With the value of 1BTC passing $10,000 there has been a lot of publicity about Bitcoin in particular.
The Bango Platform has enabled a wide range of Direct Carrier Billing routes, mobile operator wallets and other payment methods for its customers. Over the last few years, people have asked Bango for a view on when Bitcoin wallets or direct Bitcoin, J-coin, Ethereum or whatever might be supported.
Bango has prototyped using Bitcoin wallets as payment instruments, so the platform is ready for Bango merchant partners to use Bitcoin wallets when they become interesting to those customers. There will be no technical work for them to accept it as it’s like another Mobile Network Operator (MNO) wallet.
Large merchants have told Bango that first they want mass adoption of Bitcoin – at present it is low. Secondly, the volatility of Bitcoin is a problem. Major merchants operate on small margins when reselling content or services. They normally buy in a fiat currency (for example US dollars) and sell in a fiat currency. Low volatility and years of experience hedging or cross currency de-risking helps if these currencies differ.
With Bitcoin they see no such protection – they are very nervous about volatility, and Bitcoin is very volatile. They could sell a $100 item for $100 bitcoin and then suddenly find they only have $90 worth of Bitcoin.
If and when Bitcoin becomes interesting to Bango customers, the platform is ready to help them.