The popularity ofcryptocurrencies has gone up over the past few years. It's been a roller coaster ride in terms of growth. There have been times when their drive for growth has been lacking, because of the fact that they have shown an incredible appetite for success with coins likeBitcoin andEthereum. Extreme volatility and sudden price swings happening at regular intervals are taking out lusture from the emerging sector. Some of the reasons that make cryptocurrencies less adaptable to default payment mode are due to these reasons. The underlying technology is promising.
In some countries, companies have begun accepting payments in some coins, but the recent crash in the market has made them reassess their decision. The Central American country legalized Bitcoin in September of last year and started building a war chest of cryptocurrencies. The country's president Nayib Bukele promised thatBitcoin would help rebuild the economy. He has lost $40 million in the market crash since he bought theBitcoins. It takes around 10 -- 15 minutes to complete a transaction. The technology is built in a way that when a user makes a transaction, it has to be validated by miners. This process delays the real-time charm that we normally get in transacting via the current banking system. The fee that miners charge for their service has to be paid by users. Although it may not be significant, it is still more than what we pay to our banks.
Extreme volatility makes it less assuring and trustworthy. If you have 10 lakh Bitcoins, you can buy things for that amount today. There is no surety thatBitcoin's value will remain stable, but it could swing with a huge margin.
There is a real possibility that this could be improved in future to address the challenges in Spite of these shortcomings.