Crypto currencies are erupting all over the Internet. They provide a new way of doing business and offer advantages to business owners over using regular currency.
I came upon SMTs by chance. I read through the first part of the whitepaper and got excited because I saw it as a way to empower users to get their own money that they can spend on my services and also generate some activity around my business and website.
Below are three advantages I saw in using a crypto coin such as STEEM and why I considered using it for my business.
Direct transactions with customers without need for a third party
Online payment gateways are not widely and fully implemented throughout the entire Caribbean region. Payal for example, has features such as Send and Request funds available in countries like Barbados and St. Lucia but account holders from St.Vincent, where I live, can only use the service to Send funds. Paypal was therefore not available for me to use to accept online payments. Same goes for Stripe as you need to link the Stripe account with a US bank account.
With crypto coins you can transfer coins directly to someone else with your wallet. It's like meeting someone on a public street and handing over money in exchange for goods and services. No need for a third party to mitigate or meet you half way, collect your money and hand it over to the service provider. The street in this case is the blockchain - the public ledger where all the transactions are stored and the address where to meet is your wallet address.
Little to no transaction fees when transferring coins
I found a payment gateway that would accept payments online from more countries than Paypal would allow. To my advantage St. Vincent was included but the fees are much higher. They charge for each transaction 3.9 % + $0.45 + 1.5 % for doing business with persons outside St. Vincent. Now, the population of Physics students in St.Vincent alone is very small compared to other countries and I had hoped to be doing business in countries other than St.Vincent or else I would've never quit my face to face teaching job. These fees although small add up to make the service more expensive or cut into my profit.
Because of the direct nature of the coin transfer, no fees are involved transferring from one wallet to another. This would allow me to price my service so as to avoid transaction fees and keep more of the profits.
More power to users with no money
As the children are the not the ones making the final decision on what to spend on, one of the things I had to think about was how to create a service for students and then market it to their parents. It was a bit cumbersome to create two types of material and actually I would love to and think it would be easier just to deal with students.
With Proof of Stake coins such as STEEM, students can earn their own money by taking part in activities on the website. With their own money, the spending power is in their own hands. They determine how they want to use the money on their education. They need not depend on the final decision of another, the ones who hold the regular cheque books. This would change the marketing plan and make it easier to design material and promote it to the same category of users.
To pivot now
I am aware that as this is a new concept it is not fully, easily or readily accepted. I could image that some users would not want to touch it, not even with a 10 foot pole and this could cause issues with user adoption. For this I am hoping that the young generation would have an open minded approach and welcome the new...(like they always do). Also because the value of the coin can be volatile and subject to changes over time, investing my money in this is a big risk and it could tank what I've invested and what I've earned. To this I say: this is a calculated risk that I am willing to take.