As analysts of The Block , the United States continues to lead in the number of companies accepting Bitcoin. However, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are ahead of all in the concentration of such organizations.
Based on data from the Coinmap service, researchers note that today there are about 13,000 objects in the world (shops, services, restaurants, etc.) that accept the first cryptocurrency for payment.
The diagram indicates that the largest number of such objects are in trade (35.1%) and public catering (19.9%). Also, in many places, Bitcoins can accept payments for rental housing (9.7%).
2018 is not so disastrous
Approximately 52% of the total number of Bitcoin-friendly organizations started accepting cryptocurrency between 2013 and 2015. The greatest interest in digital currency was observed in 2014, followed by some decline in activity. However, the latter again increased significantly in 2017:
Despite the disappointing results of a recent study from Chainalysis , this year the pace of the emergence of new Bitcoin-friendly companies is much higher than in 2015 and 2016.
Dear bitcoin contributes to the development of e-commerce
Also, The Block researchers point to a close correlation between the price of Bitcoin and the number of new merchants friendly to it.
In other words, the higher the price, the more willingly BTC is accepted for payment. This, analysts believe, is largely due to the growing purchasing power of cryptoinvestors. The latter, in periods of bull rally, are more actively placing demands on goods and services. This, in turn, motivates companies to add a new payment option.
Still leading the US
As for the geographical distribution of merchants, then, as before, the undisputed leaders are the United States. In this country, 27% of such objects are concentrated.
This is followed by Brazil, Italy, Spain, Germany and Canada.
However, based on the number of such facilities per million people, the United States is ahead of such small countries as Slovenia (41.6 points per 1 million people) and the Czech Republic (32.6).
If we consider individual cities, then the most Bitcoin-friendly Prague. Here are the most outlets that accept Bitcoin for payment (there are 137 of them).
However, if we take into account the density of such facilities, then the small town of Arnhem in the east of the Netherlands, where only 152 thousand people live, will be the undoubted leader.
Note that, against the background of some reduction in the rate of integration of Bitcoin into the e-commerce sphere, the Lightning Network (LN) network is gradually developing. This second-level protocol allows you to make instant and almost free transactions between network participants, helping to solve the problem of Bitcoin scaling.
Earlier, BlockchainJournal reported that the number of active LN nodes in the Bitcoin network exceeded 4,000 .
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