sell cryptocurrencies. Most rely on cash, but some allow customers to purchase bitcoin with a debit card. Some are placed right next to traditional ATMs so that customers can get cash from one and use it on the Bitcoin ATM.

In many cases, retailers that deploy Bitcoin ATM get a good deal of new customers and traffic from the machines, as customers come in to see the machine. They can also make money through monthly fees.

It's easy to see from the growth of Bitcoin ATMs that the cryptocurrency is mainstream now. However, it still has some issues.

The first one has more to do with its role: mainly its current inability to act as a real currency. While traditional fiat currencies certainly fluctuate in value, bitcoin is an entirely different story. You can't reliably use bitcoin as a medium or purchase when today it is worth $47,000 but tomorrow it might be worth $50,000.

There's also the issue of confirmation time for bitcoin. According to Ycharts, bitcoin took an average of 95.10 minutes to confirm a transaction. This is because bitcoin can only process a few transactions per second, whereas Visa can handle almost 2,000 transactions per second, according to a blog by Towards Data Science.

Another issue is a major gap in education with bitcoin. While this may sound like a broken record at this point, many people know about bitcoin, but others still know nothing about it. You are still likely to get blank stares from an average person if you try to tell them about bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. This kind of education gap holds back mass adoption.

Despite these issues, bitcoin still has major potential going forward, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down. We at ATM Marketplace will continue to keep an eye on bitcoin adoption, especially in the ATM and fintech space going forward.


Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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