Litecoin Value to Soar as LTC Sets Release Date for LitePay
Has Litecoin just saved Bitcoin and the entirety of the cryptocurrency market? - Quite possibly.
As of February 3rd, 2018, all top market cap cryptocurrencies are back in the green. What is more, while it may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that Litecoin alone has saved everyone’s crypto bacon, the coin has certainly helped. This is because LitePay, Litecoin’s very own merchant payment service, has now been announced to go live as early as February 28th.
What is LitePay?
LitePay was announced by the Litecoin Foundation in December 2017 and is a Litecoin based merchant payment system. Using LitePay, retailers can accept Litecoin as U.S. Dollars thanks to instant conversion and minuscule tranaction fees. This is important as BitPay, LitePay’s closest competitor, currentlycharges an eye-watering $5 per transaction.
Of course, as well as being good news for merchants, LitePay is also fantastic news for Litecoin users. This is because people holding Litecoin will now be able to withdraw equivocal amounts of fiat currency from ATMs around the world. This and easily spend Litecoin wallet balances online and in real-world over the counter purchases.
Why Litepay is Good News for Merchants
With the current Litecoin value stable at approximately $150 per coin, the importance of LitePay for Litecoin (and Litecoin investors) can’t be underestimated. This is because LitePay is the first cryptocurrency payment mechanism which makes cryptocurrencies as easy to transact in the real-world as regular fiat cash. That said, the LitePay also represents a world first for merchants also.
LitePay as a Chargeback Fraud Solution
As cited by Forbes magazine in November 2017, online fraud levels are currently up by 62% on 2015 levels. Much more significantly, though,the chief culprits aren’t credit card skimmers and identity thieves. Instead, chargebacks due to supposed non-delivery of goods, currently account for 10x more chargebacks than actual identity thefts.
How Cryptocurrency Has Just Joined the War Against "Online Disinhibition"
In 2004, John Suler, a Ph.D. Psychologist at Rider University in Lawrenceville, published a CyberPsychology & Behavior study titled, ‘The Online Disinhibition Effect.’
Summarizing this study briefly, Suler was one of the first to identify how many people leave their morals and regular modes of behavior at the door when online. Moreover, while the Suler study focused specifically on cyberbullying, disinhibition has since become a significant concern for online retailers.
With no face to face interaction taking place, increasing numbers of online shoppers, convince themselves that they are justified in reversing payment on goods they purchase online.
An item might be a day late arriving in the post. Alternatively, a customer might find that the color of a new sweater doesn’t look the same in real life as it did in a picture. As a result, shoppers instigate chargebacks on goods with their card issuers. What is worse, 60% of people who do instigate chargebacks will usually do so again within a following 30-day period, after discovering how easy the process is.
Litecoin’s Digital Currency Solution to the Disinhibition Problem
Needless to say, because Litecoin and other cryptocurrency payments can’t be reversed, merchants who accept payments via LitePay, no longer have to worry about chargebacks. In fact, it this is precisely why Canadian payment processor Netcents, has recently added Litecoin to its own merchant system.
How will LitePay Effect the Current Litecoin value?
At present, there is no real cryptocurrency payment system in place which allows digital currency users to transact coins as easily as fiat cash.
Coinbase and several third-party cryptocurrency wallet providers, do issue pre-funded Visa and MasterCard cards Few people, however, feel happy holding digital assets on exchanges. Worse, all such cards attract high usage fees.
Thankfully, LitePay now gives cryptocurrecy uses and easier way to transact than ever before. In fact, Litecoin effectively just became the one altcoin with the cryptocurrency markets most robust and non-theoretical real-world use case. This being the case, this should (theoretically) see the current Litecoin value explode as LitePay becomes a reality.